Kobe Bryant, at mere 12 or 13 years of age, was constantly being told he couldn’t transition well from Italy to the USA.
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Kobe Bryant had quite the unique journey to the NBA. His genes carried quite the basketball acumen as his father and uncle both played in the league. Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the San Diego Clippers, and the Houston Rockets in his tenure in the NBA. When Kobe was 6, he would be relocated to Italy.
Joe received and accepted an offer from Sebastani Rieti, a basketball team based in Italy. From age 6 to 13, Kobe Bryant would grow up in Italy and learn to play basketball there. The team had even put up an outdoor hoop just for the young Bryant to get some shots up.
Throughout his time in Italy, Kobe began to refine his skills as a basketball player. He would end up playing with men twice or thrice his age in random pick-up games as well. This was due to the fact that he had figured out kids his age didn’t have a strong left hand dribble and so would simply force them left and steal the ball.
However, with all that praise also came quite a few doubters. This was especially true for when it was clear that he would be moving back to the United States.
Kobe Bryant on what the Italians would tell him.
Kobe Bryant is notorious for being someone who would use any and everything as fuel to gear himself. One of the earliest instances of this, as told by him in an interview with Stephen A Smith in 2006, was when the Italian locals would tell him his skills wouldn’t translate to the USA.
“Growing up in Italy, what I used to hear a lot was- and it absolutely drove me crazy- was all the kids would say, ‘You know what, you’re a good basketball player here but once you go back to the States, you’re not going to be able to do none of this stuff.’ That just absolutely drove me crazy.”
As evident by his incalculable accomplishments on NBA hardwood, he most certainly was able to do ‘all of this stuff’ when it came to the big leagues. The Los Angeles Lakers can thank the local Italians for adding fuel to a fire that already burned as bright as it possibly could.
Also read: Kobe Bryant, who was traded for $4.7 million star, was told he was useless at 17 years old
