1.מספר 10 הוא קובי בריאנט, שההקרבה והאדיקות שלו למשחק מגדירים את הקריירה האייקונית שלו בלייקרס

זהו מאמר קצת מבולבל. העתקתי חלקים ממאמרו של סם אמיק מה- THEATHLETIC על קובי, וחלקים כתבתי בעצמי. אל תקראו זאת כסיפור אחד מאורגן ההולך מתחילה עד הסוף. פשוט תקראו חלקים-חלקים. בכל חלק תגלו את המיוחד שהיה בקובי: אובססיה מחלטת למשחק, למצויינות, ולנצחון!

ממשיכים בספירה הגדולה של 75 השחקנים הטובים ביותר ב-NBA ב-75 שנות קיום הליגה.

לא חייבים ללכת רחוק יותר מהצהרתו של קובי על הכדורסל והוא, כשחקן. ניתן לכנות זאת כ'מנטליות של ממבה':

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“When it came to basketball, I had no fear. … I wasn’t scared of missing, looking bad, or being embarrassed. That’s because I always kept the end result, the long game, in my mind. I always focused on the fact that I had to try something to get it, and once I got it, I’d have another tool in my arsenal. If the price was a lot of work and a few missed shots, that was OK.” — Kobe Bryant, “The Mamba Mentality: How I Play.”

כשבריאנט החליט לתלות את נעליו במשחק האחרון הבלתי נשכח נגד הג'אז, משחק בו הוא קלע 60 נק' ב-50 זריקות, דווין בוקר היה בן 9. 'ממבה' היה גיבור ילדותו. בינואר 26, 2020 כשההליקופטר בו היה בריאנט נוסע עם בתו בת ה-13 ג'יאנה, ו-7 נוסעים אחרים נפל בעת סערה בדרום קליפוניה והרג את כל נוסעיו, בוקר ניכנס לחנות להתבעת טאטו, ובחר בשתי מילים שקובי שלח לו כשדווין החל להראות מי הוא: "BE LEGENDARY". שתי מילים אלה חרוטות על זרועו. קובי הוא גיבורו הבלתי מעורער של דווין בוקר, כמו של אין ספור צעירים מתקופתו.

שנתיים עברו מאת שקובי נהרג, אך ה'ממבה מנטליטי' נשארה עד היום ב-NBA ושחקנים מדברים עליה כאילו הוא עדיין איתנו ושומר שהמנטליטי שלו תמשיך לדרבן שחקנים צעירים להגיע לגבהים שאחרים לא מאמינים שישנה אפשרות שיגיעו אליהם.

הנה קטע שסם אמיק כתב על ה'ממבה מנטליטי' של קובי:

F

“Mamba Mentality… as if he’s still preaching the power of perseverance with that fiery look upon his face. His defiant spirit, that irrational confidence in one’s self that served him so well during those two decades of dominance, is carried on now by premiere players who started studying him when they were young. What’s more, it’s the distinctive trait that landed him at No. 10 on The Athletic’s list of 75 greatest players of all time!

סך הכל של חייו של קובי תמיד יהיה DIVISIVE: הבן של 'JELLYBEAN JOE' ופם בריאנט מפילדלפיה שלקחו את בנם איתם לאיטליה כשהאב שיחק כדורסל מקצועני, וחזרה למריון היי. קובי תמיד היה טיפוס שונה, עוד לפני המקרה עם עובדת המלון – תביעה שהסתיימה מחוץ לבית המשפט – כשקובי -שהתנצל וכנראה שילם הרבה כסף למתלוננת – טוען שזה היה "פשוט מקרה של שני אנשים הרואים סקס בצורה שונה". בתחילת נשואיו לוונסה, ומשך תחילת נשואיהם שהניבו 4 בנות מקסימות, היו לו בעיות בנשואין שנראה היה שהתפשרו משך הזמן. הכשרון שלו הניב לו OSCAR, והוא היה תומך נילהב ב-WNBA, כשהספורט אקדמי שהוא פתח 'ממבה ספורט אקדמי' הפך למוסד יקרתי ביותר דווקא לבנות, ולא לבנים.

