ORLANDO, Fla. _ I think it's touching and fitting that so many Orlando Magic players and others across the NBA are honoring Kobe Bryant with uniform tributes, but you know what Magic players should really do to pay homage to Kobe:
Play like him.
Prepare like him.
Approach the game like him.
Attack the game like him.
Work as hard as he did.
Want it as much as he did.
Don't play because it's your job.
Play because it's your joy.
"I never looked at basketball as work," Kobe once said. "I didn't realize it was work until my first year in the NBA. I was surrounded by other professionals and I thought basketball was going to be everything to them and it wasn't. And I was like, 'This is different.' I thought everybody was as obsessive about the game as me."
That obsession even manifested itself when Kobe took a Disney vacation to Orlando with his wife and his young daughters several summers ago when Stan Van Gundy was coaching the Magic. Kobe couldn't find a gym to work out in for the few days he was in Orlando, so he phoned then-Magic GM Otis Smith to see if he could use the Magic's old practice court at the RDV Sports Complex.
"Kobe assured Otis that he would show up at 5:30 a.m. at RDV and be gone before any of our (Magic) players got there," Stan recalled earlier this week on my Open Mike radio show. "I remember thinking at the time, 'As if this guy's not tough enough to beat. ... Wow, this is a little above and beyond what most people are willing to do.'
"Here's a guy who was on vacation and there was no thought of taking off three or four days and just enjoying it with his family. No. No," Stan continued. "It's a little bit of a drive from Disney to Maitland, so Kobe was probably getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get his workout in every day while he was on vacation.
"As I reflect on it now, it was tremendous what he was doing as an athlete, but also with his family. He wasn't looking to get his workout in at a more convenient time in the middle of the day and take away from the family's vacation and fun; he was going to do his work real early in the morning and then have the days with his family on vacation. Pretty impressive stuff."
It makes you wonder how many professional athletes are truly willing to put in the work and pay the price to be great.
If you really want to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant, don't just do your job.
Dedicate yourself to it.
