Trevor Ariza shares hilarious text exchange with Kobe Bryant on his birthday

The Kobe Bryant stories seem to be endless and more and more come out as time goes on. As painful as his loss was, the memories that were made along the way and are now being shared have been one small silver lining of his passing.

With Wednesday being his birthday, it served as the perfect time for some more of those memories to be shared. Former Lakers teammate and friend Trevor Ariza shared one of the best text exchanges ever between the two on Instagram.

After Ariza shared a picture of Kobe shooting a jumper over a triple team, Kobe had a response that only he could come up with.

Perhaps my favorite part of this is Kobe wouldn’t even concede that he missed this shot and only said there would be an easy putback if he missed. Peak Kobe right there.

Ariza wasn’t alone as a number of former teammates and friends shared birthday posts for Kobe on Wednesday as well. LeBron James shared a photo of what appears to be him in high school with Kobe, while Carmelo Anthony shared a photo of Kobe and Gigi from many, many years ago.

Both Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, teammates for the 2009 and 2010 title teams, shared posts on Instagram as well. Lamar’s post was in front of a Kobe mural in LA while Pau’s appears to be a photo likely at the Hall of Fame after he was inducted into it recently.

Both Vanessa and Natalia Bryant also shared posts wishing Kobe a happy birthday as well.

Today is always one of those days that makes his loss sting a little bit more. Fortunately, the happy memories and moments continue to be shared and shine bright.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.