10 Reasons why Kobe Bryant is the Hardest Worker on this Planet

You may never look at him the same

1.  He sacrificed junk food to follow strict diets.

He could not eat any artificial sugars, fatty meats, pizza, etc. Instead, he focused on lean meats with a variety of greens. Kobe told ESPN, “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." He wanted to lose some weight, so he put his mind to it and got the results he wanted. All it took was self motivation and discipline.

2. During halftime, he watches the film of his team to point out things to his teammates and self-critique.

Jackie McMullen says, "He often corrals teammates, fires up the laptop, and shows them precisely how they can carve out easier shots for themselves." He didn’t allow anyone else to be more mentally prepared coming out of the tunnel to finish the game. That was all under his control.

3. Michael Jordan said that Kobe is the only other person to have worked as hard.

According to Roland Lazenby, "He (Jordan) said Kobe had done that work to deserve the comparison. He says Kobe's the only one to have done the work." Michael Jordan was the hardest worker in his era, so for him to acknowledge Kobe for his shows the respect of the two legends. Kobe refused to be outworked by ANYONE. Oh, so you wanna go to a party with your friends? Kobe’s going to be at the gym with his friend, Spaulding basketball. 

4. Even on game days, his pre-game workouts are probably harder than your hardest workouts.

Rick Reilly talks about his game day workouts as, "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.” While other players are sleeping or waiting for the tip-off to come, he would work physically, as well as mentally for the game. He wouldn’t allow anyone else to be more prepared than him. You want to rest up for the game and just relax all day? Well Kobe just did more than you probably did on a regular day in your offseason.

5. In high school, he would use his teammates as opponents in one on one… game to 100.

Instead of thinking he was too good for everyone else, he played against his teammates to work on new moves and use them as “dummy defenders”. His worst one on one game against a teammate ended in a score of 100-12… Kobe. You may think it would be one game and done, but no - he would do this several times. Hungry and tired and want to go home? You’ve got to play Kobe first and beat him. Oh nevermind, no one ever beat him.

6. He talks to entrepreneurs to discover their views on how to be successful.

He likes to learn from the best, and the only way to do that is to study them, or just call them up. To find out how other people got to the top, he would ask them and find out how he could get there and stay there. He found out all the secrets.  According to 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.” Easiest way to learn new things - just ASK. Kobe wasn’t afraid of what anyone would think.

7. When he was on the USA team in the summer, he would work out for SEVEN hours before actual practice with the other all-stars.

Kobe called up his trainer around 4 in the morning one day to ask if he would do some conditioning with him. When his trainer got to the gym, Kobe had already been working out for a while, but they did some conditioning for 75 minutes, then went straight to weight training for the next 45 minutes. It was 7 am and Kobe had done more than you probably had done that entire day. Get this- from 7-11 am, he MADE 800 shots and wouldn’t leave until he had done so. Oh, and then he had practice with his team after that, but that’s no big deal.

8. In high school, he got went to workout at the gym at 5 am and wouldn’t go home until 7 pm.

No, this wasn’t just once or twice a week. Kobe did this every, single day. Sure, he had to go to school and get an education, but this didn’t stop him from working his body as much as his mind. Excuses didn’t seem to be a thing Kobe could relate to. You were probably sleeping when Kobe got to the gym and left the gym. It’s the difference between being good and great. That’s it.

9. Even when he broke his shooting wrist, he was still the first to the gym.

John Cestland, his former teammate, thought that he could get to the gym before Kobe, since he was hurt, and he also lived 30 minutes away. This was a mistake by Cestland, as when he got there, he saw what shouldn’t have been a surprise - Kobe was there. According to Cestland, “Kobe was already in a full sweat with a cast on his right arm and dribbling and shooting with his left.”

10. No ball, no problem.

Kobe would practice his footwork and muscle memory without a ball. Before he used the ball, he would get down the movements without one. Former teammate, Shaquille O’Neil, said, "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." You can’t make fun of him for this because clearly this worked for this 5 time NBA champion and 17 time NBA All-Star.