Evan Turner: Teammates said avoid eye contact with Kobe

Kobe Bryant is legendary for his stern attitude on the court.

But that wasn't the same Black Mamba who Evan Turner met when he played the Los Angeles Lakers veteran for the first time.

The Boston Celtics shooting guard says that none of the horror stories he heard about facing Kobe came to fruition.

"He was super nice to me," Turner explained to MassLive.com's Jay King. "I had teammates that said, 'When you go out there don't look at him in his eye. Don't talk to him or anything. It's going to give him an edge.' Like he's some type of pit bull or something. They're like 'Don't look at him in his eyes. Just leave him alone.'"

Turner was surprised by how cordial Kobe was to him, even asking about his mother:

Then he came up to me and patted me on my back. He was like, 'How you doing? How's your mom?' I was like, 'She's alright.' He's always been super nice and a great competitor. He always came over and gave me positive encouragement, complimented me and stuff like that. And sometimes he used to say stuff about my game, how I developed and stuff. It shocked the hell out of me, you know what I'm saying?

The retiring veteran must have also injected Turner with some of his confidence: