Updated March 13, 2026, 8:54 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump has breathed new life into an old story – that he supposedly intervened during a fight between Basketball Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant and Jayson Williams, a 9-year NBA veteran, when Bryant and Williams were in New York for the 1998 NBA All-Star Game.
During an interview with Jake Paul published Friday, March 11, Trump said he broke up a fight involving “Kobe.’’
“Kobe was having a hard time with somebody and it worked out fine,’’ Trump said, although he did not mention Williams by name.
Charles Oakley, then a star power forward with the New York Knicks, was on the elevator when Williams, then with the New Jersey Nets, punched Bryant, according to “Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty” – a book by Jeff Pearlman, a New York Times-bestselling author.
The elevator was at the Grand Hyatt in New York, then owned by Trump, according to Pearlman’s book.
Oakley, during a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports, said he doesn’t remember being on the elevator during the reported incident but that he’s heard Williams tell the story of the fight.
“He had told it to some people that I was around,’’ Oakley said. “Jayson, he liked to be a story. He’s a storyteller. I told him, ‘Jayson, I mean, you 55, 57. You probably told that story 50 times.’ ’’
Williams, 58, did not respond to a request for comment by email and did not answer a phone call from USA TODAY Sports. His voicemail box was full.
The altercation reportedly broke out after Bryant got into an elevator occupied by Williams and Oakley, Williams greeted Bryant and then took offense to Bryant’s cold replay, according to Pearlman’s book, which states that Williams lunged and punched Bryant in the cheek.
“Trump, of all people, grabbed Williams and told Bryant, ‘Get out of here. Quickly.’ ”
Bryant got off the elevator, according to Pearlman’s book.
Bryant died in 2020 during a helicopter crash that also killed his daughter Gianna and seven other people.