SH Blog: Best & Worst of 3.6.13 Featuring The Legend of Kobe Bryant

“Scintillating Kobe!” Lakers play-by-play analyst Bill MacDonald exclaimed as Bryant weaved in and out of Hornets’ defenders, as he continued to eat away at New Orleans’ 25-point second half lead with bucket after bucket. 

At 102-97, Bryant smelled blood. And at that point the game was all but over. There was no way the Lakers were losing.

Bryant was sensational, pouring in 42 points for the sixth time this season, including 13 in the final 8:48. He added 12 assists and seven rebounds one night after injuring his elbow against Oklahoma City. His suffocating defense was infectious, and the Lakers were able to hold the Hornets scoreless the last 6:47 of the game.

Now standing at 31-31 and 1.5 games behind the Utah Jazz and two games behind the Houston Rockets, if the Lakers make the playoffs this will be the game that resuscitated their season.

But Kobe’s never had any doubts. “Just shut up and let us work,” he said after their troubling start to the season.

As we continued to scratch our heads, Kobe methodically went back to work. And when things continued to look bleak, Kobe never wavered.

“It’s not a question of if we make the playoffs,” Bryant said on February 21st to Sports Illustrated’s Jack MaCallum. “We will. And when we get there, I have no fear of anyone — Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver … whoever. I have zero nervousness about that.”

Five years ago it was a legitimate debate if Kobe Bryant would be playing today. He lost his explosiveness, his ability to play above the rim that had vaulted him above the best of the best for the entirety of his career.

He was already approaching his 900th career game and 35,000 minutes, two NBA benchmarks that signal the decline of any player regardless of caliber.

• 2008-’09: 26.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 46% FG
• 20012-’13: 27.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.6 assists,   47% FG

Despite all of the injuries, all of the games played and minutes logged, the playoffs, the Olympics and those grueling summer workouts, Bryant is better today than he was five years ago.

Sift through the names: Stockton, Payton, Erving, Pippen, Drexler, Wilkins, Iverson, Miller, Magic, Bird. All of these legends hit their peak and declined between their 12^th and 14^th season amounting somewhere between 34,000 and 48,000 minutes.

He’s played 17 seasons, 1,423 games and 53,388 minutes including playoffs.

And counting.

Those gaudy numbers don’t even begin to explain the legend of Kobe’s work ethic and drive, though. The well never runs dry of legendary Kobe anecdotes, and one as recent as this past summer may explain the late-career renaissance of Bryant better than any.

It comes from an anonymous athletic trainer who met Bryant this summer at Team USA training camp in Las Vegas.

The trainer approached Bryant during practice three days before the first scrimmage to introduce himself. He offered his assistance if Bryant ever wanted to get some extra training in. They exchanged numbers.

The night before the first scrimmage, the trainer received a call around 4:15 am. It was Bryant, and the trainer nervously answered. Kobe asked if he could help him out with some extra conditioning work. It took the trainer about 20 minutes to arrive, and when he walked in the main gym Bryant was already there.

“He was drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn’t even 5AM.”

The two worked together on conditioning for 75 minutes before a 45-minute session in the weight room. After that the two parted ways, the trainer headed home to sleep and Bryant back to the gym to get in a few shots.

The trainer was expected to be back at 11:00 a.m. for the first scrimmage, and the next part he remembers “very vividly.”

“All the Team USA players were there, feeling good for the first scrimmage. LeBron was talking to Carmelo if I remember correctly and Coach Krzyzewski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant. On the right side of the practice facility was Kobe by himself shooting jumpers. And this is how our next conversation went — 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.”

Translation: Kobe arrived seven hours early for a summer scrimmage.

So when all of the rumors and speculation come up about Kobe’s secret knee surgery in Germany or PED’s in basketball, you can point to his unrelenting, lunatic, virtuoso work ethic as to why he can still lead the league in scoring for months at a time and dunk on players 10 years younger than him.

Kobe doesn’t put that unprecedented level of work in to give up when his team is down 25 points.

Greatness is not a matter of circumstance. Greatness is a matter of conscious choice.

The coice Kobe Bryant has made is to never stop working.

So maybe we should all finally shut up and let him.

Onto the best and worst of the night