Kobe Bryant's work ethic was unmatched, here are 24 examples

From Roland Lazenby, author of "Michael Jordan: The Life":

"He said Kobe had done that work to deserve the comparison. He says Kobe's the only one to have done the work."

Source: LA Times

Source: Sports Illustrated

Kobe played a bench-warmer to 100 multiple times when he was in high school.

In Kobe's worst game, he still won 100-12.

Source: SI

Scott told Business Insider:

"I heard the ball bouncing. No lights were on. Practice was at about 11, it was probably about 9, 9:30. And I go out to the court and I look, and there's Kobe Bryant. He's out there shooting in the dark. And I stood there for probably about ten seconds, and I said, 'This kid is gonna be great.'"

Read more: Former NBA coach Byron Scott reveals the first moment he knew an 18-year-old Kobe Bryant was going to take over the league

Celestand once wrote that during the 1999-2000 season, Kobe broke his wrist. Celestand was excited, because he thought with Kobe injured, he could beat him to the gym in the morning, particularly because Bryant lived over 30 minutes away from the practice facility.

Instead, when he got in the next morning, "Kobe was already in a full sweat with a cast on his right arm and dribbling and shooting with his left."

Source: John Celestand

He actually made one of the shots, too, after insisting he return to the game.

Read more: Kobe Bryant injured his right shoulder, so he played left-handed

Shaq wrote in his book:

"You'd walk in there and he'd be cutting and grunting and motioning like he was dribbling and shooting — except there was no ball. I thought it was weird, but I'm pretty sure it helped him."

Source: LA Times

Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade recounted a hilarious story to ESPN's Michael Wallace about the 2008 Olympics. They said Kobe was up at the crack of dawn working out while everyone was sleeping.

"We're in Las Vegas and we all come down for team breakfast at the start of the whole training camp," Bosh said. "And Kobe comes in with ice on his knees and with his trainers and stuff. He's got sweat drenched through his workout gear. And I'm like, 'It's 8 o'clock in the morning, man. Where in the hell is he coming from?'"

Wade added: "Everybody else just woke up... We're all yawning, and he's already three hours and a full workout into his day."

Source: ESPN

Source: Ball is Life

In 2008, Sports Illustrated reported that Kobe will keep random players after practice so that he can try out new moves on them, similar to what he did to bench-warmers in high school.

Source: SI

Source: SI

Source: SI

Kobe was never been out of shape, but he decided to change himself as a precautionary measure. He told the Guardian:

"With summer basketball leading directly into the season — and I'm expecting to play until next June — I have to take some load off my knees. I've got to shave some of this weight."

Source: Guardian

Unfortunately, it didn't always work, as Kobe had to sit through numerous injuries late in his career.

Source: ESPN

He eliminated sugar and pizza and only eats lean meat.

He told ESPN:

"There aren't really any supplements that I'm taking from that perspective. What I've done really is just train really hard and watch my diet. I think that's the thing that catches guys most. They don't do self assessing."

Source: ESPN

According to ESPN's Jackie McMullan in 2010:

"He often corrals teammates, fires up the laptop, and shows them precisely how they can carve out easier shots for themselves."

Source: ESPN

From ESPN's Rick Reilly:

"Among a dozen other drills, Bryant does suicide push-ups. At the top of the pushup, he launches himself off the mat so hard that both his feet come off the ground and his hands slap his pecs. He does three sets of seven of these. This makes me turn away and whimper softly."

Source: ESPN

Read more: Kobe Bryant posted a photo of his Achilles scar and says he is ahead of schedule to return

Read more: Kobe Bryant scrapped his original documentary and started from scratch because he's a control freak

Source: Kobe Bryant/Twitter

Bryant developed his own "Sesame Street"-inspired show called "Musecage," and then made an animated short documentary called "Dear Basketball," that took home the Oscar in 2018. Bryant called it more fulfilling than a championship.

Bryant told Bloomberg:

"I'll just cold call people and pick their brain about stuff. Some of the questions that I'll ask will seem really, really simple and stupid, quite honestly, for them. But if I don't know, I don't know. You have to ask. I'll just do that. I'll just ask questions and I want to know more about how they build their businesses and how they run their companies and how they see the world."

Source: Bloomberg

Sacca told Bill Simmons:

"For the next few months my phone never stops buzzing in the middle of the night. It's Kobe, reading this article, checking out this tweet, following this guy, diving into this Ted Talk, diving into the Y Combinator Demo Day stuff. And I'm getting these texts, literally two or three in the morning, and my wife is like, 'Are you having an affair with Kobe Bryant? What is happening here?'"

Source: Bill Simmons podcast

Bryant told ESPN's Darren Rovell:

"We are obsessive," Bryant said. "We wouldn't want to be doing anything other than what we are doing. That's where obsession comes in — when you care about something 24 hours a day.

Source: ESPN

Source: Yahoo

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