Before Kobe Bryant was a five-time NBA champion and among the best to ever play the game of basketball, he was an 18-year-old rookie as the 11th man on a Los Angeles Lakers team that won 56 games and lost in the second round of the playoffs. A team that had five shooting guards and small forwards ahead of him on the depth chart.
One of the players that Bryant was not competing with for minutes was starting point guard Nick Van Exel. The one-time All-Star was the lead guard for the Lakers for five seasons, including Bryant’s first two in the league. Very few people on Earth have better insight into the young Bryant, and he spoke about the late legend’s work ethic immediately upon entering the league.
“Kobe always used to say ‘I’m the best one on one player in the league.’ And this is like as an 18-year-old,” Van Exel said on Out the Mud with Tony Allen and Zach Randolph. “Practices were crazy, because Kobe always felt like he was a one on one player, and being young — we’ve all been young, we’re trying to come for whoever’s up there — and that’s how he felt. He wanted Eddie’s [Jones] spot, he wanted Ceballos, he wanted all them cats at that wing position.
“And what you don’t realize is that it’s about the team, and Kobe was so young, and we had so many guys that were more ready to win a championship. He wasn’t ready to win a championship at that age. When I say that, people get mad, but I’m not hating on Kobe. When you’re talking about a championship team, there’s levels. You’ve gotta go through the gauntlet, you don’t just automatically wake up because you got a good team and win a championship. You’re gonna get your ass whooped. And that’s what happened to him a little bit, he shot the airballs, had the scrutiny.
“But with him, he ain’t let it stop him. That’s why when he shot the airballs, we got back to L.A. and he went straight to the gym and started shooting and got better. I played with Manu and Dirk and those are the two guys I would say worked the hardest, but Kobe ran laps around them when it comes to working. It wasn’t even close. His work ethic was stupid. And that was at a young age, I can’t imagine what he was like with Shaq when they started winning. He used to go on the sidelines after practice, take our four men, and play one on one against them. But they wouldn’t play offense, only defense. Sean Rooks rest in peace, Elden Campbell rest in peace, Corie Blount, they played defense. If he scored, he got a point, if he didn’t score, they got a point. His work ethic was unbelievable. I hate these young cats now that say Mamba Mentality and don’t work. I hate it. Because I know what he did and I know the work he put in.”
Everything from Van Exel here tracks perfectly with what the general public now knows about Bryant and Mamba Mentality. After his career, Bryant wore that mantra publicly, but it was in the late 90s that the concept was first formed by him always seeking out ways to get better.
Van Exel was a defining player for the Lakers in the 90s, but even he could see early on the type of player that Bryant would inevitably become.
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