The best Kobe Bryant article I’ve ever read.
From Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated via True Hoop:
So, you see, this is Kobe, all of this. Sometimes childish, sometimes regal, sometimes stubborn, always relentless. This is a guy who, according to Nike spokesperson KeJuan Wilkins, had the company shave a couple of millimeters off the bottom of his signature shoe because “in his mind that gave him a hundredth of a second better reaction time.” A guy who has played the last three months with a torn ligament in the pinkie of his shooting hand. A guy who, says teammate Coby Karl, considers himself “an expert at fouling without getting called for it.” (Watch how Bryant uses the back of his hand, not the front, to push off on defenders and a closed-fist forearm to exert leverage.) A guy who says of being guarded by the physical Bowen, “It’ll be fun” — and actually means it. A guy who, no matter what he does, will never get the chance to play the one game he’d die for: Bryant versus Jordan, each in his prime. “There’d be blood on the floor by the end,” says Winter, who has coached them both. [Read]
