ESPN’s Rick Reilly spent the day with Kobe Bryant before the Lakers took on the Clippers earlier this month. Reilly met Bryant at his home and traveled with him as he went through his game-day routine.
7:30 a.m. Bryant pulls the yellow Ferrari up to a massive OC health club and leaves it. This will happen many times today, leaving the car right in front of buildings. Gods do not park.
Today is a Sunday and it’s bothering him that he’ll have to miss coloring with his girls—6 and 2—watching Ariel in The Little Mermaid for the 1,003rd time with his girls and going to Disneyland with the girls. But he’s obsessed with winning the 2009 NBA title, which means he’s committed to his boys. He wants to be as chiseled as possible for the coming playoff pounding. That’s why it’s no surprise we’re met by Tim Grover, Michael Jordan’s genius strength and conditioning coach.
Grover puts Bryant through a game-day workout like I’ve never seen. (Warning: If you don’t want to feel like a complete jelly-filled donut, don’t read this next part.) Among a dozen other drills, Bryant does suicide push-ups. At the top of the pushup, he launches himself off the mat so hard that both his feet come off the ground and his hands slap his pecs. He does three sets of seven of these. This makes me turn away and whimper softly.
8:35 a.m. Bryant wheels the asphalt-eating Ferrari onto the 405 North and begins answering my questions about this remarkable comeback he’s making in America, in basketball and in his life, which would be fascinating, if it weren’t for the 70 mph-circus going on all around us.
People are pulling up next to us and waving. And screaming. And taking pictures with their cell phones. And honking. And craning back in their seats to see. And not watching the road. And getting too damn close. And Kobe doesn’t seem to see any of it.
(HT: Forum Blue & Gold)
