At 18, Kobe Bryant Faced 10 Guards in a Row Just to Learn to Stop One
He had shot 1,000 jumpers and studied tapes of Michael Jordan, then spent the workout playing only defense.
David Senra · The Marketing Genius of Steve StouteTen young men stood at half court, each holding a basketball. One by one, they drove at full speed toward the basket. Waiting for them was Kobe Bryant, then 18 or 19 years old.
He did not play offense. He kept taking the ball away and turning back shots, and the next guard came as soon as he stopped the last one.
Steve Stoute, the music executive who had signed Bryant to a record deal, had arranged the drill to help Bryant train for Allen Iverson, the Philadelphia star guard famous for slipping past defenders. Stoute asked his aide Anton, a music business employee who loved basketball, to find 10 New York City guards with strong ball handling. They met at Chelsea Piers in New York.
What stayed with Stoute was Bryant's routine around the drill. Stoute said he reserved a local gym to observe Bryant make a thousand shots, then study tapes of Michael Jordan, the Chicago star, going right, going left, and guarding people going right and going left, and that seeing that routine showed him a great deal about discipline.
Stoute had met Bryant because Bryant wanted to rap. Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant's towering teammate and rival on the Los Angeles Lakers, had sold millions of records, and Bryant wanted to do better. Stoute signed Bryant's high school group, and three months later Bryant dropped the group and went solo. He spent about a month at Stoute's house in New Jersey, immersed himself in recording, and spent time around rappers Nas and Foxy Brown.
Stoute said the lesson became a rule for his own life: "How you do anything is how you do everything." He said he sees the same habit in football star Tom Brady and basketball star LeBron James, whose lockers are pristine, and that a player's tidiness off the court reflects his play on it.
Watching the thousand shots and the tapes and then the line of guards, Stoute thought to himself, "who am I dealing with?"
Questions people ask
Who was Allen Iverson, and why would Kobe prepare just for him?
Allen Iverson was the star guard for the Philadelphia 76ers, a small, very fast scorer famous for his crossover dribble. He won the league's Most Valuable Player award in 2001 and was considered almost impossible to guard one on one, which is why Bryant prepared that way.
Who is Steve Stoute, and how did he end up watching Kobe practice?
Stoute was a music executive who later left records to start an advertising agency and then a music distribution company. He signed Bryant in the 1990s when Bryant was trying to make records, and Bryant lived and worked at his house in New Jersey for a time.
Did Kobe Bryant ever become a rap star?
No. The first song did not do well, and the planned album was never released. The recording did change his life in another way, because he met his future wife, Vanessa, on the video set.