המיני קמפ שהוא פתח ב-2019 הפך ל-STUFF OF LEGENTS (https://theathletic.com/1246266/2019/09/27/inside-kobe-bryants-invite-only-mini-camp-and-how-it-all-came-together/https://theathletic.com/1246266/2019/09/27/inside-kobe-bryants-invite-only-mini-camp-and-how-it-all-came-together/)

קובי מוכן היה להוכיח לכל העולם שיש בו הרבה יותר משחקן כדורסל, ופרס אוסקאר אחד לרשותו לפני גיל 40 היה פתיחה ראוייה לקריירה מבטיחה רבות גם בכדורסל וגם באומנות.

אבל את קובי נזכור כמובן כשחקן כדורסל, שלרבים הוא-הוא המייקל ג'ורדן שלהם:

• Fourth all-time in scoring (33,643 points, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and LeBron James)
• Fourth in playoff scoring (5,640 points, behind James, Jordan and Abdul-Jabbar)
• Second all-time in All-Star appearances (18, tied with LBJ and behind only Abdul-Jabbar’s 19)
• Four All-Star game MVPs (tied with Bob Pettit for the all-time lead); posthumously, the trophy was named after him
• Eighth in regular-season minutes (48,637), fourth in playoff minutes (behind James, Jordan, and Abdul-Jabbar)
• Eleven All-NBA first-team selections (tied with Karl Malone for second most, behind only James’ 13)
• One-time MVP (2007-08, when he averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game)
• Two-time scoring champ (2005-06, when he averaged 35.4 points per game; 2006-07, when he averaged 31.6)
• Nine All-Defensive first-team selections (tied with Kevin Garnett, Jordan and Gary Payton for the most in league history)
• One of 10 players to average at least 25 points, five rebounds and four assists during a course of a career
• His 81-point outburst in Toronto on Jan. 22, 2006, was the second-highest scoring game of all time, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game that came three decades before

The Mamba Mentality

סם אמיק מספר על שני ריאיונות שהיו לו עם קובי, אחד על הסלטיקס והשני על דווייט האוארד. ה'ממבה מנטליטי' נשמעת בכל אחד מהם:

ממבה על הלייקרס והסלטיקס

Bryant, discussing the state of the Lakers and, more specifically, then-Lakers big man Dwight Howard in a conversation we had on Jan. 26, 2013:

“For us to have a team that’s confrontational and on edge brings out the competitive spirit of everybody else, you know what I’m saying? If everybody is just relaxed and happy-go-lucky and this, that and the other, then that’s the personality we’ll have as a team. And then you run into a team that’s a confrontational team, and it’s like a bus. That’s what happened to us in 2008. Everything was really easy for us, real smooth. …Everybody liked each other. And then we got to the Finals (against Boston), and we ran into a bus. The Celtics – those motherfuckers just beat the shit out of us (in six games).”

ממבה על הסנטר האוארד שיש לו או אין לו את זה:

“Yeah (Howard can fit in that). I don’t wonder (that) anymore. It’s just a matter of learning. It’s a process for him. He wants to be one of the greats of all time, and to do that you have to learn from the greats of all time – be it Bill Russell, be it Shaq. I mean Shaq was a moody, temperamental dude. So if you watch all the big men who have come before, you start to see a common denominator. Wilt (Chamberlain) — God Bless him — was phenomenal, but he didn’t have it. Russell and (those) guys win (repeatedly) — Jordan, Magic, myself. You’ve got a little asshole engine. … I’m a problem solver. I try to figure things out, come hell or high water.”

