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Ethan Aldrich
Business Communications
1st period

Blog: What Makes People Great?

What is in people that convinces the people around us to call them great? What do they

do that is better than the people around them, and it gets passed off in greatness? What point do

people have to reach in their careers (sports or gaming) or in terms of innovation and creativity

for everyone to consider them ‘One of the Greats’? Throughout this blogging series we will be

diving into peoples lives and finding what helped shaped them, motivated them, and trademarked

them as someone who is ‘Great’. We will look at people like Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, and

others who revolutionized their area of expertise that allowed their peers, doubters, and

supporters to rise above the noise and achieve the sought-after title of ‘Greatest Of All Time’ or

simply ‘Great’. To start off this series, the first ‘Great’ person we will look at is Kobe Bryant.

For Kobe the term great was twofold for him, be great both physically and mentally on

any day in any given scenario in any game, be it regular season or playoff time. Greatness for

him, started with knowledge of the game, he could go through game film and study people to

find out what tendencies they had, and when it was game time he could use those tendencies

against them, to convert it to easy points for himself and his team. This analytical ability is not

easily taught, nor is it the most enjoyable part of

their work, but when you start to see how it

translate into the game, it makes you seem like

there is no way you can be stopped, because no

matter what the defender does, Kobe was always

Kobe (right) sharing tips and information and mentoring
rising star Jayson Tatum (left)
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Ethan Aldrich
Business Communications
1st period

a step ahead of them. This also translate into the set plays they ran on offense and defense. For

example, Kobe would often have to be double teamed, since they could not stop him one on one,

in doing this, Kobe noticed that every time he had gotten close to the basket, they would have to

shift another defender onto him, leaving one of Kobe’s teammates wide open for an easy shot. So

rather than force a hard shot, he would draw the double team onto him and force the defense to

rotate around and try and defend it, which is nearly impossible, and is a reason why Kobe was

considered great. On the defensive side of the ball, the same thing could be applied to Kobe’s

game. He would notice something in the film study about the opponent, when he dribbles the ball

or posts up near the basket, things he could exploit or use to his advantage and make his

adversaries look weak or careless in the process. This level of basketball IQ and using it to his

advantage, is one of the many reasons he was great in the game of basketball.

Another reason why Kobe was great, was the way he trained and prepared for a game,

and the entire season. There are many stories of Kobe’s work ethic shared by both teammates

and opposing teams when they would play against

him. He would always be the first one in the gym

for practice, and not just by a little, he would show

up to the gym two to three hours prior to practice

that day. There’s a story of one his teammates trying

a half to two hours before practice started, and he

Kobe working out to help sustain his high level of play
could hear the ball being pounded away on the floor

in there, and Kobe the one doing the work. His teammate had figured he’d been there about an

hour already judging by the amount of sweat he could see and started practicing on his own.
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Ethan Aldrich
Business Communications
1st period

After an hour or so he had taken two or three breaks, and Kobe was still over there working on

his own game, never taking a break. Afterwards he sat next to Kobe and asked him if he was

tired, Kobe said he was, but he also wasn’t going to let anyone else see that he was tired. Kobe

also used that to psychologically take people out of the game with that work ethic and mindset,

because if your opponent’s see that you haven’t taken any breaks and they’ve taken two or three,

they get scared (weather they admit it or not) about what he could do on the court. However,

being prepared for a game isn’t all physical, there is mental toughness associated with being

prepared for games, whether it’s having to play through or with an injury or knowing that

everyone doubts you can comeback to win a game, but you keep pushing through it and defying

everyone’s expectations. Kobe had pushed through so many mental and physical barriers, that

most other people or players either never knew they had or would choose to try and avoid them

and blow them off, Kobe would find the nearest barrier and start working to push through it until

it became obsolete to him. This allowed him to elevate his game to a level higher than those

around him and is an example of why he is great. Also, part of being prepared for the game, is

knowing who your playing against, weather its

greats like Michael Jordan Tracy McGrady, or Tim

Duncan, or rising stars near the end of his career, he

envisioned it as another challenge, unlike others

who came before him and said; ‘Oh, we’re playing

Kobe pointing back to someone who doubted him and
proving them wrong
MJ again? Well I am not guarding him, because I

can’t, he’s going to put 50 points on me and we will

lose the game’. Kobe did not shy away from those types of challenges, and many times found
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Ethan Aldrich
Business Communications
1st period

himself thriving under such stress and pressure during the game shows the level of greatness we

can come to know and love about him today.

Although being prepared for a game can be done by anyone in the game, the ability to

actually go out and do it is not so easily done, and is also why Kobe is considered ‘Great’, his

ability to perform in those last seconds of a game and crush any hope of coming back into the

game the other team thought they might have had, is getting harder and harder to find in today’s

game. These performances can be highlighted throughout his career with numerous examples of

his excellence in the game. To start, some things

need to be put into perspective first, Kobe had

121 games where he scored 40 or more points, 25

games where he scored 50 or more points, and 5

games where he scored 60 or more points in one

game, one of which, Kobe scored 81 points in

Kobe shooting the game winning shot (and he did make it)
to put his team ahead in the final seconds.
one game versus the Raptors, which is a

remarkable amount of points, considering that teams today score in one game 100+ points in a

game. So, to put these scoring statistics into perspective, there are only two other people who

have out done him in the amount of 40- and 50-point games (Michael Jordan and Wilt

Chamberlin) and is only behind Chamberlin in 60-point games in their careers. Also, to add to

this list of accomplishments he has 2 gold medals alongside 5 NBA Finals championships and

received two Finals MVP honors to top it all off. He also has various regular season accolades he

has won and All-Star games he has participated in, but he is one of the greats because of his

ability to get his team to the NBA Finals 5 different times and help win them, while in getting
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Ethan Aldrich
Business Communications
1st period

there having to score more points in one game then the other team put up in a collective effort is

very rarely achieved, but Kobe was willing to put those challenges and his team on his back and

carry them along the long ride they had ahead of them in getting to and winning those NBA

Finals. In addition to these achievements, he is also the only person to ever have two different

jersey numbers raised up into the rafters in the Lakers stadium (so that no one else can wear

them, to honor him and all he has done for their organization).

To conclude, Kobe is also great because of the person he is off the court, he is great

because he was able to raise, support and care for a family during his long and grueling workouts

and seasons in the NBA. Additionally, he also is a successful businessman who has his own shoe

lines that are sponsored by Nike and is also a major

investor in the BodyArmor sports drink company,

which took his $6 million-dollar investment in 10%

of the company and with the aid of Coca-Cola

turned his stock to become worth about $200

Kobe discussing business with the company million dollars. This shows how his greatness on the

court carried over into greatness and success in his life after basketball, being able to take that

work ethic and style of workouts and having it make money for him, even after his ‘career’ was

over still able to put to use, as he now does shows with ESPN where he analyzes current NBA

players and rising stars and gives them bits of information and knowledge he has accumulated

over the years of his career in the NBA. Kobe’s greatness is one that will be remembered for a

long time, both by those who experienced it and the record books that recorded it, and should be

appreciated for all he has done throughout his career, and has earned the title of ‘Great’.
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Ethan Aldrich
Business Communications
1st period