Los Angeles Lakers legend and future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant says his “curiosity” of the game is what separated him from other NBA players.
Bryant was notorious for watching hours and hours of film during his playing days. Kobe was a true student of the game and it's not a stretch to say he loved the game of basketball more than anyone else in NBA history.
“The curiosity. Curiosity. Most players that play the game will just play it,” Kobe Bryant told Frank Isola of The Athletic. “Certain things will happen, some may be good, some may be bad. I don’t know. That wasn’t good enough for me. I want to know why.
“When I watch Tiny (Archibald) play, when I watch (Michael) Jordan play, when I watch Magic (Johnson) or Hakeem (Olajuwon) it wasn’t good enough just to watch them make a move. I wanted to slow it down, rewind it, (and) figure out why it worked. What was the timing? What was the angle? What could the defender have done better to stop that move?
“It was a constant search to try to figure out how to get better. Losing to the Celtics in ’08 wasn’t good enough to say, ‘They were a better team, we lost.’ No. Why did we lose? What could I have done better? I think it’s that constant curiosity that will separate you, I think.”
These quotes pretty much define who Kobe Bryant was.
The Black Mamba always wanted to take it a step further.
His inquisitiveness about basketball probably won't be matched by anyone else who plays the game.
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