One of the most historic rivalries in all of sports is the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. A player who made his impact during those meetings was Kobe Bryant, notably beating Boston in the 2010 NBA Finals after losing to them two years earlier.
The 2010 season was a seven-game dogfight on both sides given how much they did not like each other, which made for great entertainment. While he is loved as a basketball player for his competitive nature, Bryant as a person and a father is a side that fans admire about him as well.
His untimely passing in 2020 hurts to this day, but Bryant’s legacy lives on with players and coaches taking what they learned from him and applying it to their lives. One being the Celtics’ current head coach Joe Mazzulla, who shared how Bryant inspired him throughout his life, via Marc J. Spears of Andscape:
“I was inspired by him because he loved Bruce Lee. He loved soccer. He could speak multiple languages. And I read something where he befriended a music conductor out in California. The thing about a conductor of music, you have to get everybody on the same page. Conducting an orchestra is like coaching an NBA team: All have to play the same tone, but it’s completely different instruments. And growing up in my coaching career, he inspired me to pull from others. Don’t just use basketball to get better. That should be the last thing you do to get better.”
That is what made Bryant a one-of-a-kind person as despite his mentality being connected to basketball, it can be applied to everyday life. To be successful in career paths, people have to possess that ‘it’ factor and have the ability to separate themselves from the rest.
Particularly for Mazzulla, he finds himself in a high-pressure situation by coaching the reigning champion Celtics. He knows what is at stake, and he knows that people expect him to win another title.
He has to keep his team in line and conduct them accordingly if they hope to repeat, and it appears he is channeling Bryant to make that happen.
Derrick Rose took emulating Kobe Bryant a little too far
For players coming into the NBA during Kobe Bryant era, when he was at the top of his game, they knew they had to match his work ethic to compete on the floor. Former Chicago Bulls MVP point guard Derrick Rose admittedly tried to emulate Bryant but shared that he took it too far and had to re-evaluate.
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