“Right After We Lost to Them in the Finals”: Dwight Howard Recalls Turning to Kobe Bryant for Advice After 2009 NBA Finals

Kobe Bryant was a complicated man. A legendary competitor with an unmatched will to win on the one hand, but a girl dad and highly respected mentor on the other. As the Black Mamba who also possessed a softer side, Kobe truly did contain multitudes.

It wasn’t until late in his playing career that most people saw the more human side of Kobe, because before then, he was too busy perfecting his craft with maniacal dedication to be known as anything other than a basketball terminator. Behind the scenes though, he took his standing as an ambassador to the game seriously.

Dwight Howard’s career intertwined with Kobe’s in many ways. They were teammates during the 2012-13 season and often clashed, then they had an on-court scuffle two seasons later after Dwight, then a member of the Rockets, hit Kobe with an elbow. Before all that, though, they faced each other in the 2009 Finals, with Kobe’s Lakers beating Dwight’s Magic 4-1.

On The Rich Eisen Show earlier this week, Dwight told a story about how even though they had just clashed as competitors on the biggest NBA stage, Kobe was still willing to help him with his game.

“I remember calling Kobe right after we lost to them in the Finals,” Dwight said, “asking him how could I get better. He started talking about, ‘Your post game is good, you get down there and nobody can stop your jump hook. Nobody can bang with you, you’re gonna dunk on everybody in the paint. You just get that face-up jump shot, free throw line jump shot and you’re good.'”

Kobe made it all sound so easy, but when Dwight asked him what he could do to improve his shot, he got a glimpse into Kobe’s mythical work ethic. “How many should I do? What you do when you shoot?” Dwight asked. “He said, ‘I do a thousand shots a day.'”

After Dwight took Kobe’s directive to heart, it’s probably not a surprise that he led the league in field goal percentage the very next season. Whereas before he had thrived thanks to his overwhelming size and athleticism, now he had developed a more well-rounded offensive game. Without Kobe’s advice, who knows if that would have happened.

Because Kobe had helped him, and because they later were teammates, Dwight was surprised when they had to be separated after that incident in 2014. The bad feelings didn’t last though, which became clear to him when Kobe later came up to him before a game, tapped him on the back of the head and said, “I’m proud of you.”

Now more than six years after Kobe’s tragic death, it’s a testament to the impact he made on people that everyone still wants to tell their favorite Kobe story all this time later and keep his memory alive.