Lakers News: Jordan Clarkson says Kobe Bryant told him ‘to never have your hands down’ in a fight

The Los Angeles Lakers showed plenty of fight in their 127-100 win over the Miami HEAT, with Jordan Clarkson showing a little too much for the officials’ taste.

Clarkson and Miami guard Goran Dragic got into an altercation in the third quarter on Friday night, which ended with both players being ejected. Clarkson (as seen in the picture above) even raised his fists during the fracas, and he explained why to Mark Medina of the Orange County Register.

“It was one of those things where (Dragic) was running at me,” Clarkson told Medina. “I didn’t know what he was going to do. So I put my hands up to defend myself. I went back to stuff Kobe (Bryant) told me about an incident he had. He said to never have your hands down in case something happens.”

Well never let it be said that Bryant didn’t teach the young Lakers anything, because Clarkson certainly followed his advice on Friday night:

And for anyone saying Kobe didn’t ever raise his fists in a fight that they can remember, they probably just willfully burned the 2012-13 season from their memory:

Look at that form. They’re basically a mirror image:

Who knows, if Clarkson keeps following every bit of Bryant’s advice until he fully becomes him, maybe one day he’ll have fans ardent enough to want to follow his and Bryant’s lead and square up in Temecula on Christmas Day over an argument over him.

Or maybe all this Kobe stuff is overblown. Maybe, just maybe, Clarkson is trying to follow in the footsteps of another Lakers super-sub:

Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.