Kobe Bryant credits the movie Dark Knight and the late Heath Ledger for his legendary game at MSG: "Inspired me to go into my Garden Mode"

In 2009, Kobe Bryant played one of his most memorable games on basketball's biggest stage: Madison Square Garden. At the time, Bryant's 61-point performance against the New York Knicks was the highest-scoring performance by a Knicks opponent at the Mecca of Basketball.

We also learned that after the game, the five-time champion famously signed a copy of the scoresheet and gave it to Spike Lee. The piece of paper didn't just contain Kobe's signature; it also had a note that said, " P.S. Spike, this sh**'s your fault ."

But not many know that it wasn't just Spike's trash-talk during the game that fired up the Black Mamba. Even before he entered the Garden floor that day, Bryant was already in kill mode.

During a 2019 interview on the Knuckleheads Podcast , Kobe talked about what got him locked in that night.

"I stayed in my room," said Kobe. "This is actually the story Rob told that he got confused about, the Heath Ledger stuff. Because I stayed up watching Batman and watching Heath Ledger."

Kobe watched the film before facing the Knicks

Earlier in 2019, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka told a story about Kobe meeting the late actor Heath Ledger after watching his superb portrayal of the Joker in the movie The Dark Knight. That story turned out to be 'Cap' as Ledger died before the film was released.

However, while Bryant did not have the opportunity to meet the actor, Kobe confirmed that he watched The Dark Knight during that 2009 trip to the Big Apple. Because he was so fascinated with how Ledger was able to lock into his role as the Joker, the student in the Mamba ended up studying him.

"And then I went and started researching about Heath Ledger, and how he got into character and how he just became all-consuming. That inspired me to go into my Garden mode. When I go in there, I don't want to say hi to the janitor, I don't wanna say hi to these people. I don't want to talk to nobody. Everybody leave me alone," added Kobe.

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Discovery Channel inspired Kobe's fade away

That wasn't the only time when Bryant could randomly relate something he saw on TV to basketball and used it to make himself a better player. During a 2014 interview with the New York Times, Bryant also revealed that he got his inspiration for his fadeaway jumper from a hunting cheetah he saw on the Discovery Channel .

"When you watch me shoot my fadeaway jumper, you'll notice my leg is always extended. I had problems making that shot in the past. It's tough. So one day I'm watching the Discovery Channel and see a cheetah hunting. When the cheetah runs, its tail always gives it balance, even if it's cutting at a sharp angle. And that's when I was like: My leg could be the tail, right?" explained Bryant.

The Black Mamba became one of the greatest players of all time because he invested a lot of his time learning and mastering the game. But he didn't just do that on the basketball court.

Because Kobe had a keen eye for detail, he tried to relate everything to the game and picked up whatever he could from random things to make himself better—even Heath Ledger's acting in The Dark Knight. Man, Bean was truly a different beast!

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