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An underage Kobe Bryant used his Laker status to buy beer with Jimmy Fallon (Video)

An underage Kobe Bryant used his Laker status to buy beer with Jimmy Fallon (Video)

Even with his season over, Kobe Bryant remains ubiquitous.

We wouldn’t expect Bryant to take his aching, surgically-repaired shoulder all the way out to Milwaukee in the dead of winter to sit on the bench and watch his Lakers lose to a wily Bucks squad just because his coach decided to let O.J. Mayo have a clean look at a game-tying jumper. There’s no reason for Bryant to travel with the team as it wastes away its season, especially with an invite to join Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in Los Angeles waiting on the kitchen table.

Fallon and Bryant regaled the Tonight Show audience with a story about how an underage Bryant and unknown Fallon were charged with making a beer run in 1996, only to be denied not because of Kobe’s age, but because the Los Angeles neophytes went to a delivery-only liquor store. Here’s the clip:

A few things …

This probably didn’t happen in 1996, as Fallon states, as Kobe wasn’t in his second season with the Lakers that year as Bryant states. Kobe also missed a good chunk of his time as a pro in 1996, his rookie year, with a broken hand.

Secondly, it’s pretty appropriate that Kobe was only able to procure the beer after showing an ID that clearly listed him as 17 or 18. That the Laker cachet was strong enough to not only trump store policy, but also state liquor laws. Bryant may have been coming off the bench that season, as he stated in his panel appearance, but he was an NBA phenomenon by then and an All-Star Game starter.

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Then there’s the invite itself – this must have been a burst of quick planning from the Fallon crew. The scheduled guests for novelty travel shows like these (Fallon’s home studio is in New York) are usually planned out months in advance. Either Fallon’s bookers just assumed Kobe would suffer another season-ending injury by early February, or they quickly added Bryant to the lineup once it became apparent that he would not be joining the Lakers on their current road trip.

(Also, we like Jimmy Fallon and his cast of writers, but the guy is turning The Tonight Show into a Buzzfeed list at this point. Granted, jokes about the 90’s are better than the jokes designed for 90-year olds, as was Jay Leno’s stock in trade, but the fact that the centerpiece of his discussion with Bryant was about a story from the 1990s is telling. If The Tonight Show visits Canada next year, expect Jimmy to play with some Pogs with Snow in the second act.)

Early on Thursday, on his Facebook page, Bryant shared a shot of his wife Vanessa hitting a rather impressive trick shot in the early morning hours at Staples Center:

From Bryant’s Facebook page, via Pro Basketball Talk:

My challenge to @vanessabryant while shooting in an empty staples center at 4am.. Stand at the free throw line. Back to the basket. 3 attempts. And…

A few more things …

Kobe’s not wearing the same shoulder brace he wore on Fallon’s show, so is it possible that this is an older clip? Did he find the brace suitable for national TV but not for a surreptitious late night workout (he’s in basketball shorts and drinking a sports drink with his bum right arm) at the Staples Center? Does this man feel no pain?

Secondly, IT IS A SCHOOL NIGHT WHO IS WATCHING YOUR KIDS???!!??

Kobe Bryant will never stop being interesting. Get well soon.

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Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!