Kobe Bryant is remembered for his incredible scoring prowess, but he was a beast on the other end of the floor as well. His desire to be the best meant Kobe wanted to master every aspect of basketball and his defense was stifling when he was at his peak. Bryant made 9 All-NBA Defensive First Teams and made 12 All-Defensive Teams in total, he was as dangerous as any guard in the game’s history.
The premier guard anyone would think of in the league’s existence is none other than Gary Payton, he was the man on defense. GP was always in control of the game, as Kevin Garnett once revealed, and his elite defensive prowess even earned him his nickname, ‘The Glove.’ Kobe Bryant would go on to become an inspiration to nearly all the players that came after him, but before that, he strove to learn all he could from the legends that had gone before him.
Gary Payton Revealed How Kobe Bryant Wanted To Learn To Play Like Him
Michael Jordan may have been Kobe Bryant’s main idol and the man he wanted to surpass, but he tried to learn from every legend that he was around. In the 90s, Gary Payton was arguably the league’s premier floor general, so it stands to reason that the young Bryant approached him to pick his brain. Payton told the lovely story to Kevin Garnett on KG: Certified recently.
(starts at 25:38 minutes)
“KG, Kobe was very different. He was a different kid. I was in 10 years plus in the NBA at the time. It was like my 10th or 11th year in the league, and Kobe didn’t have a fear of nothing to ask nobody to get better. So he came by me and he was like, ‘Big bro man, you be doing this and that and that. I wanna learn this man. I really wanna learn it because of you.’
“And when he said that, that took something out of me. It took something in my heart that a kid with his ability, knowing where he was going, wants to really learn and he doesn’t have an ego, He doesn’t have an ego. And I don’t mind that.”
What made Kobe Bryant so special was that he just had a one-track mind. The Mamba simply wanted to be the best and he would do whatever it took to make it happen for himself. This is something that a lot of players miss out on because of pride and arrogance, but this story is another reminder of what it takes to be truly great at the highest level.
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