Tim Grover was privileged to have been the trainer of two of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game. Grover worked with Michael Jordan during the Bulls' dynasty run. He then went on to work with Kobe Bryant when KB won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.
Having worked with MJ and Bean, Tim saw their similarities and differences. Both were killers on the basketball court, ultra-talented, and known for their strong work ethic. But while Jordan and Bryant were both hard workers, their approaches differed.
"Kobe needed to know everything," Grover said in an interview with ESPN . "He wanted to know why we did this exercise. Why this many reps? Why this? Why that? Kobe, he was always, 'Why, why, why?' Because he was a student. He was learning. "Michael was just like, 'I hired you to do a job. Just get me the end result. I don't need to know why I'm doing this, what's going on. But when I do ask, you better have the answer.'"
The difference between Mike and Kobe
Grover was earning the minimum wage at a local health club when he read an article in which MJ said he was tired of getting mauled by the Bad Boys. Although he had no connections to the Bulls, he wrote 14 handwritten letters to Jordan, hoping that one of them would catch his attention. It did, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Then, in 2007, Kobe hired Tim to help him deal with his knee problems. Bryant saw how Grover helped MJ play through knee issues during his Wizards comeback. It worked, and KB added two more rings to increase his count to five. However, he did things differently.
"Michael knew when enough was enough," Grover said. "Like, 'OK, I got to shut my body down. I need to relax. With Kobe, it was the complete opposite. If he couldn't sleep, Kobe was like, 'My time is being wasted. I need to go to the gym and get some up.'"
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Kobe didn't know when to stop
Long after Kobe's retirement, Tim narrated another incident in which his former client displayed a different thinking style. During the 2012 NBA All-Star Game, Bryant took a hard hit from Dwyane Wade. We all saw KB bloodied up in that game, but according to Grover, the Mamba played through more than just a broken nose on that play.
"He actually played an All-Star Game with a concussion. He knew he had a concussion, I knew he had a concussion, but he was just like, ' I gotta know what this feels like, '" Tim explained .
MJ and Kobe were similar in many ways because, after all, Bryant tried his darn best to be Michael, not just like Jordan. However, while His Airness was always savvy about protecting and preserving his body, the Black Mamba took him to the limit to become great. Incredibly, he achieved that goal.
Related: "Chewing the gum, the walking" — Nick Van Exel on how Kobe Bryant went to extremes to imitate Michael Jordan
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