קובי היה כל כך INTENSE שלפעמים זה גרם לקונפליקטים בקבוצה:

From O’Neal to Howard to his years-long attempt to turn Gasol into a ‘Black Swan,’ Bryant’s tension with teammates was typically rooted in the belief that they weren’t approaching the game with the necessary level of aggression or commitment. And when it came to his work ethic, the stories about his maniacal methods were never in short supply.

On that four-airball night in Utah that ended his rookie season, for example, Bryant would later share that he went straight from the Los Angeles airport to Pacific Palisades High to shoot until sunrise.

אובססיה לאימונים:

“You hear those stories of him waking up at 4 and 5 and people getting to the gym and he’s already finished his workout. And you hear those stories at a young age about your senior in your high school class, and some of those are stories and you know they’re fabricated. But with him, like every single one of those stories is 100 percent true all the way through. I think that’s the difference between it. A lot of people have a work ethic, a lot of people put the work in and (focus) on their body and do that, but there’s little slippage here and there. The thing with him is there’s no slippage.”

Like Booker, DeRozan’s mastery of the midrange game had everything to do with the lessons learned from Bryant.

הם מספרים על קובי:

“Man, it’s the relentless and countless, nonstop repetitions of doing the same thing over and over and over and over,” DeRozan said of Bryant’s impact on his routine. “So when you are in those situations, it doesn’t feel like nothing new. You don’t feel rushed. You don’t feel panicked. And it comes with time, continuously doing the same thing over and over, working on something over and over and over and over. And so it becomes damn near redundant.

“But it becomes second nature, in muscle memory. Your mentality, your mind, the confidence, just continuously working on your skill. Late nights, early mornings throughout the days, days when you don’t feel like doing anything. I got a lot of that mentality from Kobe.”

Mentor role

קובי מדסקס את יחסיו עם מייקל ג'ורדן:

Bryant, during his final season on Feb. 21, 2016, discussed his relationship with Jordan:

“When I came into the league, and matching up against him, what I found … is that he was extremely open to having a relationship — a mentor relationship. And giving me a great amount of advice, an amazing amount of detail, strategies, workout regimens and things like that. Seriously, I don’t think people understand the impact he has had on me as a player and as a leader.”

עבור קובי, מייקל ג'ורדן תמיד היה ה-GOLD STANDARD. עבור סטף קרי, דרוזן, ודווין בוקר, קובי היה מנטור, וידיד מבוגר

For Bryant, Jordan was always the gold standard. The lifelong goal. He had those six titles. The GOAT status. Every shot and move you could imagine. The flight patterns. Bryant wanted to replicate all of it.

But he wasn’t just chasing a basketball ghost. No, as Bryant would reflect on more as he grew older, his relationship with Jordan had started early and evolved from there. That deep connection was there for all to see when Jordan gave a tearful speech about his friend at Bryant’s memorial service.

Yet for much of Bryant’s career, he kept his peers at bay. His focus was on the fear factor, the intimidation that he always tried to inspire in his opponents. There was no better example of this than his famously distant relationship with LeBron James, one that would only become more meaningful very late in his career.

Over time, though, Bryant had begun to give back in much the same way Jordan had with him. And if you were a young player who was deemed worthy of respect by Bryant, that was enough to make you stick your chest out. Or, as was the case with Curry, your butt.

For Curry, it was the Bryant ass pat in a 2014 preseason game that most believed was his hat-tip moment. Bryant had been hounding him down the floor, bullying him so much that Curry even stumbled as they crossed the half-court line.

He caught himself with his right hand, somehow keeping the dribble alive. Then came the right elbow into Bryant’s gut, the not-so-subtle shove creating just enough space for Curry to fire away. Splash.

“Whooaaa, from the other county,” Lakers announcer Bill Macdonald said on the call. “And Kobe slaps him on the behind, gives him a smile and says, ‘That’s good shootin’ kid.’”

Some 18.6 million YouTube views later, it’s clear the gesture sent an unmistakable message that Bryant thought highly of Curry’s talent. In Curry’s eyes, however, Bryant had made him feel like an elite player three years prior.

