One glaring criticism of Kobe Bryant’s game was his failure to make his teammates better. The Black Mamba was aware of this perceived weakness and admitted he could have done a better job at it. Nonetheless, he had a different idea of “making teammates better,” as he explained in a 2008 interview with Ron Artest.
“Believe it or not, I saw my biggest weakness a couple of years ago. I think my biggest weakness was being able to elevate my teammates,” said the 18-time All-Star. “Everybody talks about trusting your teammates and all sorts of stuff; that’s a bunch of BS. What’s trusting your teammate, passing them the ball when they’re open? There’s more than that.”
“How to approach the game, I’m able to share that with them, so that we’ll all kinda become… we can all have the same DNA. That was the thing that I figured out,” added the Los Angeles Lakers icon.
Figuring things out
The Lower Merion High School product came into the league as a 17-year-old. Through his early years, he was surrounded by veterans like Byron Scott, Robert Horry, and Brian Shaw while working his way to the top. Though skilled and driven, he was a lone wolf, focused on his own development rather than mentoring or bonding with teammates…