Having spent over 20 seasons in the NBA, Kobe Bryant went through 20 different iterations of the Lakers rosters, each with its unique strengths and weaknesses. But none was more challenging than the 2007-08 team, mainly due to the difference in the ‘age’ of the players. As a youngster, coming up in the league, Mamba was teammates with older, more established players like Shaquille O’Neal, Robert Horry, Glen Rice, John Salley, and Brian Shaw.
Advertisement
But fast forward a decade, Bryant was on the other side, when most of his teammates were young and inexperienced. When Derek Fisher returned to the team in 2007, both realized that they had to change their ways, if they wanted to contend again. Then Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson, wrote about the conundrum in detail in his 2013 book ‘Eleven Rings: A Soul Of Success ‘,
“When he returned to the Lakers, Fish quickly realized that he and Kobe had to adopt a different style of leadership from the one that had worked for us during our first run. There were no other championship veterans on this team, no Ron Harpers or John Salleys or Horace Grants.”
To connect with the young core, the two vets decided to pivot their strategy, “So Fish realized that if they wanted to get through to our roster of young, inexperienced players, he and Kobe would have to put themselves in their shoes.”
Fisher and Bryant made it a point to connect with the younger core of the 2007-08 roster. Players such as Kwame Brown, Trevor Ariza, and Andrew Bynum were just getting started in the league, and putting a lot on their shoulders could be detrimental to the team and their development.
Therefore Bryant and Fisher focused more on building chemistry and a sense of brotherhood with the squad. The tactic seemed to work well for the Lakers as, just a year later, Bryant would win his first title without Shaquille O’Neal. No doubt Bryant showed signs of greatness with such flexibility to evolve with the league, which always invoked his comparison talks with the GOAT Michael Jordan. However, Phil Jackson believed that they were different.
Phil Jackson believed MJ and Kobe Bryant were different in several ways
Kobe Bryant was a known introvert. Having grown up in Italy, Mamba faced a lot of isolation as a kid. He never properly spoke the language and wasn’t accepted by his peers growing up. This led to Kobe developing a closed-off attitude towards his peers, something that remained with him throughout his career.
Many also assumed that Michael Jordan was similarly aloof, as both shared many of the same traits. Even though MJ and Bryant were believed to be similar in several aspects, in his book, ‘ Eleven Rings: The Soul Of Success ‘, Coach Phil Jackson outlined the difference between his two Hall Of Fame shooting guards,
“On a personal level, Michael was more charismatic and gregarious than Kobe. He loved being with his teammates and security guards, playing cards, smoking cigars, and joking around. Kobe is different. He was reserved as a teenager, in part because he was younger than the other players and hadn’t been able to develop his social skills in college.”
Kobe usually stayed away from his older teammates, but as the roster developed, he shared great friendships with many players. Jackson even described Mamba as the “life of the party”, during the 2008-09 season. Ironically enough, even Bryant later revealed that his favorite years in the league were from 2008-10 when he was possibly the most social.
