Happy first Monday of the DECADE!
Wishing all of you a very happy new year & decade. Hoping that you take the lessons & own the 2020s
Allow me to give a brief about Kobe Bryant before I share 1 interesting story, 2 quotes to think about and 3 short lessons from him for you to read this week.
Kobe Bryant is widely regarded as one of the best basketball players of all time.
He’s won five NBA championships with the Lakers and led the NBA in scoring during two seasons. He’s an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team. He holds the NBA record for the most seasons played with one franchise for an entire career: 20 seasons. Kobe is the only player for whom 2 jersey numbers have been retired for Lakers i.e no player can have that number on the back for Lakers
In 2018, he received an Academy Award for his animated short “Dear Basketball.” He also just launched a podcast called The Punies that teaches kids morals and history in a really fun way.
1 STORY FOR YOU
Mamba Mentality
In 2012, Bryant was selected as a member of Team USA. During this time, one of the athletic trainer's for Team USA, a man named Robert, was working with Kobe to prepare for the Olympics. In the story below, which was previously published on Reddit, Robert describes his first experience with Kobe and reveals one of the reasons the superstar has become so successful.
From Robert, trainer for Team USA:
I was invited to Las Vegas to help Team USA with their conditioning before they headed off to London. I've had the opportunity to work with Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade in the past, but this would be my first interaction with Kobe.
The night before the first scrimmage, I had just watched “Casablanca” for the first time and it was about 3:30 AM.
A few minutes later, I was in bed, slowly fading away, when I heard my cell ring. It was Kobe. I nervously picked up.
“Hey, uhh, Rob, I hope I'm not disturbing anything right?”
“Uhh, no. What's up Kob?”
“Just wondering if you could help me out with some conditioning work, that's all.”
I checked my clock. 4:15 AM.
“Yeah sure, I'll see you in the facility in a bit.”
It took me about twenty minutes to get my gear and get out of the hotel. When I arrived and opened the room to the main practise floor, I saw Kobe. Alone. He was drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn't even 5:00 AM.
We did some conditioning work for the next hour and fifteen minutes. Then, we entered the weight room, where he would do a multitude of strength training exercises for the next 45 minutes. After that, we parted ways. He went back to the practice floor to shoot. I went back to the hotel and crashed. Wow.
I was expected to be on the floor again at about 11:00 AM.
I woke up feeling sleepy, drowsy, and 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 of the Team USA players were there. LeBron was talking to Carmelo and Coach Krzyzewski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant. On the right side of the practise, facility Kobe was by himself shooting jumpers.
I went over to him, patted him on the back and said, “Good work this morning.”
“Huh?”
“Like, the conditioning. Good work.”
“Oh. Yeah, thanks, Rob. I really appreciate it.”
“So when did you finish?”
“Finish what?”
“Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility?”
“Oh, just now. I wanted 800 makes. So yeah, just now.”
For those of you keeping track at home, Kobe Bryant started his conditioning work around 4:30 am, continued to run and sprint until 6 am, lifted weights from 6 am to 7 am, and finally proceeded to make 800 jump shots between 7 am and 11 am.
Oh yeah, and then Team USA had practice.
2 QUOTES FROM HIM
I cold call people and pick their brain about stuff. Some of the questions I ask seem really really simple and some of them seem stupid, quite honestly, for them. But if I don’t know, I don’t know. I have to ask. I’ll just do that and ask questions. I want to learn more about how they build their business and how they run their companies and how they see the world.
If you want to be great at something, there’s a choice you have to make. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be.
3 LEARNINGS FOR YOU
Reading is essential
Kobe made a point of reading the referee’s handbook. One of the games that he gleaned from it was that each referee has a designated spot where he is supposed to be on the floor. If the ball, for instance, is in place W, referees X, Y and Z each have an area on the court assigned to them
When they do that it creates certain dead zones, areas on the court where they can’t see certain things. He learned where these zones were and took advantage of them.he would get away with holds, travels and all sorts of minor violations simply because he took the time to understand the official’s limitations.
Recreate The Peak Performance State For Continued Success
If there is anything that Kobe excelled at during his illustrious career, it would be his uncanny ability to be successful. His knack for consistently putting himself and his team in a position to win in those championship years was admirable. The effort he puts in is detailed to the extent that on one occasion, a 2 year period, Kobe listened to the same soundtrack just to recreate the frustration and bad feeling of losing to the Celtics in a finals. He was quoted:
“I remember when we were losing [in Game 6 in 2008], they played that Journey song [‘Don’t Stop Believin’] and the whole arena started singing that song, and I hated that damn song for two years. Seriously,” Bryant said.
Love the process
Many of us love to jump to the top quickly. In fact, if you were to ask most entrepreneurs would they be a millionaire now or in 5 years, most would say now.
This wasn't the way Kobe liked to think.
In fact, as Kobe got older, he saw innate beauty in seeing how far he could stretch himself to still be successful as a player. For example, when Shaquille O'Neal left, no one believed he could win a championship without him. Or, when he tore his rotator cuff, he wanted to see how long he could last, even though critics didn't think he would be able to play again.
Loving the process gave Kobe the ability to enjoy the ride, instead of just the destination.
That’s it from me, until next Monday!
Would love to know if you have any feedback or want me to write about someone who you think is amazing at what they do! Please share it if you liked the post!