From today's perspective, it's easy to look back on the career of the late Kobe Bryant as one of the greatest winners of all time. However, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows at the beginning of his career.
Even though he came into the league as just the second player straight out of high school after Kevin Garnett , in his mind, Bryant was ready to go to battle with the best in the league right away. Kobe elevated his already elite work ethic to an even higher level, and Robert Horry described it best when he recalled the Los Angeles Lakers ' practices in 1997.
Horry remembered how Bryant, as a rookie, wasn't quite a perimeter shooter, but that didn't stop him from challenging older teammates like Brian Shaw, Mitch Richmond and Robert himself. Losing every time didn't discourage him from showing up at the next practice with the same desire to win — until one day, he finally did.
"He would never stop. It was incredible. He practiced until one day, a couple months later, he finally won. If you literally said, 'Kobe, I bet you can't make five in a row by dropping the ball and kicking it in from half court,' that motherf–—er would go out there and practice it until he could do it. And that's what people don't understand when they talk about champions — when they talk about a winner's mentality. Kobe's dedication to the game is unreal," Horry said .
"And I mean that in the truest sense … it was literally unbelievable. The common denominator in every championship team is the mentality that Kobe has … You have to be so obsessed with winning that you pull no punches with your teammates, even when you're in first place. Even when you're a defending champ," Robert added.
Today, when the Black Mamba's legacy is well known even outside the basketball community, this sounds normal — just another Kobe story about going beyond the limits of what's normal. But at the time, it was anything but.
We're talking about a kid straight out of high school, in a city like Los Angeles , with all the perks that come with playing for the Lakers: money, fame and women. However, Kobe wasn't in that at all. The extent of his obsession with basketball was described best by another Lakers teammate, Ron Harper, who recalled the exact moment he realized Bryant was trying to become the GOAT .
"Kobe's relentlessness wasn't just about games. Basketball was a 24/7 obsession for him. When they rolled the ball out at practice, there was no need for him to warm up. He was already warmed up at 7 a.m. He was ready to get it in. He would go at guys so hard in practice that I started to think to myself, 'Okay, this guy is really trying to be MJ. He's trying to be the greatest of all-time,'" Harper stressed .
It's hard to imagine we'll ever see another player with his mentality, at least not in its full scope. Today, with NBA contracts reaching astronomical levels and players having more off-court opportunities than ever, it's difficult to picture someone like Anthony Edwards , who already has off-court issues, or Ja Morant and Zion Williamson , simply locking themselves in the gym and dedicating everything to improving their game.
Bryant did precisely that, and it made him a five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. Even when he knew Team USA would likely cruise to gold, he worked just as hard as if his biggest rivals, the Boston Celtics , were standing in front of him in every game. And it all started with the little things at practice, just as Horry described.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
