If there’s one athlete who’s known for his work ethic above all else, it has to be Kobe Bryant. This is the man who invented the “Mamba mentality,” after all. Kobe’s commitment to his craft was legendary during his career, but he also attacked fatherhood and everything else in his life with the same intensity that he devoted to basketball. Kobe left an impression on everyone he met, which is why his sudden and tragic death was so shocking and so devastating to so many people.
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Kobe was known for being generous with his time, and that was the case when he appeared on Lewis Howes’ podcast The School of Greatness in 2018. Howes recounted recently how he bonded with Kobe over their shared love of team handball and the Olympics, and how Kobe discarded a list of questions his publicist had requested that he not be asked about.
“Ask me whatever you want, and take as long as you need,” Kobe instead told Howes. Throughout his life, Kobe was known for always keeping it candid during interviews, so it’s no surprise that he opened up like this to Howes.
Still, seeing it first-hand, Howes was floored by this. What really proved Kobe’s greatness to him, though, was that the Lakers legend had woken up at 4 a.m. to work out with his daughter, then had shown up three hours early for their scheduled 8 a.m. interview. “This guy’s on another level,” Howes remembers thinking.
It’s one thing to hear the almost mythical stories of a larger-than-life personality that seems too good to be true. It’s another to witness it yourself.
Kobe Bryant may be gone, but his legacy is secure
Kobe has spoken before about doing whatever it takes to be the best. Part of that commitment was waking up early and maximizing every day, which he once spoke about in an interview with Evan Carmichael. In it, Kobe demonstrated how much more time and opportunities for self-improvement you could create for yourself by getting up early every day.
Lewis Howes’ story shows that Kobe was also imparting that lesson to his daughter. He and Gianna had a famously close relationship, and he took pride in being a “girl dad” to her and her three sisters. Kobe even coached Gianna’s AAU team.
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Kobe and Gianna have been gone for over five years now. Their loss was a tremendous one, not only to the basketball community but to the world at large. Their impact lives on, though, in the stories people still so happily tell, and in the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, which was founded with the idea of allowing kids an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams through sports and life.
