Kobe Bryant's new book The Mamba Mentality overflows with insights that the five-time NBA champion learned during his 20 year career. The text is illustrated by photos taken by Andrew Bernstein, the visual James Boswell to Bryant's Samuel Johnson during Bryant's career. This book is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in what makes Kobe Bryant tick, and for any basketball player who is looking for a blueprint for improving one's basketball skills.
Bryant mastered all facets of the game. It is that technical, all-around completeness combined with incredible competitive drive, a fanatical will to win and the capacity to play through injuries that separated Bryant from all of his contemporaries and elevated him into basketball's Pantheon.
I had the privilege of watching Bryant play in person on many occasions, during several of which he went head to head against LeBron James. During most of the times that they faced each other when I attended in person, Bryant was at the top of his game while James was a great player who was still learning his craft. The mainstream media narrative had James surpassing Bryant some time before that actually happened; even during a 94-90 Cleveland win over L.A. in 2007, an observer with an educated eye could see the difference between Bryant and James:
Andrew Bynum had 17 points and 11 rebounds but he missed two free throws that could have tied the game with 11.9 seconds left. Bryant stormed in to the lane to rebound the second miss and called a timeout, giving his team one last chance to win or tie. Someone asked Bryant about how he got that crucial rebound but Bryant laughed and said, "I'm not giving up my secret. I told him (James) I was going to get it. That's just years of experience." Bryant winked to a courtside camera after the play, provoking boos from the crowd when that image was displayed on the giant overhead screen...
Later, after most members of the media had left, I asked Bryant if in his current injured state the court seems much larger and harder to traverse than usual due to his limited mobility and his eyes widened in acknowledgment as he said "Yes" before reiterating his earlier comment: "But I'm going to go in the gym, work on my jumper and figure out how to get through this."
In The Mamba Mentality, Bryant--while not specifically referencing that crucial rebound or that game--explained his approach to playing against James and, in the process, confirms what educated, informed observers could detect when watching these two all-time greats square off. The book includes Bryant's scouting report-like take on his matchups versus several different players. The section on James begins with, "I enjoyed contact. LeBron is bigger than me in height and width, but I enjoyed hitting, and getting hit, a lot more than him. That impacted our head to head matchups" (side note: as enjoyable as this book is, it would have been even better with a more skilled co-writer, or with an editor who knows to write "LeBron is bigger than I am" and "a lot more than he did"). A major part of the "secret" of Bryant grabbing that key rebound versus Cleveland is that Bryant thrived on contact and knew how to use body contact/leverage to his advantage. By virtue of size, position and team role, James was always going to average more rebounds than Bryant, but from a fundamental standpoint Bryant was a superior rebounder, and it was always apparent that, if necessary for one key possession, Bryant could go get the ball in ways that James could not or would not, much like Michael Jordan put together a string of big rebounding performances for the second three-peat Chicago Bulls during one of Dennis Rodman's extended absences from the lineup.
Bryant added, "When he was defending me, LeBron would use his body and not cushion with his forearm because he was used to being stronger than everybody else. With me, though, that worked to my advantage. I like the physicality, and I know how to use my hands to move him back just enough where I could turn the corner." Bryant noted that sometimes James would front him in the post to combat Bryant's superior technique/footwork and Bryant would play mind games with James, teasing James about fronting a much smaller player.
James' footwork and defense improved over time, but he never used his physical advantages--which are greater than Bryant's--to the extent that Bryant used his, because James has never enjoyed physicality to the extent that Bryant did.
James surpassed Bryant as a regular season performer some time around 2009, as James hit his physical prime while Bryant entered a stage in his career during which managing his body so that he peaked during the playoffs was the primary concern. Bryant remained the more technically sound player--James has still not surpassed prime Bryant in that regard--and Bryant remained the better, more consistent playoff performer but the younger, bigger, stronger James was better equipped to weather the 82 game regular season grind. However, despite the physical advantages James enjoys over Bryant, peak James never quite reached the same level as peak Bryant. Slightly past his peak Bryant won back to back titles alongside Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and a bunch of role players, while peak James went 2-2 in the NBA Finals while playing alongside future Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Bryant went 5-2 in the NBA Finals overall, while James' Finals record currently is 3-6. No, that is not the only metric that matters and yes, one could write a book dissecting all of the contextual factors that affected both players' Finals resumes--but the bottom line is that prime Bryant had no skill set weaknesses, he lifted bad teams to the playoffs, when he had the weapons he almost always brought home the title and he did not make excuses or pout or quit.
Put even more simply, Bryant played 20 seasons for one franchise and during that entire time his main focus was winning championships. That does not mean he did not make mistakes or did not have other interests--he is now an Oscar-winning filmmaker--but Bryant's life centered around winning titles. James has always been chasing the next contract, the next team, the next side interest; he has put up great individual numbers and he has won championships but no one can honestly say that he devoted his life to winning championships the way that Bryant did.
Bryant was by no means a flawless technician from the start but he was a quick study. The book includes a picture of a young Bryant defending Jordan in the post. Bryant points out flaws in his balance and technique, and states that he looked at pictures and film in order to eliminate those weaknesses. I remember a young Bryant struggling to guard Portland's Scottie Pippen and Steve Smith in the post during the playoffs but Bryant's post defense markedly improved in a short period of time after that.
Bryant discussed the evolution of his relationship with Phil Jackson. I remember Jackson once publicly calling Bryant a "hard-headed learner" who would not accept anything at face value and who constantly had questions. Bryant acknowledges that Jackson interpreted those questions as a challenge to his authority but Bryant insists that he simply thirsted for knowledge. Jackson and Bryant worked together much more smoothly the second time that Jackson coached the Lakers, and Jackson accepted Bryant's need to understand the reasoning behind certain decisions.
Bryant's observations about his various rivals and about the nuances of the game crackle with insight. I will offer just a couple examples and I urge you to read the book to get a full taste.
One, Bryant described a 1997 matchup with Clyde Drexler as a "seminal moment"; after an awful first half, Bryant scored 27 points in the second half. Bryant declared, "I always admired Clyde" and Bryant noted he learned a lot about defense from competing against him. For instance, Drexler would use one hand to obstruct the offensive player's vision while using the other hand to go for deflections/steals, a technique that Bryant added to his defensive repertoire.
Two, Bryant explained his mentality about playing through injuries, which was the point of the question that I asked the hobbled Bryant after the game during which he used one of his "secrets" to snare a crucial late game rebound, and which is why Bryant was pleasantly surprised by a question that acknowledged the essence of the nature of the challenge he faced in that moment. When Bryant was injured, he assessed what he could do and what he could not do and then adjusted accordingly. That may sound simple and obvious but Bryant's approach took this to the next level. For instance, Bryant admits that the avulsion fracture to the index finger on his shooting hand never completely healed and this forced him to permanently change his shooting stroke. His index finger used to be the last finger to touch the ball prior to releasing the shot but Bryant switched to using his middle finger. "Making that change took a couple of practices. Not average practices, though. Days flooded with mental and physical work. I had to mentally download the software that was the new form, and then drill it in." Bryant is not sure if the new form made him a better shooter or not. He deems that to be an irrelevant question; the injury forced the change, and the change was good enough to win a championship that season (and the next season), which is "the only thing that matters."