Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 9:00 am  |  95 responses

Kobe Bryant’s Strange, Captivating Postgame Workout


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

He was mad. Furious about the Lakers‘ poor late-game execution (mostly his own), a perceived lack of calls from the refs down the stretch, and the sting of having lost to the Miami Heat both times this season, during enormously hyped national TV games.

So Kobe Bryant did what he always does: he went to work.

Bean met with reporters following the game last night, and then went back out on the court to shoot jumpers for more than an hour, as bewildered Heat ball boys rebounded for him, and reporters looked on in disbelief and breathlessly updated the rest of us through Twitter late into the evening.

Once finished with the workout, Bryant calmly explained that this was not at all out of the ordinary. From the OC Register:

With his gray shirt soaked from top to bottom with sweat, Bryant finished up just after midnight Eastern time … and said he was headed to the weight room. “Just trying to get better, that’s all,” Bryant said.

“It’s really not a big deal to me. Just working on different things. Just gotta keep on doin’ it … It’s good to get one (workout) in tonight and get some rest,” Bryant said. “Have a good day of travel tomorrow and be ready Saturday (vs. Dallas).” Bryant estimated that he has done this postgame road shooting a couple of times before, guessing that the most recent was in the 2004 NBA playoffs. “It’s my job,” he said. “You’ve got to work at it.”

The legend of Kobe Bryant has largely been built on his relentless and maniacal work ethic, which has netted him 5 championship rings. It has also been built on a certain level of inimitable weirdness.

Last night’s workout following a tough 40 minutes of NBA basketball captured those two Kobe Bryant traits perfectly.

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  • toinefan88

    nothing weird at all. more guys should think like this.

  • JL

    @Myles – kobe has pau and bynum. lebron has wade and bosh. how did you even mash lebron and wade into one person? with that said, i still think kobe hogs it too much. he was clearly forcing the issue. teams know, like the celtics, that if (a big if, requires elite defense and game plan) they can stop Kobe, lakers lose. lakers slowed lebron, but kobe couldn’t check wade. except when wade was dribbling off his foot, like 6 times. but you can see the heat are not gelling. just seems like something is amiss.

  • Harlem_World

    @AllenP – Bosh has a skill set, but he is so soft it offends my masculinity. Seriously, he’s juicy soft. Hard to watch.

  • http://www.boogliewillaims.com Boing Dynasty

    “Its not a big deal, i do this all the time” When was the last time you did it?
    “7 years ago”
    Oh…

  • http://www.boogliewillaims.com Boing Dynasty

    AP is on point about CB tho. If you were showing Amare love for being a 20/10 guy on an around .500 team in the east, shouting MVP when hes @ the line. Understand, hes only doing what CB was doing for the last 3/4 years.

  • Nate C

    ha, “Juicy Soft”, I like that

  • theron

    It ain’t easy being the best…I think Kobe put it best when the President sain Kobe, “Derrick Rose may have your number.”

    Kobe’s response: “If he calls that number, I’ll be sure to pick up after the fifth ring.”

    Just sit back and enjoy the greatness that is Kobe…

  • Sam

    RNZ.. the Lakers were far from their best last night. The lakers handed the heat the game. So many 2nd chance opportunities. If the Lakers face Miami in the finals, I’m taking Lakers in 5 games.

  • http://ballislife.com Stephon

    Cosign@ The Black Rick Kamla. And Kobe doing this is showing how much he loves the game,knowing that he’s already a great player and being able to still find flaws is astounding; it makes you become one of the great’s.

  • http://www.wfp.org/ Felix

    When Kobe shoots, does he yell KOBE!? (like the Chapelle show skit)

  • MLK4Life

    LeBron probably went out to a party. Kobe works hard. LeBron still relies heavily on athleticism and strength. LeBron’s shot will never be on par with Kobe’s because his work ethic will never be on par with Kobe’s. The Lakers lovers will say what they say. The Heat bandwagonners will say what they normally say. Fact of the matter is when it comes to hard work, Kobe has turned himself from a 17 year old kid who was the 7th man on the team to the second best two guard in the history of the league. By working hard. And team-wise, the Heat better worry about the Celtics and Bulls before they think about the Lakers.

  • http://www.fbi.gov Hare

    Respect.

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    Kobe ‘practicing’ after a game once every 7 years is still more ‘regular’ than Allen Iverson.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    No matter if you don’t like him, or think he’s just some selfish ball-hogging chucker. You have to respect his work ethic.

  • Heals

    Love the opinions and arguments on both sides. All in all you gotta love that he was so irked by his performance that he had to shoot and weightlift the feeling out of himself. However; it is highly coincidental that he chose to do this after a game that had an abnormally high number of media members at it. Where was this routine during the losing streak before ASW or the home losing streak earilier in the year when there weren’t as many media heads around…

  • sal

    kobe should pratice passing.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Lakernation94 James
  • Jer Bi

    why cry? just work to get better

  • http://www.wfp.org/ Felix

    I like that Kobe did it in public… sort of a THIS S&*T NOT OVER! type of thing

  • Dagger

    Always amazing how easily people fall for an obvious PR stunt. You guys realize he could have worked out in the arena’s private gym and inconvenienced far fewer people, right? Much respect to Kobe, but come on people.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Pardeep

