“Don’t look at what I did, but..”: 5x NBA champ Kobe Bryant underlined the ‘mantra for success’

Living life like Kobe Bryant could be an easy mantra for success, but each day of it would be the toughest you’d have ever lived.

Getting selected as the first-ever guard straight out of high school, 17-year-old Kobe Bryant must have been on the 7th sky to get in as the 13th pick of what will prove out to be one of the greatest Drafts of all time.

At the time he wasn’t old enough to even sign his contract and needed his parents to do it with him. But he did turn 18 before the 96-97 season started and signed his $3M-plus rookie contract.

However, the teenager was determined and clear about what he was chasing. He was well-prepared to throw every ounce of energy he had into achieving that. And he did for two decades.

Also read: Kobe Bryant, who copied Michael Jordan for 20 years, claims his 4 airballs felt good in Lakers Playoff debut

What Kobe did with the Lakers on the biggest stage of a top sport for 20 years was scintillating to witness, and he wants us to know how he did it.

Kobe Bryant wants us to know how he did it, not just what he did

We, as fans, generally focus on what our favourite athletes and celebrities do which makes them great in their crafts. But The Black Mamba wanted us to focus on the ‘How’ part of it.

The 18x All-Star did everything in his 20-year NBA career with a sheer determination to be the best. Be that he chose a path to mimic his idol in doing so, he wanted to leave Michael Jordan behind more than anything else in the world.

He might have missed that chase by a few miles, but his work ethic in doing so was something that nobody has ever seen before. The Mamba mentality he developed helped him do things that had never been done before.

The 5x champ is the only guard among the players who have played 20 years or more and has achieved more than individual and team success than all of those players barring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

That might be a reason for his maxing out around his 17th year. The 9x All-Defensive First Team member (NBA record) also is the only guard apart from MJ in the Top-10 of NBA’s all-time scoring list. Talk about the versatility.

Also read: Shocking accessory designed by Kobe Bryant is valued by experts to be worth an incredible $10 million

Again we somehow drifted to the what’s of it. Alas! We still need time to tinker about how this legendary athlete, who even won an Oscar after retiring, did what he did for as long as he lived.