The Crazy Determination of Kobe Bryant in 6 Stories (Along With Lessons)
Kobe’s not dead. He’s just one step ahead of the rest of us, like always.
“Kobe’s not dead. He’s just one step ahead of the rest of us, like always.”
That’s what a comment said on the YouTube video of one of Kobe’s interviews. And if that doesn’t sum up the greatness of Kobe Bryant, I don’t know what does.
Kobe was one of the best basketball players, and in fact, one of the greatest athletes ever. His list of achievements doesn’t have a bottom — winning five NBA championships, two-time finals MVPs, a regular-season MVP, 18-time all-star, 15-time all NBA selection, 12-time all-defensive team selection, 2 scoring titles, and the list just goes on and on.
And there are several stories from Kobe’s career that truly reveal his craziness and his greatness. In this article, I’d like to share those stories and extract some important lessons from them as well.
Excited? Let’s start with the most incredible and my favorite one.
Kobe Felt Something is Off, And He Was Right
This story is told from the perspective of Gerald Henderson.
Gerald Henderson comes to the arena and sees that Kobe is there first. Well, it’s Kobe. Of course, he’s there first. So Gerald — a rookie at the time — starts observing Kobe in order to learn from his moves. But to his surprise, Gerald notices that Kobe’s missing more shots than usual.
Kobe looks up at the ring with the ball in his hand, and he’s confused. He stops playing to talk to a bunch of workers. After a while, one of them comes back with a ladder.
Gerald finally comes out to the court and asks Kobe, “What’s going on?” Kobe replies, “Something’s wrong with the rim; it’s too low… it’s a quarter-inch too low.”
To which Gerald responds, “Huh? What do you mean?”
Kobe says, “I was missing shots that I don’t miss. I’m pretty sure it’s low, a quarter of an inch.”
To which Gerald admits to thinking, “Dude, Kobe, maybe it’s not the rim… Maybe you’re just… missing shots.”
Anyway, Kobe starts shooting again after the workers did something to the rim. Later, they play the game, and everything’s over, and Gerald then sees one of the guys who was working on the rim.
So he inquires, “Hey man, what was up with the rim before the game?”
To which the worker replies, “Oh, someone notified us that it was a little lower than regulation, but don’t worry, we adjusted it to 10 feet.”
And these are Gerald’s own words, “Then he told me how much it was off by…and I could tell you his answer, but I think you already know what he said.”
The Lesson
Let’s take a moment to comprehend this. Do you realize how little a quarter of an inch is compared to 10 feet? It’s 480x less. It’s nothing, literally. It’s almost impossible that Kobe caught that, and even then, to have confidence in his own capabilities was just insane.
But how do you get to that level that you’re able to catch something like this?
It’s simple. You go all-in. You exploit one walk of life so much that you can understand it in and out. That’s what Kobe did. We don’t have to achieve that in basketball, but we should definitely try going insanely deep somewhere. I’m trying to do that as a writer. What about you?
Don’t Be Crippled By Obstacles
In 2013, Kobe was playing a game against the Warriors. The score was 107–109, and the Lakers were close to getting to the playoffs. Then suddenly, Kobe pulled and tore his Achilles tendon. But his love for the game was so insane that even torn Achilles couldn’t cripple him.
He went on to take the free throws after that and walked out of the court to get the surgery done. Here’s what Kobe said about that:
“I went in the trainer’s room and my kids are in there. And you know, they’re looking at you and stuff… and I’m looking at them. I’m like, you know, it’s alright. Dad’s gonna be alright. We’ll be fine. We’ll be alright. It’ll be alright. It’ll be alright. As a parent you got to set the example. This is another obstacle. This obstacle cannot define me. It’s not going to cripple me. It’s not going to be responsible for me stepping away from the game that I love. I’m gonna step away on my own terms. And that’s when the decision was made. “You know what? I’m doing it. I’m doing it.”
The Lesson
In our journey, some obstacles will always be unavoidable. If we want to run a race without obstacles, we might as well quit before starting. But even though we know that obstacles will come eventually, we’re still surprised when they do, and we don’t know how to act. Hence, we often take the easiest way out. We quit, or we let go a little bit.
With this story, I want to enforce the lesson that we need to be more aware and accept beforehand that there will be obstacles. We need to accept that and then tell ourselves the same thing that Kobe told himself. “Yes, this is just another obstacle. It will not define me. It will not cripple me. And I will keep going on.”
