6 stories that prove there will never be another Kobe Bryant

One thing that separated Kobe Bryant from the rest of the players in the league was his insane work ethic. He had an insatiable hunger for winning championships. He worked harder than anyone in the NBA to cement his legacy as one of the greatest basketball players of all-time.

The players in and around the league, and successful people from other industries have had a lot to say about Kobe's dedication and work ethic. The Black Mamba always believed in working hard when everyone else was busy partying or resting and as Kobe himself put it, he always wanted to "squeeze every ounce of juice out of the orange."

There might have been players who were more talented and gifted than Kobe, but it is safe to say there has never been a player throughout the history of the NBA who worked as hard as Kobe did during his 20-year storied career. A lot of skilled basketball players could not enjoy the kind of success they should have because of their poor work ethic.

Through the course of this article, we look at six stories that prove that there will never be another Kobe Bryant.

#1 Team USA trainer's account of Kobe's work ethic

Kobe's workouts usually got more intense in the off-season. An anonymous Team USA trainer told this story on reddit, which talks about Kobe's commitment and how he is married to the game of basketball.

According to him, the trainer worked with Team USA in Vegas during the summer of 2012. The duo shared numbers, and he told Bryant to call him anytime if he wanted to do some conditioning work. He received a call from Kobe at 4:15 AM after a few days, asking him to come to the gym. He left his hotel room, and Kobe was already drenched in sweat, and it wasn't even 5 AM in the morning.

They worked out for 45 minutes, and then the trainer went back to his hotel room to get some sleep before he gets back to the court at 11:00 AM again in the morning, while Kobe went back to his shooting practice. He met Kobe in the morning for scrimmage.

'I woke up feeling sleepy, drowsy, and almost pretty much every side effect of sleep deprivation. Thanks, Kobe. I had a bagel and headed to the practice facility.'

'This next part I remember very vividly. All the Team USA players were there, feeling good for the first scrimmage. LeBron was talking to Carmelo if I remember correctly, and Coach Krzyzewski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant. On the right side of the practice facility was Kobe by himself shooting jumpers. And this is how our next conversation went -- I went over to him, patted him on the back and said,

Trainer Rob : "Good work this morning."'

Kobe : "Huh?"

Rob : "Like, the conditioning. Good work."

Kobe : "Oh. Yeah, thanks Rob. I really appreciate it."

Rob : "So when did you finish?"

Kobe : "Finish what?"

Rob : "Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility?"

Kobe : "Oh just now. I wanted 800 makes so yeah, just now."

This first person account speaks volume of his dedication and how he always wanted to get better. Kobe was 34 when this happened and also, there was no way Team USA was going to lose, with all the fire-power they had.

Source : SB Nation

#2 Investor Chris Sacca's story about Bryant

Chris Sacca was stunned by Kobe's work ethic

Even after Kobe quit basketball, his hard work did not end. He won the academy award at The Oscars earlier this year for his animated short film, 'Dear Basketball'. In an interview, Kobe also talked about how he calls entrepreneurs and asks questions about stuff he doesn't know.

Chris Sacca, who is a billionaire investor, shared this story about Kobe Bryant with Bill Simmons' followers on his podcast. Sacca once had a meeting with Kobe because the latter wanted to discuss some business ventures. He added that he was very skeptical about Kobe, because he had interacted with professional athletes, who viewed business like tourism.

Sacca on Kobe : 'So I said, "Look, if you're serious about this, then prove it to me. I'm going to send you a bunch of stuff that you should read, a bunch of TED Talks and other videos you should watch, and if you do your homework then I'll talk to you about investing." It was funny because I didn't think he was going to do it. I thought it was kind of a nice way to let him off easy.'

'For the next few months my phone never stops buzzing in the middle of the night. It's Kobe, reading this article, checking out this tweet, following this guy, diving into this Ted Talk, diving into the Y Combinator Demo Day stuff. And I'm getting these texts, literally two or three in the morning, and my wife is like, "Are you having an affair with Kobe Bryant? What is happening here?"'

'It was just at all hours, and the guy was serious! He was bringing the same obsessive work ethic to learning about startups that he does to training, to rehab, to his thousand makes a day, to everything. I was fascinated by it. So I ended up becoming really enthralled by him because this is a very unique personality type that I only kind of see in some of our very best entrepreneurs.'

Source: BusinessInsider

#3 Michael Jordan's comments about Kobe

Michael Jordan once said Kobe is the only player who can beat him one on one

Michael Jordan once said in an interview that Kobe Bryant was the only player who could have beaten him in one-on-one basketball. He also said that the Black Mamba is the only basketball player who deserves being compared to him.

