Kobe Bryant was a tireless worker who would go to any lengths to perfect his craft. However, the Lakers legend not only worked hard but also figured out the right things to work on to maximize his results. While he possessed an array of moves in his bag, there was one particular offensive move that was the focal point of his workout regimen.
Advertisement
So which move did Bryant work on ceaselessly to become an unguardable scorer? During a 2019 episode of The Knuckleheads pod with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles, the 5x NBA champion revealed the shot to be his signature pull-up jump shot.
For Kobe, nothing was more important than perfecting the pull-up jump shot. He reasoned that an offensive arsenal is incomplete without this shot. After every move, an offensive player is bound to pick his spot and shoot the pull-up jumper.
Kobe revealed that he put up thousands of pull-up jumpers in the gym to execute the shot under different types of defensive pressure. Thanks to his hard work, he was able to hit the jumper from multiple spots and angles quite effortlessly. Since the pull-up jumper became automatic for him, he could modify both the direction and arc of his shot.
“The shot that really matters is a pull-up shot cuz it all comes back to that, right? You can do all these moves beforehand, they don’t matter. Eventually, you don’t get to a spot, you don’t raise up and shoot. So doing that shot thousands of times, got me so comfortable with the shot that I could shoot that shot anytime, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Mamba continued, “If you shoot a shot thousands of times, I can change its trajectory anytime I want. I can flatten it out anytime I want. You can be in my face and it won’t make a difference cuz it’s on autopilot.”
View this post on Instagram
The Black Mamba was indeed a maestro when it came to fadeaways. His two-shot motion allowed him to nail a jumper both on the way up or while coming down. Moreover, he could exploit the minutest hole in defense to make shots that left the viewers in awe. It took him a lot of work to get to that position.
Kobe Bryant always emphasized the role of practice
Bryant was a gym rat. He was obsessed with game tapes from different eras and picked the brains of numerous NBA greats to master the game. Thus, he always had a lot to work on during practice sessions.
But for him, practices extended beyond individual goals. During a session at USC, the Lakers legend highlighted how he used team workouts to understand his teammates better so that he could extract the best out of them.
“You have to get them emotionally to want to be better. You have to get them to an emotional space where they wake up every morning driven to be the best version of themselves. How do you do that? In practice, it was a chance for me to drive them, to challenge them and this is where you have to know your teammates.”
Thus, Bryant didn’t leave any stone unturned to make his teammates better. He knew what nerves to touch so they had a point to prove. This was one of the reasons why playing alongside him wasn’t a pleasant experience. However, this attitude also allowed his teammates to realize their championship dreams.
