When talking about some of the most motivated players in the history of the sport, you can't not have Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant as part of the conversation. Kobe's drive was second to none, and his incessant desire to improve his craft is legendary — at times, to a fault.
Kobe worked with more than a few legends during his time in the NBA. One of them was Hall of Fame big man Hakeem Olajuwon. As it turns out, Kobe decided to seek Olajuwon out after winning the 2009 NBA Finals against the Orlando Magic. Bryant just won the fourth championship of his career, but he had no intention of resting on his laurels:
“In Kobe’s case, he tracked down Olajuwon after the Lakers played the Rockets in Houston. ‘I want to come out this summer and work with you,' Bryant said. At first, Olajuwon couldn’t tell whether Kobe was serious. But this is Kobe we’re talking about. Yes, he was very, very serious,” Chris Ballard of SI wrote.
Kobe wanted to learn everything he could from Hakeem. It didn't matter if they played different positions. In his mind, Bryant just wanted to get better at the game he loved in any way possible. According to Olajuwon, this included “how to feel a defender’s presence and react to the slightest weight imbalance. How to jump when catching the entry pass, so that, even before landing, you’re already on the move. How to use footwork and agility to build moves, much like how a boxer constructs a combination, jabbing and misdirecting.”
Kobe left quite an impression on Hakeem, too. According to the two-time NBA champ, he considers Bryant the “fastest learner I ever coached.” Olajuwon has worked with his fair share of icons — including LeBron James who himself followed in Kobe's footsteps to learn from Hakeem two years later — so this compliment speaks volumes of Kobe Bryant's greatness.
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