One positive to come from the rise of basketball podcasts around the world is the number of stories being shared about Kobe Bryant. It’s been a while since the world tragically lost the beloved superstar, but his legend continues to grow. Teammates and rivals still speak about his incredible work ethic, and each story adds to the belief that he was the most competitive player of all time. Corey Maggette has one such story, and it perfectly captures the essence of the Black Mamba.
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Magette, on a recent episode of Basement Talk, spoke highly of Bryant and his training regimen. That’s not breaking news, of course, but the now-retired NBA star did share something not many would have known about.
Kobe once asked the former Clipper if he could join him for a workout. But in true Kobe fashion, he wanted to do it his way, on his terms, with his intensity.
Maggette set the stage. “He wanted to ask if I could work out with him. We were going to meet over at Equinox,” he stated before speaking as Kobe. “Alright, meet me there at 6. We gonna start training at 6.’ I’m like, in my mind, ‘Man why can’t we just train at 8 or 9?’ This dude wanted to train at 6.”
Corey did what he thought was a smart move and showed up early, proud of the fact that he had arrived before Bryant. “I get there at like 5:30. I’m like, ‘Man, I beat Kobe here.’ I was happy about that. I’m like, ‘Alright, I know I’m a good worker, I beat him to the gym.'”But a hard truth was about to hit the former Pistons and Clippers player. It was a moment that revealed the kind of mental edge Kobe was always chasing.
“Kobe pulled up in his Range Rover. He gets out of the car with his trainer. I was like, ‘Hey, I beat you here.’ He laughed and walked right in,” he recalled. “His trainer behind him said, ‘Corey, do you know that we started at 330 in the morning? We were on the track first. We shot. Kobe actually came here for you, to do an extra workout with you. So just so you know, you didn’t beat him here.”
The panel was stunned, as was Maggette, while he relived the moment. It’s the one thing no one can fully grasp. No matter how hard you worked, Kobe worked harder. No matter how badly you wanted it, Kobe wanted it more. “He took everything very seriously,” Maggette concluded.
Maggette, too, has been lauded for his workout ethic
Maggette should feel no shame. He built his own reputation for training like a madman. Just ask four-time NBA champion Andre Iguodala, who spoke highly of Corey during a recent appearance on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast.
“I saw Corey Maggette working out and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s how you work out,'” stated the ex-Warriors star. This intrigued Melo and the rest of the panel, who were eager to know what made Maggette stand out so much in Iguodala’s eyes. “He was going crazy hard. He just did everything hard,” Iggy stated.
Iguodala later explained that practicing at game pace is something constantly emphasized in the NBA. The problem, he said, was that simulating game speed never felt truly realistic to him. “You got to have real discipline,” he added, citing that is what Corey had. “He’d work out like he really played, crazy.”
This only adds more weight to Corey’s original story about Kobe. Maggette saw himself as a dedicated student of hard work, yet Kobe still outworked him. That’s what basketball is all about. It’s why Corey will be remembered for decades, and why Kobe will be remembered forever.
