“Kobe Bryant made 100,000 shots in one summer”: When the Lakers legend rebuilt his shooting form over the course of one offseason

Kobe Bryant is the epitome of a hard worker maximizing his/her talents. The Lakers legend had this work ethic from quite early on in his career.

Kobe Bryant means a ton to a lot of star hoopers who’ve grown up watching the Black Mamba dominate the NBA. There are few figures in NBA history more iconic than Kobe, whose work ethic earned appreciation from Michael Jordan himself.

Over the course of a 20-year career, Kobe was marked out as the league’s hardest worker, and with good reason. There are a few things he did on and off the court that even NBA legends may not be able to match.

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The way Kobe Bryant meticulously practiced every one of his moves before executing them was truly wonderful. As a lot of successful people will tell you, success is also about getting the reps in.

Even by Kobe’s standards, however, there are some truly phenomenal achievements and feats that he’s produced. This is one of them, from the 3rd offseason of his career.

How Kobe Bryant reconstructed his shooting form with 100,000 shots in a summer

Bryant injured the fourth metacarpal on his right hand below his ring finger in 1999. This caused him to miss 15 games for injury recovery, but his issues went deeper than that.

To splint the break in his hand, the ring finger was taped to his pinkie. When the injury healed, Kobe discovered that his four fingers were no longer evenly spaced; now they were separated, two and two.

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His touch on the ball was different; his shooting percentage went down in the lockout-shortened season. Studying the film, he noticed that his shots were rotating slightly to the right.

To correct the flaw, Kobe said, he went to the gym over the summer and made 100,000 shots. That’s 100,000 made, not taken. This would mean that Kobe averaged over 1000 shots a day for several months in order to put his shooting form into muscle memory.

So whenever you think about the Lakers legend and his incredible feats, his artistry on the court and his clutch mindset, remember this tale. It serves as proof that everything he did on the court was meticulously prepared through thousands of hours of practice.