Found this video of rare footage of the Los Angeles Lakers and future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant on youtube. The video highlights Kobe’s championship senior season while playing for Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania, right before Bryant declared for the NBA draft in 1996. The rest, as you know, is history (and still being wwritten):
You can see flashes of Kobe’s skill even back then. Goes to show, you can’t teach greatness. You’re either born with it or you’re not. Enjoy.
(S/O to @jose3030 for the heads up on the vid)
-ALR
"Goes to show, you can't teach greatness. You're either born with it or you're not."
That's just silly…
That would be assuming he never played ball before this footage, and that his dad isn't a former NBA player who probably helped him develop a great deal before he even got to High School…
Sure, some of it is bound to be inane, but when guys play since they're, like, 8 years old, you can't really tell which part…
Who knows? Maybe if Smush Parker was Joe Bryant's adoptive son, he would be a future hall-of-famer too, instead of out of the league…
It sounds far fetched, but you can't disprove it… Same goes for "inane ability to play basketball"…
It's not silly at all… some qualities of "greatness" (work ethic, desire, will power) cannot be taught. Those qualities are developed by the individual's own personality.
A lot of players have "talent". But the difference between "potential" greatness and achieving that level comes down to the individual.
-ALR