Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant were more than just teammates. While you may have expected me to say friends, I was going to say competitors. Even though Gasol and Bryant both represented the purple and gold of the Los Angeles Lakers, Bryant was always set out to be better than everyone, including his teammates.
Bryant’s work ethic and drive to constantly become better were seen by everyone and has been mystified with the ethos of ‘Mamba Mentality‘. Everyone has incredible stories of Bryant showing off his Mamba Mentality, but his teammate Gasol explained how deep it was.
Gasol was talking with J.J. Redick on his podcast and spoke about Bryant ‘always being on’ and narrating a story from the 2008 Lakers training camp after the Olympics where they played each other for a medal.
“I think he was on all the time. He was just on throughout the season. He might have some off nights or nights where he felt he was so dominant. Especially against the not-so-good teams where the extra pass or the right play may not be necessary all the time, he would take a little more load offensively. I remember a moment when we got done playing the Olympics in Beijing and we come back, I try to take some time off to give my mind and body a breather. Training camp was 3 weeks after that and Phil (Jackson) gave us a practice off. But Kobe challenged me to a one-on-one in the post, just to see where I was at because he kept working after the Olympics.”
Trying to beat the big man on your team in the post in front of everyone because you know he wasn’t in shape is a cold move. But we can’t expect anything else from a player who was as cold as Kobe Bryant on the court.
