10/30/19

By: @OOSSports

‘I like my rings the hard way…’ Kobe Wouldn’t Come Out Of Retirement For A Guaranteed Ring

Regarded as one of the greatest and fiercest competitors to lace em’ up, Laker legend Kobe Bryant stated Tuesday during his appearance on the Ledlow & Parker podcast that he would never come out of retirement and join a super-team in pursuit of a another championship. Bryant said he would rather earn his rings.

“I like my rings the hard way,” Bryant said “I like fighting for them and earning them. I don’t like jumping to the easier route, so I wouldn’t take it.”

Anyone who has ever heard of Kobe knows about his “Mamba Mentality” and his absolutely legendary work ethic (and that’s an understatement). Kobe would show up at the gym for 7:00 AM practices 2 hours earlier, at 5:00 AM. Legend also has it that during his high school practices, he would force his teammates stay and play one-on-one games to 100 points. This mentality stayed the same when he got drafted, former Lakers player and head coach Byron Scott said he once found an 18-year old Bryant shooting in the dark two hours before practice.

Whether these are shots at players who have joined up to form super-teams or not, we don’t know. We DO know that Shaq said this about Kobe in the locker-room, “You’d walk in there and he’d be cutting and grunting and motioning like he was dribbling and shooting — except there was no ball. I thought it was weird, but I’m pretty sure it helped him.” The best compliment of them all had to be when his idol Michael Jordan said, “Kobe had done that work to deserve the comparison. He says Kobe’s the only one to have done the work.”