What other way to kick off this emotional blog where I make a strong Dedication to Basketball Icon who spend his entire 20 year career with the LA Lakers and won 5 championships and even had 16 Playoff Appearances and had 18 All star Game appearances. Who knew During the draft after getting drafted on the Hornets and would immediately get traded. Question was to me is "What would happen if he Played for the Hornets?" Well that answer can go in so many ways and luckily we got to witness him play for the Lakers and even despite one of the most disappointing career ending finishes he got to end his career riding high on a strong note.
Kobe Bryant's career began where he got drafted on The Charlotte Hornets even though he did not play a single minute on the team instead he end up playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant grew up where his father played basketball for the 76ers and even in Italy where he eventually played basketball himself as well, leading him eventually playing for the high school team, leading to the trade even happening Kobe Bryant Worked out for the Lakers who seemed interested in getting Kobe Bryant and low and behold right after drafting him he delivered year by year and even leading him playoff appearance after playoff appearance as well especially with Kobe interesting in playing for the Lakers as well as the Lakers tried to strike a deal with the Hornets that led to making a successful trade mostly successful for the Lakers as Magic Johnson retired low and behold Kobe Bryant came into the scene as they also signed Shaquielle O'neal and began to build a brand new dynasty.
Kobe Bryant In his rookie year he became the youngest NBA Dunk Champion and even landing on the NBA All Rookie Second team and on top of that leading the Lakers to appear in the Western Conference Finals where they fell short against the Utah Jazz, a year later kobe match the same success from his last season by getting more playing time and even displaying more talent on the court and as he finished 2nd place in sixth man of the year and even became a starter for the NBA All Star Team. Despite all the success he had as an individual he had suffered so many playoff shortcomings and especially getting swept by the Jazz and the Spurs in their respective years that led them to the playoff eliminations in those respective years.
I remember hearing the name of Kobe Bryant but never knew how good he was but I did knew that he had the Same Birthday as me as we are 12 years apart. I saw a student wore a Kobe Bryant jersey and even saw commercials of him making slam dunks and then even eventually playing with the Lakers and saw the talent that Kobe Bryant had even seeing him make a 3 smothered, I was like wow I am even sure he can even shoot 3s. Seeing him play in the NBA Finals unfortunately I had to go to bed early I was thinking how Shaq dominated on the Lakers and little be known Kobe also was a contribution for the Lakers on their 3 peat run from 200-2002 with also Phil Jackson coaching the Lakers where he was a major key to their championship. The year after their 3 peat I even remembered seeing Kobe Bryant pick up the slack especially when Shaquielle O'neal was injured and they had a bizarre finish of a 50-32 record and even them getting knocked out of the conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs where it led the Spurs becoming NBA Champions against the New Jersey Nets who previously lost to the Lakers the very year before in the NBA Finals. One year Later Kobe Bryant played alongside Shaq which after the season turned out to be their final year as teammates especially Shaq's final year playing for the Lakers, as the teammates were suffering so much turmoil and despite all the turmoil Then seeing him play through the rebuilding phase where he end up taking the full leadership for the team as the Lakers did radical trades and even trading Shaq was one of them as even Phil Jackson departed and on top of that the culture of the team changed but the energy and the talent of Kobe Bryant hasn't. Despite the disappointing season in the 2004-2005 yeah and a mediocre team around him, he still stood out and had a good season but he did fell to NBA 3rd team and on top of that halfway through the season Rudy Tomjanovich resigned due to fatigue issues. Phil Jackson eventually came back which bringing so many rumors to life, as I did hear the possibilities of his return, and in which he did return and even began his 1st season without Shaquielle O'neal, and even him coaching a rebuilding Lakers which almost I thought they were beginning to move on without Phil Jackson as they did move on without Shaquielle O'neal who eventually moved on to the Miami Heat and won a championship up there in one of the years he was there alongside Dwyane Wade. After going through back to back first round eliminations, they eventually had a major season surge a year later and even pushing further to making a conference finals appearance and even the NBA Finals Appearance where he lost to the Celtics in 6 games, but the year after that with 2 players to support and advocate for Kobe's championship aspiration and rebound they went back to the NBA Finals in 2009 and improved from 57-25 to 65-17 and even beating the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals in 5 games. Even a year later where they made the big retribution in Beating The Celtics in 7 games and coming back from the 3-2 series deficit. Which led to Kobe having 2 more rings and even 2 time finals MVP and even being the MVP in the 2007-2008 season reestablishing the dynasty of the Lakers.
One of the biggest moments that haven't been mentioned well I am about to explain is the event that took place in January 2006 Kobe made one of the biggest record chasing games. I was 15 years old and before school I would watch the NBA highlights on NBA TV where they were recapping the previous games from the Previous evening and then low and behold they brought up Wilt Chamberlain's record where he scored 101 points in a single game and I was going to see are we going to see Kobe Bryant score 100 points or more than that in the game he was playing against the subpar Raptors as I was watching the anchors presenting the highlights did a masterful job not giving away how many points he scored but instead played into the suspense and then when I saw he scored a surprising 81 points I was like wow this is something I haven't really seen from any other player not even Michael Jordan believe it or not. For him especially with the team he had it was very outstanding to see the huge chase and opportunity for the big record I was like man the Lakers team was given for Kobe Bryant to lead and to see how much fruition it slowly began to give man that would be exciting.
Learning and seeing some videos regarding Kobe Bryant and some of his speeches especially where he developed to obtain the mindset of a winner and really want to be the best at his craft which was playing basketball, seeing him where he really wants to be in 1st place and REFUSE to fall back to 2nd fiddle. Learning that he played through pain and even at one point he played through a painful back injury but he still came ready and push through the pain when the situation was needed for it and the time to rest made it looked like where it is a reward and not a cop out of a tough situation. He himself was also inspired by basketball stars like Magic Johnson and even Michael Jordan where they played at high levels.
For me what I really learned from Kobe is continue to play at your best, and outside of basketball I had to learn I had to excel at my potential and learning a quote from this guy I had to learn that I don't want to be compared or have any connection to lazy people, and which I had a terrible history with laziness. For me I can say I did have a history of Lacking Mamba Mentality and not having the urge to succeed and thinking it was going to get handed to me especially where I was not putting in the work, but there was a history where I was put to work and I excelled like I mentioned multiple amount of times and seeing a lot of hard work in my environment from family and friends I am sure you know. Especially when I was training for football in high school and even had to do the paper route early in the morning as well, and even in college where I trained for wrestling and had to lose a lot of weight as well. And playing sports helped me learned resilience where I had to learn perseverance and even growth in other tough situations I have been through as well, and it was a strong life lesson and it helped me see things a ton differently as well. Even when I did the 31 day pushup challenge doing 31 pushups for 31 days was something I did not think I would go through but for me to do the challenge and complete the challenge it was such a huge accomplishment for myself because I kept pushing and pushing and I began seeing results especially, and learning how the hard work Kobe Bryant made it really paid off and came to a ton of fruition.
Thank You Kobe! for Paving the way to many others and for even stars of the future and even present. You're accomplishment and Legacy lives on Forever even though you are no longer alive!
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