In an other interview, when asked to choose between LeBron and Kobe, although Jordan praised both of them for their talent and skill, he chose Kobe over LeBron.

This is what Roland Lazenby, author of "Michael Jordan: The Life" said in an interview.

Lazenby on why Jordan thinks Bryant deserves being compared to him: "Kobe had done the work. He [Jordan] was very aware and taking in great interest in Kobe Bryant's great work ethic. Michael Jordan's work ethic also is legendary. He said Kobe had done that work to deserve the comparison. He says Kobe's the only one to have done the work."

Source: LA Times

#4 John Celestand about Kobe's extreme competitiveness

John Celestand talked about this inspiring story on his personal blog

John Celestand was part of the NBA for one season and won the championship that solitary year with the Los Angeles Lakers. He wrote a column about Kobe and his extreme competitiveness on his personal blog in 2005.

"The first time I began to understand why he was the best was in the pre-season. In a game against the Wizards, Kobe broke the wrist on his shooting hand. He was always the first person to practice every day, arriving at least an hour and a half early. This would infuriate me because I wanted to be the first person to practice, just as I had always been at Villanova and Piscataway High in New Jersey. To add insult to injury, I lived only 10 minutes from the practice facility -- while Kobe was at least 35 minutes away.

"I am ashamed to say that I was excited the day after his injury because I knew that there was no way that No. 8 (as former Laker point guard Tyronn Lue called him) would be the first to practice, if he would even be there at all.

"As I walked through the training room, I became stricken with fear when I heard a ball bouncing. No, no, it couldn’t be! Yes it could. Kobe was already in a full sweat with a cast on his right arm and dribbling and shooting with his left."

You can read the complete post here.

#5 Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh's anecdote

Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade's shared an incredible anecdote

Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh shared an incredible anecdote with Michael Wallace of ESPN about the 2008 Olympics. This was just 10 days after the Lakers lost to the Celtics in the NBA finals and Kobe was back at it as usual.

"We're in Las Vegas and we all come down for team breakfast at the start of the whole training camp," Bosh said. "And Kobe comes in with ice on his knees and with his trainers and stuff. He's got sweat drenched through his workout gear. And I'm like, 'It's 8 o'clock in the morning, man. Where in the hell is he coming from?'"

Wade added, "Everybody else just woke up. We're still stretching and yawning, and he's already three hours and a full workout into his day."

"You never forget stuff like that," Bosh said. "I felt so bad. I'm like, ‘What is he trying to prove?' But he was just doing his normal routine. We're all supposed to be big-time NBA players, Olympians and stuff. And then there's Kobe, taking it to another level from Day 1. And I had been off for like three months."

"We're all sitting there thinking, 'Man, I've got to reevaluate what I'm doing as a player,'" Wade said.

Source: ESPN

#6 Jay Williams' story about Kobe Bryant

Jay Williams talked about Kobe's insane work ethic in an inspiring interview with Tom Bilyeu

Jay Williams always worked hard, and tried to outwork people. During a regular season game against the Championship Lakers, Jay took the court for practice four hours before the game against Lakers, but he was shocked to see Kobe practising already. Williams practiced for an hour and after he was done practising, he sat down, but he still heard the ball bouncing.

Jay was shocked, because Kobe had been in a dead sweat when he got there for practice, and he was still going after Jay got done. He also added that Kobe was not practising lazy or nonchalant moves, but full-on game moves.

Kobe scored 40 points that night and torched Jay and the Bulls. Williams therefore decided to go ask Bryant why he was in the gym for so long. When Jay finally asked him, the Black Mamba replied, "Because I saw you come in and I wanted you to know that it doesn't matter how hard you work, I am willing to work harder than you. You inspire me to be better."

Jay also revealed that it was the first time that he saw this level of competitiveness and he told himself, "I need to start doing more."

Bonus:

Shaq and Kobe won three championships together

Shaq and Kobe are probably the best one-two punch in the history of NBA. The Lakers flourished when they were in the league and they brought home three championships together. The duo destroyed opponents night-in and night-out, and the Lakers were a force to reckon with.

This is what Shaq, who was Kobe's longtime teammate, had to say about Bryant and his work ethic in the former's book titled "Shaq Uncut: My Story"

"Kobe is a scientific dawg," O'Neal wrote. "He works out every day, practices every day. Most of the other stars are just dawgs, not scientific dawgs. Kobe will always have the edge because of his range and killer instinct. LeBron has the killer instinct, but he can't shoot like Kobe can."

"Sometimes he'd be working on his moves without the ball," O'Neal wrote. "You'd walk in there and he'd be cutting and grunting and motioning like he was dribbling and shooting -- except there was no ball. I thought it was weird, but I'm pretty sure it helped him."

Source : LA Times