“It was my second year, and we were playing at Oracle and he was on the bench,” Curry said. “I did a dribble left and right in front of their bench and a little pump fake and then hit the shot off the glass. And they had the camera zoomed in on him, and he looked at me as I was going down the court and you could see him say ‘That MF-er is nice.’

“I didn’t see it in real time. I saw it afterward. He had said it under his breath and they caught him on the camera saying it and somebody sent it to me. It was dope. When I saw it, that was a ‘Wow!’ moment. It’s corny, but it was one of those when-your-idols-become-your-rivals type vibes. But it was awesome. He recognized my skill level, and I didn’t even really know who I was as a player, so that was another type of confidence builder. Like, I’m doing something right.”

Bryant left Booker feeling that same way, signing those “Be Legendary” shoes after their game on March 23, 2016, and spending 15 minutes talking with him. Curry had already become an MVP and a champion. But as Booker shared at the time, Bryant was already imploring him to knock the mighty Warriors from their perch.

“He was just telling me, ‘Just keep working, you know? Never settle in this league. It’s up for grabs,’ ” Booker had told reporters. “He said, ‘You know, Steph and Klay (Thompson) — obviously they’re doing their thing right now, but the league’s up for grabs and just keep working.”

On that same night, Bryant would explain the way he viewed these relationships (היחסים בין קובי ודווין בוקר)

“I think the most important thing about my career is being able to pass it on and have the next generation of athletes embody the same spirit and learn some of the same techniques and have that same mindset,” Bryant said. “That’s the coolest thing to me. Playing against Booker tonight, I mean he went straight to my move the first time he caught it. ‘You don’t have to beat me on my move man!’ But it was great to see. It was great to see because I remember I did the same thing with MJ.”

Three All-Star selections and a 2021 NBA Finals appearance later, and with the Suns currently having the league’s best record (42-10), Booker now takes great pride in the fact that he’s living up to those great expectations.

“I’m left with ‘Be Legendary,’” he explained in our chat. “That’s what I tell people. I don’t put a cap on any of the greatness of what’s possible. I don’t. It’s funny, I remember listening to an interview after I had 70 (points against Boston on March 24, 2017), and Kobe was talking on air and he says, ‘My favorite part of him having 70 is I asked (Booker), ‘Could he do it again?’ And he said, ‘I don’t see why not.’ And that impressed him. Hearing that little tidbit, it’s (a reminder that) I don’t put a cap on what’s possible and what I’m gonna do. I just continue to work.”

As for DeRozan, his most public mentorship moment with Bryant was something different altogether. One day after Bryant’s 39th birthday — Aug. 24, 2017 — he issued personal challenges via social media to famed rapper Kendrick Lamar (“revolutionize the music program at Centennial High School”), then-Boston Celtics player Isaiah Thomas (“make the All-NBA first team next season”) and DeRozan.

“I challenge you to rekindle a lost friendship from your youth in Compton,” he wrote to DeRozan, who was with the Toronto Raptors back then.

The meaning behind the message was a mystery to DeRozan — at least at first.

“If you ever know anything about him, he’d challenge you to the point where you’d question the question,” DeRozan said. “That was the beauty of him making you search and look deeper, (to find a) place of understanding of what the next test is for you.

“It led to something. But you think back to that, and you’re like, ‘Damn, I was confused when he brought that up. But you know, when something reveals itself later on, you’re like, ‘Damn, unconsciously this is happening and I didn’t even know it.’ … He’d always find different ways to challenge you.”Curry and Bryant converse after a game in March 2016. (Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)

Bryant, in February 2015, during our conversation about his documentary, “Muse”:

“As you get older, you start to understand. You start to have a broader perspective and understand that there’s greater growth to be had if you don’t just hold onto the discovery itself. If you share that discovery, then you wind up having an influence. It’s not saying, ‘Do this or do that,’ or ‘My way is the right way.’ The best way to do it is to say, ‘This is how I got here. This is my journey.’ And then leave it up to the viewer to interpret it however they see fit.”

