“I play basketball, and I am going to be a superstar one day”: An 8th graded Kobe Bryant was unfazed in answering the future three peat winners Horace Grant and Michael Jordan

Kobe Bryant was the epitome of hard work, the man was always hyper-focused on being the best version of himself.

Even when Kobe Bryant was a 13-year-old kid, he knew he was going to be big in the NBA one day. Such was his confidence in his abilities. He idolized the young version of Michael Jordan – a 23-year-old hotshot who waged war single-handedly for 48 minutes against 5 of the opposite team. To Kobe, that was the definition of superstardom, and he built his ideology around that.

Kobe’s father was an NBA player, so he had his exposure from quite a young age. Not afraid of anyone in the league because of the fame in his own family, Bryant Jr. was a stone-cold kid from Philly. Joe “Jellybean” Bryant brought him to a game when the Bulls were visiting. Unlike any other young boy, he was not mesmerized. Even if he was, he didn’t fawn over meeting his idol. Instead, he kept his cool and proceeded to greet him like a colleague.

He met with MJ and Horace Grant, who asked him a few questions. The conversation went something like this, based on an excerpt from the book “The Rise”.

“Do you play basketball?” Grant asked him.

“Yes,” Kobe said, “but I’m only in eighth grade.”

“Are you going to be a superstar one day?”

“Yes,” Kobe said, “I might be.”

Will Smith may have been the Fresh Prince from Philadelphia, but Kobe was the Black Mamba from Pennsylvania.

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Kobe Bryant lived out his dream to emulate his idol Michael Jordan both on the court and off it

Kobe played 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning 5 championships. He came mighty close to emulating his idol by winning two separate three-peats, but a defeat to the 2008 Boston Celtics took that away from him. Knowing Kobe, that would have probably stuck with him all his life.

During his playing days, Kobe was known to be a ruthless machine who worked day and night to achieve his goals. His work ethic gained the moniker “The Mamba mentality”. There was no other person who could outwork him, and tales of him going the extra stretch just to beat out his competition are plenty.

After an illustrious career which he capped off by scoring 60 against the Utah Jazz, Kobe was a man on a different mission. He focused on being a good father, a family man, and a business magnate. The man won an Oscar for the animated film “Dear Basketball”. If there was anyone to win silverware on a basketball court and in the film industry, it would have to be Kobe Bean Bryant.

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