Regardless of how many points he scored on offense, Kobe Bryant was a player who placed a premium on defense. Recently, this aspect of his game reappeared on social media. A fan account shared a video that showcased some of The Black Mamba’s best defensive plays, and it went viral. Vanessa Bryant, the wife of the Lakers great, proudly shared it on her Instagram account. The IG post in question featured numerous defensive highlights by Bryant. Every tape shows him harassing other players. To put everything in perspective, the post’s caption read:
Vanessa put this on her Instagram story and captioned it with a heart symbol to express her feelings. It is evident how proud and appreciative she is of her late spouse.
Vanessa Bryant on her IG story pic.twitter.com/XtzdnK31Sp
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) September 30, 2024
Kobe Bryant’s defensive game was highly underrated
In regards to Bryant’s stats, the post is almost entirely correct. The Los Angeles legend scored 35.4 points per game on average in the 2005–06 NBA season. In addition, he was named to the First Team All-Defense of the league. To put it plainly, he was among the greatest players of this era at both ends of the court.
He guided the Lakers to the 2006 NBA Playoffs with his efforts. He led a hard-charging Suns team to seven games despite having no star players to back him up at the moment. Sadly, though, this is the limit of what they could accomplish.
Bryant did, however, turn up a number of outstanding performances this campaign. His performance versus the Dallas Mavericks, the 2006 NBA Finalists, was arguably the most noteworthy. In this game from December 2005, Kobe scored 43 points and pulled down four steals. In the last seconds of the game, he even made the game-winning three-pointer to secure the victory for his team.
In this game, Bryant’s offense was the star of the show. But his team won the game thanks to his defense. He spent the entire season doing this. His exceptional defensive rating during this season was indicative of it.