When Bryant made that late-career decision to pull back the curtain, sharing his secrets with the NBA masses after all those years of being so guarded, it was a gift that so many of them will never forget. And the devastating fact that he’s gone, of course, means that those memories will be cherished even more than before.

For DeRozan, that means game-winning shots — like the ones he hit on back-to-back nights earlier this season when he became the first player in league history to achieve that feat — are followed by thoughts of Bryant’s influence. That was the case, he said, when he buried a one-legged three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Indiana on Dec. 26.

“The first thing I thought about was when (Bryant) hit the one-legged shot over D-Wade (on Dec. 4, 2009),” DeRozan said. “It’s just crazy. That’s kind of where I got my whole imagination from hitting game-winning shots was from Jordan and Kobe.

“It’s one of those moments where you think back to all the people who you watched do it and tried to emulate — whether it’s at a trash can, in the kitchen, whatever it may be.”

After Booker spent those 15 postgame minutes sitting with Bryant in 2016, he knew right away that he wanted more. So he leaned on a mutual friend: Robert Lara, the Lakers’ longtime security guard who was Bryant’s personal detail and has a long history with Booker’s alma mater, Kentucky, as well.

“(Lara) would always tell me, ‘Come hook up with Kobe! Come hook up with Kobe!’ And it never worked out,” Booker said. “But there was a couple of times where ‘G’ (Gianna) came to Phoenix for a couple of girls’ basketball tournaments, so I came by and met the team. I remember him putting the girls to bed and us getting some real time. Two, three hours, sitting down, glass of wine and got to break it down. We’re (talking) more off the floor. I met them at their hotel. It was just me, him and one of my good friends. Nobody else in the room. I feel fate (in that moment). I feel fate.

“It was everything. I kind of hold that conversation close, because it was just me, him and my homeboy (Mike, a childhood friend). It’s crazy. It didn’t feel real walking out. We talked about it before he even passed, like I can’t believe we got that time.”

הביקור האחרון של סטף קיירי

Curry’s last visit with Bryant had very little to do with the game. Their relationship had changed over the years, with the decade between them no longer relevant and the mutual admiration at an all-time high.

Bryant was three years into retirement by then, with a booming enterprise that inspired Curry, in large part, because of how it blended so well with who the former Lakers star had become. His love letter to the game that he wrote heading into retirement — “Dear Basketball”  — had become his award-winning animated short film. Bryant was the first African-American to win an Oscar in that category.  

He had his own company, Kobe Inc., and young adult novels that were produced through his Granity Studios. There was an ESPN show, “Detail,” in which he broke down tape of a new player on every episode. And the coaching — always, the coaching.

Curry, like so many players before him, simply wanted to learn more. And so they talked — one last time.

“I was in LA and had dinner with him and one of his business associates,” said Curry, who has two daughters and a son with his wife, Ayesha. “He was an open book. But I remember just sitting down and him taking me on a journey of what he had been doing before he retired, in that first year after he retired, and then what he was currently doing. All of it sounded amazing because it was true to him and authentic in terms of what story he was trying to tell, and what was important to him at that moment.

“And a lot of it was centered around his kids, and the girls, so that was the most inspirational thing. … That was the last time I saw him in person.”

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Career NBA stats: G: 1,346, Pts.: 25.0, Reb.: 5.2, Ast.: 4.7, FG%: 44.7, FT%: 83.7, Win Shares: 172.2, PER: 22.9

The Athletic NBA 75 Panel points: 1,003 | Hollinger GOAT Points*: 475.1

Achievements: NBA MVP (’08), 15-time All-NBA, 18-time All-Star, NBA champ (’00, ’01, ’02, ’09, ’10), Finals MVP (’09, ’10), Scoring champ (’06, ’07), Olympic gold (’08, ’12), Hall of Fame (’21), NBA 75th Anniversary team (’21)