This Friday, October 7, Netflix released the documentary “Redeem Team”, which looks back on the journey of the American Olympic champion team in Beijing in 2008. A competition during which the late Kobe Bryant particularly shone. The opportunity to evoke the craziest anecdotes concerning the legend of the Lakers.
On January 26, 2020, the basketball world mourned the disappearance of a huge star. That day, Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six others. A tragic death for one of the greatest athletes of his generation. For 20 years, the Black Mamba has won everything with its franchise, the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as with the national team. Five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic champion, he managed to register his name alongside the greatest basketball players in history, such as Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Larry Bird.
It must be said that from his adolescence, Kobe Bryant imposed an incredible rigor to be the best. thus, in high school, he arrived every morning at 5 a.m. at the gymnasium, to practice before class. There’s then returned after school, until 7 p.m. He did not hesitate to push his teammates to do the same, under penalty of being sanctioned by Kobe in training.
Between 700 and 1000 successful shots per training
Among his favorite punishments, he particularly enjoyedhumiliate his teammates one-on-one. This is for example what one of his former partners, Rob Schwartz, experienced. “He made me play endless duels. The first to 100 points. Sometimes it took 80 before I could get one. My best result against him was a loss, 100 at 12″he confided.
An impeccable work ethic that Kobe Bryant continued when he arrived in the NBA. So, he trained four hours a day during the season, and a little more during the off-season. Every day he also had to succeed between “700 and 1000 shots”. In 2012-2013, before he broke his Achilles heel, he only left training after passing “400 shots” […] “and I know it because I count them“, he had indicated.
Kobe Bryant sore loser
Psychopath of the slightest detail in order to improve his performance, Kobe Bryant had gone so far as to ask Nike to modify their new pair of shoesin 2008. He wanted them to cut a few millimeters from the sole, “because in his mind”had specified a spokesperson for the brand at the comma, “this would allow him to have a faster reaction time of a hundredth of a second”.
But Kobe Bryant also hated the slightest failure, even in training. Also in 2008, at the end of a practice, all Lakers players had to shoot a free throw. Unfortunately for Kobe, he missed his, while all of his teammates got theirs. Only Derek Fisher was left. The leader therefore triggered his shot, but just before the ball hit the basket, Kobe Bryant leaped up and furiously countered his attempt. “He couldn’t be the only one to miss his shot.”had explained with a smile another player, Lamar Odom.
Minus 8 kilos before the London Olympics
In an effort to prepare for his last Olympic Games in London in 2012, Kobe Bryant, then 34 years old, decided to lose some weight. He therefore imposed a drastic regime on himself. “[Après les Jeux], there will be the NBA season directly, so I will play until June. I need my knees to bear a little less weight”, he justified. To achieve his goal, he had therefore given up on his holidays to work like a madman. Results : he lost 8 pounds and flew to Europe sharper than ever.
Kobe Bryant attached so much importance to his sport that he did not hesitate to come to train either, even when he was severely injured. This was reported by his former partner John Celestand. Indeed, during the 1999-2000 season, the Mamba had broken wrist. Everyone thought then that he was going to be absent from training the next day to rest. It’s bad to know Kobe because the next day, he is arrived on the floor, his right arm wrapped in a bandageand spent the session dribbling and shooting with his left hand.
Kobe Bryant and the “tramps”
Injuries, Kobe Bryant has experienced many, but they have never prevented him from chambering his teammates, as explained Jeremy Lin, partner of the star at the Lakers during the 2014-2015 season. “It’s the eve of the trade deadline (deadline after which it is no longer possible for NBA franchises to make the slightest exchange, editor’s note), we are in training between stretching and various warm-ups. He arrives, he’s in a tracksuit, his arm in a sling for his shoulder, sunglasses. Everyone is surprised and shouts ‘Ooooh!’, Carloz Boozer launches: ‘Kob’! Cool to see you guys, damn it’s been a while, what brings you?’. And there impassive face he replied: ‘I just came to say goodbye to the few tramps of you who are going to transfer tomorrow‘ (laughs). Then he sat down at the table in the training room, slipped a few words to the coach, then left. I remember one of my teammates said to me: ‘I lost all motivation to train'”said Jeremy Lin.