I’ve been more than critical of Kobe Bryant throughout his tenure with the Lakers. Although Kobe’s character has turned me off, I always respected what I’ve heard is a legendary work ethic. Now I have no choice but to once and for all accept Kobe Bryant for what he stands for after seeing a few clips played on TNT Thursday night. When the Lakers were playing the Rockets, not only could you see Kobe show off some of his new offensive moves, but you also saw TNT play a video of Kobe training with Hakeem Olajuwon during the offseason. Turns out Kobe went out of his way to contact The Dream and ask Hakeem if he could teach him his legendary post moves. Hakeem was thrilled to help out:
Could you imagine being Hakeem and just hanging out at home, only to receive an email from the NBA Finals MVP asking to train with you? Usually the young guys in the NBA are the disrespectful punks who think they know it all and don’t want to learn from anyone. But then you have Kobe Bryant, 13 seasons into his Hall of Fame career, and he still wants to add to his game, and he goes out of his way to contact one of the smoothest players ever in order to improve himself. I don’t know if I’ve done a complete 180 here, but this story has completely changed the way I look at Kobe. Now I really have respect for Kobe. Anyway, here’s the originally Dream Shake in action.
