Kobe Bryant to the Hornets: A perfectionist, ravenous competitor, devoted father
Kobe Bryant was a perfectionist.
Charlotte Hornets lead assistant Jay Triano learned how true that was in 2008 as part of the U.S. Olympic coaching staff. He mentioned to Bryant he’d started scouting Uruguay’s national team because that was a likely opponent in the qualifying tournament.
Bryant immediately rattled off the names of Uraguay’s top three players and a description of each one’s game. How, in the world, would Bryant know all that?
“We might play them,” Bryant replied.
That’s how meticulously Bryant prepared for eventualities throughout a 20-year NBA career. Bryant died Sunday in a helicopter accident in Southern California at 41, setting off shock and grief throughout the league. Following practice Monday, Hornets players and coaches reflected on one of the greatest basketball players ever.
Nicolas Batum recalled having to guard Bryant in the first NBA game he ever played, as a Portland Trail Blazers rookie in 2008. Batum has matched up with elite scorers throughout 12 NBA seasons, but no one with Bryant’s ravenous competitive persona. Bryant wasn’t just intent on winning; he set out to humiliate.
“If he wanted to kill you, he could kill you,” Batum said of how thoroughly Bryant could embarrass opponents. “(Especially) if he had something against you. I have memories (of thinking) in the first quarter, ‘Yeah, I’ve got the edge on Kobe’ and then he’d get 40 anyway....
“He was on the court before everyone, he wanted to win more than everyone. He was a champion.”
Mamba Mentality
Triano can certainly relate to that: He was an assistant coach with Toronto in January of 2006 when Bryant scored his career high — 81 points — against the Raptors.
Triano said the game plan was to limit Bryant facilitating teammates for numerous easy baskets. It sort of worked — the Raptors led in the third quarter — but inviting Bryant’s best as a scorer by not sending double-teams to guard him was eventually courting disaster. Bryant scored about 30 points in that fourth quarter.
You never wanted to encourage what Triano called “Mamba Mentality,” referring to Bryant’s Black Mamba nickname.
“You went in thinking, ‘Don’t wake him up.’ Don’t give him any reason to get into that ‘Mamba Mentality’ that he had. Because once he got there, it didn’t matter what you did,” Triano said. “He just had that ability to change a game all by himself: To score at will, make plays for others at will.
“You knew what he was going to do, but he still did it better than anybody.”
Everybody froze — that’s Kobe!
That dominance made Bryant a star among stars to the generation of players entering the NBA the past few seasons. Among them: Hornets forward Miles Bridges.
Sunday, Bridges posted a picture on Instagram of himself at 16 with Bryant. He explained the significance of that meeting Monday. He’d been invited to the Nike Skills Academy, a basketball camp for elite prospects where top NBA players served as instructors.
“It’s crazy. You had so many stars (there): LeBron (James), Anthony Davis, DeMar DeRozan. Once Kobe walked into the gym, everyone just stopped to watch him,” Bridges recalled.
“Everybody froze: ‘That’s Kobe!’ When he was talking, everybody listened. I got a lot of advice from him. He gave everybody great advice.”
After retiring as a player in 2016, Bryant redirected his energies: He got involved in documentary film-making, started businesses, and founded the Mamba Sports Academy to nurture youth sports. When he died Sunday, he was headed to one of his 13-year-old daughter Gianna’s basketball games. Gianna and seven others perished as well.
That particularly struck Hornets forward Marvin Williams, who has two daughters. Williams answered questions about Bryant’s basketball legacy, but he redirected the conversation Monday to frame this as a a family tragedy.
“What hurts me most is seeing what a (good) father that he was,” Williams said, holding back tears. “Knowing he’s not going to get a chance to see (his other daughters) grow up, that’s what distressed me most.”