You Don’t Break Your Discipline, No Matter What
This story takes place during the Olympics. The night before their first practice day, Kobe told his trainer that he wanted to add bike-riding to his routine in order to improve his conditioning for summers.
So that night, Kobe, his trainer and his bodyguard, decided to go for a bike ride. However, as nothing’s ever normal with Kobe, neither was this. This turned out to be a 40-mile bike ride that ended at 2:30 in the morning! But that’s not all. Just a few hours later, Kobe was the first player in the gym appearing for a full day of workout.
The Lesson
Many of us don’t even have a solid discipline, to begin with. I know I don’t. But to see Kobe hold on to his discipline, even when he has all the reasons to let go a little bit, shows why he was who he was.
And I guess that’s a lesson we should all take home with us. Not only do we need to bring solid discipline to our lives, but we also have to protect that discipline from ever breaking.
The One With The Smaller-Ball
This story is from a laker’s sideline reporter Mike Trudell.
Mike Trudell was a pretty great ping-pong player since he grew up playing it. So one time, Mike challenged Kobe to play a game with him. As they started, Mike realised that Kobe isn’t all that great and went on to win that game.
However, as Mike observed, “during the entire game, he was literally watching every point and learning as the game is going on.”
Kobe challenged Mike for a second game, only to get defeated again. But this time, he was a lot closer. What surprised Mike was Kobe’s insane drive to get better. He says, “Within five minutes, he was taking the ping pong game so seriously, and I thought, this is why he’s so great at basketball.”
But that’s not all. After losing the second time, Kobe turns to his security guard and says, “We need to get a ping pong table ordered so that that doesn’t happen again.”
The Lesson
Kobe was a great basketball player, and he loved the sport. But as this story tells us, it’s not just about basketball. Kobe could be great at anything because how you do anything is how you do everything. And Kobe; he did everything with all of his heart.
The Left-Handed Kobe
On 21st January 2015 against the Pelicans, Kobe was running from baseline for a dunk, and due to contact with Dante Cunningham, Kobe ended up tearing the rotator cuff on his right shoulder.
Kobe sat out for most of the 4th quarter. However, with 5 minutes remaining and the Lakers down by 13 points, Kobe walks back in and get this… starts playing the game left-handed. Kobe attempted two shots and even made one of them.
The Lesson
I often try to find wide stretches of time to write. And I often do. However, once in a while, when I’m having a particularly busy day, I’m not able to find a lot of time, not at a stretch anyway. And what do I end up doing? I don’t write. I accept the excuse.
However, we must try to make do with what we got. Kobe’s right hand was injured. He went left-handed. They didn’t win the match, but does it matter? Kobe showed that when you want to do something, you make do with what you have. You find a way, not an excuse.
Tell Andre, 50 Tonight
On November 11th, 2005, The Lakers played Seventy Sixers and Andre Igoudala, who managed to restrict Kobe to just 17 points. After the game, Kobe ended up talking to some reporters and heard that Lakers’ Coach Phil Jackson told them that “It was the best he’d ever seen someone defend Kobe.”
But the next time the Lakers played the Sixers, Kobe stopped by their locker room to deliver a message to Andre, but he wasn’t there yet. So Kobe asked the other players to pass on a message to Andre, “Tell Andre, 50 tonight.”
And how many points Kobe scored in that game?
48! Now, even though Kobe didn’t score 50, we have to realise how insanely tough it is to score 50 points in an NBA game normally. But then to tell someone that you’re going to do it, and actually almost do it, is crazy.
The Lesson
I often tell myself that I’m going to write a certain number of articles in a particular week. And then, I don’t do it. Even though no one’s actually stopping me from doing it, other than myself, I don’t do it. I go back on my word.
But as Kobe showed us, he did everything he could to keep his word — even if it was trash talk — even when he had an entire team trying to stop him from achieving that. That’s how much Kobe was determined to back his word.
But many of us are all talk and no show, including me. Well, that needs to change.
In Summary
I’ve been learning a lot about Kobe these days because even though he’s not here with us, his actions and words can still teach us a lot. After all, he was one of the greatest, and he’ll always live on in our hearts. Here are 6 lessons that you can learn from Kobe. May he rest in peace.
- Exploit some part of life to great depths so that you know it in and out.
- Don’t let obstacles cripple you.
- Protect your discipline.
- How you do anything is how you do everything.
- When you truly want to do something, you find a way, or else, you’ll find an excuse.
- You should do everything you can do stick to your words.
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