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Kobe Bryant was one of the great ones. And what\u2019s telling about Kobe is that his legacy is more than just basketball. When people talk about him, it\u2019s not just: Hey, remember that 80-point game<\/em>? It\u2019s also: He was such a great father<\/em>.<\/p>\n In January, one year after his death, we saw players and broadcasters honour Bryant\u2019s memory. We saw highlight reels, saw clips of Kobe with the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy, and saw footage of him with his daughter Gianna. Those parts of Kobe will always be front and center. But let\u2019s not forget how<\/em> he got there; how he became the player \u2013 and the man \u2013 that the basketball world so admired.<\/p>\n Some of that is contained within the pages of The Mamba Mentality<\/strong><\/a>, Bryant\u2019s account of how he played \u2013 and prepared for \u2013 the game of basketball. But in a 2019 interview<\/strong><\/a> with Patrick Bet-David, he talks candidly about his journey to the NBA, and about how his approach to the game was present even at 13 years old.<\/p>\n “When I\u2019d play, I\u2019d play to my weaknesses,” Kobe says about playing summer ball as a teenager. “When you\u2019re playing in competition situations, you\u2019re only playing to your strengths. Why? Because you want to win \u2026 I would work on the things during those [summer] games that I was weak at.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n