The late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant was one of the most unstoppable scorers in NBA history. Bryant was a two-time NBA scoring champion and is the No.4 in the NBA's all-time scoring list. The Black Mamba also once scored 81 points in a single game, which is the second-highest scoring game of all time, behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100.
One of the things that made Kobe tough to defend was his footwork. Although he was known to take the hardest shots, Bryant was one of the best at creating spaces to get his shots up, and he did that with some of the best footwork ever.
Interestingly, Kobe learned to develop elite footwork by watching a different sport; sure, he was one of the best students of the game, but he didn't just study basketball,
"Once I started playing soccer, I watched it every day," said Bryant. "I watched basketball, too. Then, I started making the connection between the two of them. So certain things that I may see [Diego] Maradona do, I'd come out on the court and try to do a basketball version of it. So it was conscious on my part, trying to migrate [one sport to the other], to bring together both of those disciplines."
Maradona was Kobe's soccer idol
KB playing soccer at a young age wasn't surprising. Joe Bryant moved his family to Rieti when he continued his basketball career in Italy. Since soccer is a popular sport in that part of the globe, the young Mamba learned to play it.
Maradona is one of the greatest players to ever play football. The Argentinian icon played for Napoli in the Italian Serie A from 1984-1991, when Kobe was living in Italy. Although he admitted that A.C. Milan was his favorite team, he loved Diego because who didn't back then?
"Maradona is my idol. I love Maradona. When I was young in Italy, I used to always watch Maradona when he played for Napoli," Kobe once declared .
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Kobe copied Jordan's moves
But Maradona was only one of the all-time greats that Bean studied. It's common knowledge that he patterned his game after his hoops idol, Michael Jordan . In fact, Bryant copied MJ's game so well that even Mike believes Kobe would beat him in a one-on-one game because he stole all his moves.
"I'm a student of the game, you know, so I know the history; I know where Michael's moves came from," said Bryant about stealing moves. "I know they came from David Thompson. I know they came from Dr. J. I know they came from, in particular, Jerry West. So Michael didn't invent the wheel. He stole a lot of moves from a lot of great players. I just so happened to steal some moves from him, and I just probably stole them better than anybody else has. You have to learn from the greats that came before you, that's how it should be done."
Sure, Kobe is a certified copycat, but that's what made him great. Bryant wasn't as physically gifted as many of the all-time greats were. KB, however, worked harder on his game than anyone. He studied the greats to become one of them, Maradona included.
Related: "That stuck in my head" — Diego Maradona on his favorite moment between LeBron James and Kevin Durant
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