“The rim is a quarter-inch too low”: When Kobe Bryant played precursor to Luka Doncic and got NBA authorities to readjust the rim and its height

Gerald Henderson grew up preparing to guard Kobe Bryant – his idol – all his life. But nothing could’ve prepared him for this 2009 incident.

There are some people in every sport who’re role models for everyone trying to get reach greatness. Great people tend to have a similarly great work ethic, but not even the greatest of the great could work like Kobe.

The Black Mamba stayed in the shadows for 3-quarters of his professional career. Despite achieving All-NBA First Team status in his 4th year, he never stopped working on his craft.

In doing this, he attained a level of artistry, wizardry or cadence – whatever you wanna call it – that belies belief. His jumpshot had so many good qualities about it that I could go on all day about it.

Obviously, all of this craft was acquired through putting thousands of hours of work in. But it was also accompanied by thousands of hours more just contemplating, working on the mental side of the game. And Kobe Bryant had probably the most elite mentality for any sportsperson ever.

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A part of the Mamba’s mentality had to do with paying attention to detail at excruciatingly minute levels. Gerald Henderson had a story about this that he was ready to tell The Players’ Tribune a few years ago.

Gerald Henderson penned down the Kobe Bryant rim-changing story on The Players’ Tribune

Gerald Henderson played 6 seasons for the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets out of his 8-year NBA career. His trial by fire – a baptism of sorts – came when he faced the Pau Gasol-Kobe Bryant Lakers.

A thing that happened in this game was the famous quarter-inch incident, in which Kobe Bryant was able to successfully point out how much a basketball rim was lower by, just watching it through his naked eye and making a guesstimate by the errors he made in his shots:

“So I’m shooting around and there’s still about 45 minutes until tip. Kobe’s on the other end, still shooting, and I’m glancing over at him.”

“Then all sorts of commotion started. A crew of maintenance guys showed up from out of nowhere. It looked like a hockey line change — maintenance guys rushing on and off the court.”

I’m standing at half court watching the scene play out, and Kobe starts walking over to me.

“Something wrong with the rim.”

“Oh yeah?”

“It’s too low. The rim’s a quarter of an inch too low.”

And as it turned out later on, the court maintenance staff confirmed the margin of error that they’d made with the rim. Quite a story, eh?

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