What Made Kobe Bryant So Special

A few pages we could take out from the handbook of one of the best.

Now I am sure by now, you’ve already heard about the great legend Kobe Bryant. And if you haven’t you are either an alien or you have probably been living under a rock for a very long time. Just in case you don’t know who he is, here’s a quick update on his who he is and his achievements:

• Kobe is an American basketball player who played 20 seasons in the NBA 🏀
• He played his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers
• 5 NBA championships 💍
• 18 All-Star Appearances 🌟
• 15-time member of the All-NBA team
• 12-time member of the All-defensive team
• 2008 MVP
• 2x NBA finals MVP
• 3rd in NBA all-time regular-season scoring
• 2x Olympic Gold Medalist
• Oscar Winner
• Widely regarded as one of the best basketball players of all time

If that list doesn’t scream greatness 🐐 to you, I don’t know what does. Now, most people know Kobe Bryant for what he has done on the court. However, what most people don’t see and what makes Kobe Bryant so special is what he does off the court. So, here are the 5 most important lessons I have learned from Kobe Bryant without even meeting him.

1. Hard Work 😓

Kobe attributes most of his success to his hard work ethic and his hustle and he is the definition of hard work pays off. Ever since he started playing basketball, he put in the work.

Before school, from the age 12–18, Kobe woke up at 5 am⏰and practiced until 7 am when he went to school. When playing in the NBA, he woke up at 4 am and was always the last one to leave even if that meant staying until 7 or 8 pm. Even in retirement, he woke up at 4 am and went to the gym with his daughters to show them what hard work looks like.

Throughout his entire life, Kobe put in the work that nobody else wanted to. To just get a glimpse of Kobe’s life was like, I challenge you, the reader 📖, to wake up at 5 am for a week. Now, you don’t necessarily have to go and workout like Kobe did or play a professional basketball game later that night, but just try waking up and starting off your day at 5 am to see what it was like to be Kobe Bryant.

2. Doing Your Homework 📚

Another thing that made Kobe special was that he did his homework off the court as well. After every single one of his games in the NBA, he watched the film and found ways to improve. Now he didn’t watch any ordinary film such as that played on TV, but he watched the real-time film from the floor. This included TV timeouts, normal timeouts, inbounds, and everything that you may not witness on TV. This film could last up to 4 hours and he would watch all of it, sometimes multiple times. And with 82 games in the season and up to 28 games in the playoffs, that would add up to more than 400 hours of watching film.

During those many hours on end watching film found strengths and weaknesses in not only his own game but the game of his teammates and his opponents as well. He would get to know the ins and outs of his opponent’s offensive and defensive strategies and found ways he could shut it down with the artillery of teammates he had. He would analyze how his playing style matched those of his teammates and found ways that they could work together to be the best team possible. This is just one of the many reasons that Kobe was so successful and deeply respected as a teammate and as a player.

3. Mentorships 👨🏿‍🏫

When Kobe entered the league as an ambitious 17-year old straight out of high school 🏫, Kobe didn’t try to reinvent the wheel, rather he sought to personalize it and make it his own.

So, upon arrival to the big stage, he sought advice from the greatest already playing the game and the people he referred to as GOAT 🐐 Mountain, or the place where to greatest of all time stood. This included the best of the best to ever play the game of basketball. He spoke to Micheal Jordan, Jerry West, Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and many more greats. He reached out to them and found out what they did to be successful and tried to do similar things that resonated with him.

Learning these things from the greats helped to improve faster than all the other players and helped him to become the youngest NBA All-Star in just his second season.

4. Do What You Love 💛

One of the things that make Kobe so special is that he put everything into doing the things he loved. From playing basketball to becoming an entrepreneur, he put his heart and soul into what he loved. When asked if he wanted to go back to being 25 again and play basketball, he said he would rather live his life as it is now and commit to storytelling.

This is because he was doing what he loved. He had already risen in the basketball stage and did everything he had to while enjoying himself. But now, he loves storytelling and teaching and helping others. So, that’s what he commits to doing every day. He doesn’t do it for more fame or more money 💸but he does it because it is what he loves to do.

5. Paying It Forward 💵 ➡️

Kobe once said,

When you get older you start to understand that really it’s about the next generation. That these championships do come and go. But the most important thing you can do is to pay everything that you’ve learned forward to the next generation to come. And that’s truly how you create something that lasts forever.

After Kobe retired, Kobe went on to coach his daughter’s basketball team teaching them all the skills and techniques that he learned throughout his career.

Additionally, Kobe donated many millions of dollars 💸 to charity and started his own called the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation which helped to improve the lives of young people and their families. They provide scholarships to those who need them and work with Mamba FC to teach kids leadership skills through sport.

Kobe Bryant has been an inspiration to not only the basketball community but the entire world. Which is why when he, unfortunately, passed away on January 26th, 2020, the world was shocked. I wanted to pass on what I learned from him because I think that everyone can learn something from Kobe as he impacted billions of people and his legacy will live on forever.

Key Takeaways

• Kobe Bryant was a very inspirational figure who impacted individuals on and off the court
• He loved what he did and put his heart and soul into everything he did
• Hard work is the name of Kobe’s game