Kobe Bryant‘s career has come to a close and along with it are numerous memorable moments of intense competition, and his willingness to fight until the whistle is blown.
During his career, there wasn't anyone that could match his desire to win, his eagerness to make gravity-defying plays, and his utmost confidence to take the last shot.
Except Russell Westbrook.
In an interview with CBS' Jim Rome, Bryant sang high praises for the Oklahoma City Thunder point guard.
“When I turn on the TV and I watch players play, the player that plays with the same kind of emotion and grit and competitive intensity is Russell [Westbrook].”
Bryant reminisced about how times have changed. He touched on how he was viewed at the start of his career and how it has changed leading to this point:
“When I was young and playing, that wasn’t the perception. The perception was that I was headstrong, obsessive about the game of basketball, but as time has gone on and people have been able to see how obsessive I’ve been about winning, then that’s kind of become, they’ve kind of come to know me as that, right. So there are certain young players out there, I’m sure, that have that mentality, but over time we will be able to see who is who.”
Bryant has a great point. There are a handful of players through NBA history that have a fierce, almost maniacal desire to win – Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain being two examples.
They thrived in competition. They basked in the challenge and proving people wrong would only go as far as the next person that doubted them. It fueled them.
Traits like those have made Bryant a fearless rival and the ultimate competitor.
Russell Westbrook embodies the same traits, playing with the same intensity from start to finish, and showcasing reckless abandon when it's time to take over the game.
“Russell is going hard. Doesn’t matter who he is playing against, doesn’t matter what the odds are, he’s going, that’s a guy, he is going 110 percent every single time,” said Bryant.