Kobe Bryant was arguably the most competitive man to ever step onto a basketball court. His competitive fervor can only be matched or surpassed by Michael Jordan, but Bryant was hell-bent on being the best player he could be. To be the best, one has to be dominant on the court, and that is exactly what Kobe was.
His habit of working as hard as he possibly could to be the best at something has served him very well over the course of his career. However, it ended up not serving him too well when he decided to pick up golf during the 2008 Olympics. Jason Kidd told this story on ‘All The Smoke’ right after talking about Kobe’s incredibly competitive attitude on the court.
“We were in Macau and golf has now become a little popular, we had some golfers on the team. We go to a driving range and Kobe thinks it’s easy… He asked me and goes ‘hey’ and Michael Redd was luckily left-handed, so he goes ‘hey, can I borrow that club?’ And everybody goes ‘you swing left-handed?’, so everybody knows he’s all messed up. He missed the ball and he gets competitive and wants to hit it the farthest. You said it, that’s the one sport we saw him as a human.”
Golf Isn’t For Everybody In The NBA
One of the most popular recreational sports among NBA athletes is golf. In recent times, we have seen Alex Caruso and Stephen Curry be huge proponents of the game. J.R. Smith went back to college as a student-athlete in golf and even said he could beat Steph in a 1-on-1.
The previous generation of stars have infamous stories on the golf course, with Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley being excessively fond of getting out on a golf course.
Kobe dedicated his entire life to being good at everything he picked up, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Kobe were to become a really good golf player if he stuck with it. Nonetheless, everyone is happier that he spent that time perfecting his craft with basketball and becoming one of the most iconic players in the history of the game.
