Kobe Bryant is known as one of the greatest of all-time. Some in Los Angeles consider him the greatest of all-time. His status as a city legend is understandable. Kobe Bryant was the type of player that would win by any means necessary. Bryant is known for his Mamba mentality; the mentality that has helped him win 5 championships. Needless to say, any advantage that Bryant had, he would use.
A former teammate revealed how Bryant kept his edge in the league. Wesley Johnson came onto The Scorer’s Table podcast to talk about his time with the Lakers and playing with Kobe Bryant. Everyone who has played with Kobe Bryant has their Kobe stories. This particular story definitely seems like something Kobe would do. Scouting your opponent during the playoffs is one thing: developing intricate notes on your opponents outside of your scouting department definitely seems like a next-level move to win.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. He holds notes on his phone. I’m sitting behind and he hit my chair. I turned around. He was like, LeBron, his tendencies. D-Wade, KD, Steph, James. All in his notes in his iPhone.
All the players mentioned have drastically different games from each other: obviously, a player would want to tailor their defense to their opponents’ moves. Kobe was so dedicated to winning, that he had to have a detailed dossier on each opponent, to figure out the best way to beat them. All those players are all-time greats; you can’t really completely stop them, but Kobe definitely tried to get a defensive edge on his fellow superstars.
Kobe Bryant keeping notes on his opponents was just part of his mentality. The memory of how hard he worked to win will echo through eras, and this little snippet is just part of a bigger story.
