Kobe Bean Bryant (/ˈkoʊbiː/ KOH-bee; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020)
was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire
20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded one of the greatest basketball players & scorers of all time,[3][4][5][6][7][8] Bryant won five NBA championships, was an 18-time All-Star, a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, a 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), and a two-time NBA Finals MVP. Bryant also led the NBA in scoring twice, ranks fourth in league all-time regular season and postseason scoring.
He was posthumously voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in
2020 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
Why Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan Kept Winning on And Off the Court
BY Dr. Ruth Gotian
Jordan laid his emotions bare in February last year, when he spoke to Bryant’s memorial service at the Staples Center less than a month after the Los Angeles Lakers star’s death.
BRYANT AND HIS 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER GIANNA WERE AMONG THE NINE PEOPLE KILLED WHEN THE HELICOPTER THEY WERE FLYING IN CRASHED IN CALABASAS, CALIFORNIA ON JANUARY 26, 2020.
Michael Jordan openly wept as he remembered Kobe Bryant at a memorial service Monday, and then lightened the mood by joking that he was going to have to look at another “Crying Jordan” meme as a result. “I told my wife I wasn’t going to do this, because I didn’t want to see this for the next three or four years.
“This is what Kobe Bryant does to me. He knows how to get to you in a way that
affects you personally […] even if he is a pain in the a**.” Fighting back the tears,
Jordan described the five-time NBA champion as his “little brother,”
The late Kobe Bryant said, “Rest at the end, not in the middle. I’m always chasing that win. Never done.” The more you told Bryant that something could not be done, the more he wanted it and worked harder than anyone to achieve it. In this column, I often talk about the differences between being average and developing into a high achiever. In his latest book, Winning, Tim Grover shares stories of some of the basketball legends he’s trained, including Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade. Their road to greatness, according to Grover, is based on 13 principles, which he calls The Winning 13.
The Winning 13 are distinct mindsets, which Grover all ranks as number one because there is not a single step that is more important than the other. To achieve greatness, you need to accomplish all thirteen steps. You can decide which order and where to put greater emphasis, but you cannot pick and choose which steps to take and which to ignore.
The Winning 13
Winning makes you different, and different scares people.
Winning wages war on the battlefield of your mind.
Winning is the ultimate gamble on yourself.
Winning isn’t heartless, but you’ll use your heart less.
Winning belongs to them, and it’s your job to take it.
Winning wants all of you; there is no balance.
Winning is selfish.
Winning takes you through hell. If you quit, that is where you will stay.
Winning is a test with no correct answers.
Winning knows all your secrets.
Winning never lies.
Winning is not a marathon; it is a sprint with no finish line.
Winning is everything.
Fixing the mistakes
Kobe Bryant was known for being at the gym at four or five in the morning. “Why?”
I asked Grover. “It is because Bryant never focused on his success; instead, he fixated
on what he missed.” He could not get it out of his head and needed to right the wrong immediately.
Grover would get a call from Bryant at 3 am, asking him what he’s doing. “Sleeping,”
said Grover. Before long, he knew Bryant’s patterns and when to expect those calls.
The next time he got the call, he was already waiting for Bryant at the gym to help
him fix whatever he missed in the last game.
Where most people fail to succeed
Michael Jordan had a similar approach. While everyone had a “stats sheet” with their successful baskets, passes, and rebounds, Jordan asked for a different type of stats sheet. He wanted one that showed all the baskets and free throws he missed, fouls he made, and ball turnovers. It did not matter how successful he was, Jordan wanted to make the micro changes to fix the wrongs in his performance. He consistently focused on areas to improve.
Bryant, Jordan, and all the other elite players crave feedback. They do not see it as a critique. As I’ve previously reported in Forbes, high achievers view feedback as an opportunity for enhancement, a way to outplay and outperform everyone else.
Tim Grover trained NBA legends including Kobe Bryant
and Michael Jordan. OCTANE RICH MEDIA
It has often been said that it is lonely at the top. Grover agrees.
“To win consistently, you need to be different, and different scares people,” shares Grover. We are conditioned to fit in. When you become a high achiever, you stand out, not fit in. Most people want to be an accepted member of a social circle. Getting to the top of the elite level means you do not conform to the masses. There are few people at that level. “One day, your success wears a halo,” writes Grover, “the next day, it has fangs.”
Most people want the steps and plan to achieve success. “There are no easy steps,”
says Grover. It is an unrelenting desire to be 0.0001 percent better today than you were yesterday. The secret to winning, according to Grover, is the willingness to take a chance. “If you think like everyone else, if you act like everyone else, if you follow the same protocols and traditions and habits as everyone else, you’ll be like everyone else.”
Grover’s first professional client was Michael Jordan, and he signed him in the most unorthodox way. Grover, who has a bachelor’s in kinesiology and a master’s in exercise science, felt he had a winning formula. Before the age of the internet and email, Grover composed handwritten letters to each of the Chicago Bulls players.
The only person he did not send a letter to be was Michael Jordan because he did not
think that the best player in the NBA would want his services. Jordan saw the letter in a
teammate’s mailbox and was the only one who sought out Grover’s additional training.
He wanted something different and more than all the other players.
Better Workouts with JJ Redick – Search (bing.com)
Better Basketball with JJ Redick – Bing video
Grover emphasizes that winning is not about achieving something once.
Instead, it is the ability to do something well repeatedly. While the stories are about elite NBA players, the lessons gleaned from the experiences transcend any industry…if you are willing to put in the work to succeed. “When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died.” – Michael Jordan | CBS Sports – Bing video
Michael Jordan Speaks at A Celebration of Life for Kobe and Gianna Bryant
R.i.P. #8
R.i.P. KOBETHE LAST DANCE EPISODE 1 Michael Jordan the Legend Journey.
Episode 5 of The Last Dance, ESPN’s 10-part documentary which chronicles Jordan’s final year with the Chicago Bulls and aired last spring, was posthumously dedicated to Bryant. Jordan has repeatedly spoken of the special relationship he shared with the late Lakers great.
By the time Bryant entered the league in 1996, Jordan had already racked up four NBA titles and would go on to add two more before stepping away from the game for a second time in 1998. Bryant fulfilled the heir apparent role to perfection, filling the enormous
MJ-sized vacuum the NBA faced.
Arguably, more than any other player before or after him, Bryant matched Jordan’s ferocious will to win and intensity. His style of play was also the closest thing to
the Bulls legend’s.
The similarities didn’t end there. Like Jordan, who saw himself as a mentor for his younger colleague, Bryant blossomed under Phil Jackson’s tutelage. The “Zen Master”
had led the Bulls to six titles but, like Jordan, left Chicago in 1998, before taking charge
of the Lakers in 1999.
Spearheaded by Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, Jackson’s Lakers won three straight titles between 2000 and 2002, before Bryant added two more titles in 2009 and 2010 during Jackson’s second stint in Los Angeles. While comparisons between Bryant and Jordan abounded, in The Last Dance, Bryant firmly pushed back on the suggestion of a rivalry between him and Jordan.
“I feel like, yo, what you get from me is from him. I won’t get five championships here without him because he guided me so much and gave me so much great advice,” he said.
“I truly hate having discussions about who would win one on one. ‘Hey Kobe, you beat Michael one on one.'” Why Kobe Bryant Refused to Shoot on Team USA | Coach K’s Amazing Kobe Story – Bing video
BONUS: Coach Mike Krzyzewski Opens up about Coaching JJ Redick at Duke and LeBron + Kobe on Team USA – Bing video