There are a million things Kobe Bryant fans can admire him for. His competitive spirit and basketball skills, of course, grabbed most of the headlines. But he was an inspirational figure even without his achievements. His biggest strength was his desire to be the best, even when things were not going his way. Malcolm Greenidge, also known as E.D.I Mean, recently spoke about this.
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The 51-year-old rapper was born in Brooklyn and grew up as a New York Knicks fan, but Bryant made him fall in love with the Lakers. In a recent episode of Byron Scott’s podcast, E.D.I revealed that the Lakers legend’s pursuit of greatness is what drew him toward the Hall of Famer.
Bryant didn’t start his career off with a bang like Michael Jordan or LeBron James. He had to work his way to the top and earn a position on the team. Yet, he never hung his head low, despite riding the bench for most of his rookie season at just 18 years old.
Mean told Scott that it was Bryant’s fearless persona and almost maniacal need to be the best that made him a fan for life. “Well, Kobe was, um, we all know he wore his emotions on his sleeve, and he wanted it bad man,” he revealed.
“You just saw somebody that absolutely wanted to be great, you know, loved what he did, and you started to hear the stories about how maniacal he was about winning, like in the beginning, you just knew he had talent. You start to hear about how hard he worked to be that great, how much he wanted it from other people,” E.D.I continued.
The Brooklyn native turned LA resident went on to say that Kobe’s confidence and no-nonsense approach made everyone fall in love with him. He used the example of his words to Shaquille O’Neal as an illustration. Kobe publicly called Shaq out for being overweight and criticized his work ethic, despite being the second choice option in the early 2000s. Mean claimed the similarly fearless actions that Bryant displayed all throughout his career endeared him to millions of people.
“Having the balls to say what he said to Shaq, that year Shaq came back overweight. You’re like, ‘Hold on! This dude is different!’ He wanted it badder than anybody else, and that just made you love him even more,” he said to laughter from Scott.
As a fan of the game, Mean claimed that every player on a team should have the kind of mindset that Kobe displayed, and that it was that kind of mentality from an 18-year-old Bryant that made a kid from Brooklyn become a lifelong Lakers fan.