    How dumb can people be? I mean I am not bashing Kobe the guy is easily the hardest worker in the league and thats what makes him the best but he fooled a lot of people….. Kobe ended up beating Wade and LeBron yesterday just because of this. He got in there head mentally, he has people saying this is why he will always be better then Wade and LeBron, this actually ended up overshadowing the Lakers loss, he reminded the world that he is the hardest worker in the league and will be ready for the rest of the battles, he sort of punked the Heat while there celebrating a win over Kobe and the Lakeshow hes in their gym working out. At the end of the day Kobe fooled the world by publicly having a workout in the Heat arena in Wade and Brons house and in the reaction to it has him thinking in his mind that he beat the Heat…..expect a scoring rampage from Kobe in the coming weeks then have ESPN point to this as the reason. Kobes a genius.

  • Riggs

    riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight @ pardeep.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/category/blogs/farmer-jones/ Ryan Jones

    I just landed in Miami. Kobe’s running suicides at the playground across the street from my hotel.

  • Reg

    Staged. This cat is a attention whore!! There is a practice gym that was open with no media… you think he is the first nba player to workout after a game?? they do they just dont make sure its in front of the cameras!

  • Jay

    Co-sign Pardeep and LOL @ Ryan

  • http://sfdjklf.com Jukai

    uh…. yeahhhh that’s it Pardeep….

  • JTaylor21

    I’m calling BS on Pardeep’s rationalization.

  • bill breedley

    That’s what real men do after a loss. Release the pain in a respectable outlet. It’s just a regular season loss so practice. Heat pusses cry when they lose. They will always be gay in my eyes for crying. Weak.

  • Richter

    The boundary between greatness and insanity is tenuous.

  • http://www.wfp.org/ Felix

    Lot of kids look up to Kobe- so he’s an attention whore when he’s publicly setting what I believe is a healthy example for kids? what do you do when you get beat? go to work. get better. These guys live under a microscope, you think they aren’t gonna pub it if he goes two courts over where “no-one” will know? Sucks that the whole country almost is just a bunch of haters now. Reminds me of the skit for the haters ball

  • Roc

    Kobe is simply the best, most charasmatic, and captivating athlete in sports. Currently the 2nd greatest of all-time, and soon to be G.O.A.T…

  • http://slamonline.com Ugh

    Talktalktalktalktalktalktalktalk.
    See you in June.

  • Justin

    Damn! Almost 70 posts before someone just had to regurgitate the Allen Iverson thing when talking about someone practicing. Will everyone PLEASE STOP WITH THAT! It got old a week after that interview

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    You talkin bout practice Justin?

  • Justin

    Nope, talkin’ bout morons. Glad to see you could join the list

  • Hyxas

    It was all a cry for attention. Kobe is good, but he is way too full of himself. This way he had the attention instead of the Heat, he always wants to be the guy who gets the most attention…sad but true. This way he could draw the attention of the press while he was just shooting some jumpers…the press should have ignored him. Then he probably would have stopped after 15 minutes…

  • http://slamonline.com bladman

    i like his work out

  • http://slamonline.com Michael

    After reading every comment the only one I agree with is Pardeeps (lots and lots of sarcasm)

  • Lantern 2814.5

    Not a Lakers fan or Heat hater… but I’m diggin’ Kobe not goin’ crygate on anybody… dude took responsibility and got to work… so what if it was public, can’t be any worse than the Heat’s insanely premature (they shouldn’ta guaranteed it) championship celebration…

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    So Justin. Other than me, LakeShow and your pretty self…. who else is on the list?

  • Elvis Freshly

    This is what separates the good players from the great players.. MJ, Reggie, Ray, Kobe all have a tremendous work ethic and that’s why they can play at a high lvl at ages 30+

  • BostonBaller

    It was a great game as I most of us predicted and that’s what counts..I still wanted a double OT game though. I’m not sure if he wanted the attn but most players like to workout on the “game” floor b/c they want the “true” feel of the game. I’d rather a player (any player) go out and do what he did rather than sulk..I still take my old behind to the court when I had a bad day at school or I want to get rid of a cold. And yes, this is what players do..he along with a small handful are just fanatical about it.

  • Justin

    @Dacre…anyone who makes that same lameass joke. @Hyxas…man, you must really be a hater to think Kobe was only doing it for attention. I guarantee if nobody knew he was in there he still would have been shooting for as long as he was. And yes, lots of players go out and shoot after a game where they feel they didn’t play particularly well but rarely is it done on the road. Most go to the hotel and try to rest up for travel and the next game. Roc, I’d love to know what you think is going to catapult him ahead of MJ for G.O.A.T. because there isn’t a single stat that will back you up on that

  • http://slamonline.com slimshady

    if zyundras ilgauscas had not GOALTENDED, Lakers wouldve got the W

  • Edward.W. Okene

    Hey guys,those saying that KOBE, the best ball player in our time and the greatest player to have played this game to me, is doing this for attention is just a joke. KOBE is news wherever he goes, even if he was just cleaning the floors after the game it will be news, he is the best in the game and all he does today is just to let the future ball players out there that when you fall or fail, or you need to do is get back up and work harder to get better. KOBE is a gift to the game and we all should give him the respect he has earned. God bless the game.

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