Back in 2014, Kobe Bryant dished out a few tips to a group of teen basketball players during his trip to Shanghai.
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Kobe Bryant is not only one of the greatest players the league has ever seen but is also one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history. Thanks to his “Mamba Mentality”, the Lakers legend was able to rack up a stacked resume that included 18 All-Star appearances, 15 All-NBA selections, 2 scoring titles, an MVP, 5 championships, and 2 Finals MVPs, among many other accolades.
Now, someone who is as successful as Bean has people seeking his advice all the time. Back in 2014, during a trip to China, the Black Mamba sat down with a bunch of budding basketball talents, sharing some of his valuable insights.
Initially, the Hall-Of-Famer revealed his drive to play the sport:
“Now here I am with five championships, what the public measures what success is…and that’s ok but that doesn’t drive me. What drives me is continuing to learn which is why I’m still sitting here after 18 years determined to come back next year with a vengeance. It’s because of how I define success not how everybody else does. It’s never about the destination it’s always about the journey. The success to me is the adventure.”
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Later, Bryant went on to disclose the secret to be unstoppable.
Kobe Bryant stated how he only had two moves in his arsenal
During the conversation, Bryant spoke about having merely 2 moves on the perimeter and 2 on the post.
“How many here think you have to have a lot of moves? I have 2. On the perimeter, I have 2 moves. On the post, I have 2 moves. That’s it.
On the perimeter, I’ll go right, pull up, shoot. Left, pull up, shoot. On the post, turn the left shoulder, fade away. Turn the right, fade away.
So now when I go right, you’re gonna try to block it. I’ll pump fake. I’ll pump fake, you’ll jump. So you make the game very simple.”
Finally, Kobe surprisingly stated that one had to be predictable in order to be unstoppable. Bean explained himself:
“I was just having a discussion with my teammate Nick Young, to be unstoppable, you have to first be predictable. Correct? Cause if you’re unpredictable, you don’t know what the heck you’re gonna do. So how can you dictate to the defense what you’re going to do?
It’s very simple. So I know if I have a chance, I’m gonna go right and shoot. You know, I wanna go right and shoot because now I go right two times, make it. You’re expecting me to go right, now I control. Now I’ll fake right and go left. Now I go left, I’ll pump fake, you jump and I draw a foul. [laughs]”
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