With all due respect to one of the greatest to ever do it, Kobe Bryant is at a point in his career where he is having issue putting together 2 or 3 good games without having to take a night off for rest. He’s 37 years old but most likely has the legs of a 40-year old due to all the long playoff runs he has had during his career. He’s has been forced to take more of a coaching role with the Lakers from the sidelines but he still finds a way to show his crafty skills from time to time.
The Lakers loss a tough game to the Thunder on Friday but reporters where amazing by one great assist Kobe made that went through the legs of Kevin Durant. Kobe shared with Deadspin his thoughts on how playing soccer as a kid helps him see basketball on another level.
“It’s a really complicated answer, but in America, basketball is really taught in twos — one-two pick-and-roll or a give-and-go or something like that,” he said. “Playing soccer growing up, you really see the game in combinations of threes, sometimes fours and how you play within triangles and how you [move] on the opposite side of the field and working on the backside.
“So you see things in multiple combinations and growing up and playing that, my eye and my brain became accustomed to seeing those combinations of threes and fours versus ones and twos.”
I’ve never played soccer but to me Kobe’s way of thinking seems weird. The again, Kobe has 5 NBA Championships, 17 All-Star appearances, 2 Scoring titles and over 33,000 career points, maybe his way of thinking is just that much more advanced than mine. Either way Kobe is one of the greatest to ever do it and the NBA will miss him.