#The crazy details of Kobe Bryant punching teammate Samaki Walker over $100

A sucker punch, a hurled Discman and open threats led to Phil Jackson to ask the Lakers’ team bus to pull over on the side of the road in Cleveland in 2002.

All over $100.

The quarrel between Kobe Bryant and Samaki Walker, stemming from Bryant winning a half-court shot contest and Walker not immediately paying him the $100, has been retold before. But vivid details are offered in Jeff Pearlman’s new book, “Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty.”

The Lakers’ rule was that players had 48 hours to pay the winner of the shooting contest $100, but Bryant came asking for his money from Walker the next morning on the bus to shootaround. According to an excerpt from Pearlman’s book on FiveThirtyEight, Walker initially ignored Bryant and then waved him off, telling him he’d give him the money when he had it. That’s when Bryant unleashed a punch that caught Walker’s right eye.

“Jerome Crawford, [Shaquille] O’Neal’s King Kong Bundy-esque bodyguard and constant companion, charges from five rows up,” Pearlman wrote. “He wraps Walker in a bear hug, but not before Walker launches his Discman at Bryant’s head. Not surprisingly, the career 63 percent free throw shooter misses.”

O’Neal encouraged Walker to “f–k him [Bryant] up,” according to the book, and Walker asked Jackson to stop the bus so he could handle the situation:

Bryant ignored his teammate.

“That’s what I thought,” Walker says. A pause. “You little b–ch.”

Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January, later apologized to Walker, both in a voicemail and in person, Pearlman reported in the book.

Walker has since spoken publicly about the snafu, noting on a 2016 podcast that Bryant had donated memorabilia to his foundation and that he still has respect for the late Lakers legend.

“I appreciate a guy who has the mentality of a Kobe Bryant,” Walker said on the “Brown and Scoop” show. “I learned a lot watching him, and for that, I’m thankful.”