Transcription
[Music] Let's get started. Let's look at Kobe in the early years. So, this is part one of an in-depth psychological assessment of the Black Mamba. Where do we start with Kobe? What makes someone that ferocious? Is that innate? Is it part of the social environment they came up in? The culture? Is it genetic? What is it? What makes Kobe, and someone like Westbrook, for instance, and Jordan so ferocious, so sinister when they play? Well, really, it's a combination of those things.
We know from research that there are certain things that give people pleasure, and it differs from person to person. One thing that might give a competitor like Kobe pleasure is dominance. Dominating somebody else. He gets a rush of dopamine when he hits the game-winner. When he blocked somebody's shot, he probably gets a dopamine rush when somebody's been talking trash, saying they can guard him, and then he demolishes them. He scores 50 on them.
[Applause] As Kobe's over it, "Duck, Cowan's, and so this guy cannot guard me." And pretty soon, you know, you start to get addicted to that dopamine rush, and you'll do anything to have it again and again and again. It's something you live for. It's something you absolutely need. And Kobe needed that. He really needed that dopamine rush from competition.
Kobe's been accused of being narcissistic, and that means that you're not just focused on yourself, but you're looking at other people as tools. They're not really human beings to you. You're looking at them and how you can manipulate them to achieve your goals. We're gonna touch on this a little more in a second, but part of narcissism, where it stems from, is something often happens in childhood. And what happens in childhood is the self, their sense of self, is scarred. Something happens to them where they're sort of deformed, and to fix that deformity, they start to build up an exaggerated sense of self and sense of destiny.
What's one of the earliest things we know happened to Kobe Bryant that scarred him? He was in a league, and for the whole season in that league, he didn't score a single point. I found his memories come complaining to Sonny. He'll be, you know, I remember one summer playing the entire summer and didn't score one point. I was like, that was what I mean, I was a turning point for me. I mean, really was. I mean, I was, you know, 11 years old, and I was hoping that maybe I'd get like a, let me shoot like a technical free throw or just get like a, you know, I mean, zero points the whole summer. And, you know, that became a big motivating thanks for me.
Now, think about that. He is supposed to be very good at basketball. His dad is a professional player who played in the NBA, and he doesn't score one point. Not a single point. And he's ruined. His self has been wounded. Now, when the self is wounded, one of two things can happen. It can crush you. It can make you scared. It can shred you up, and you never really go out and try anything again. Or it can turn you into a workaholic, into somebody who says, "That's never going to happen again, and I'm going to take destiny under my control. I'm going to start fashioning myself in the way I want to fashion myself, and I'm going to put in more and more and more work." And we all know the path that Kobe took.
The move to Italy. We also have to touch upon it. It was a separation from the known. It's not unlike in Star Wars where you first enter into the weird bar. You break away from the known world into the weird bar, or when Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts. Kobe left America, and all of a sudden, he's in Italy, a European country that has a different flavor, a different style to it, and he has to adapt. So he's the outsider. And you could see this later on in his life when he was sort of aloof from teammates. He was in Italy, it was probably hard to form friendships there. He didn't speak the language right away, and he got very good at being alone, being isolated, which again ties into this narcissistic sense of self.
Now, I want to touch again on narcissism because that has a negative connotation, as it should. We don't want to look up to narcissists. That's a, they're usually the type of people we have disdain for. But there's a school of thought in psychology that says there's two types of narcissism. One is negative, where the wound itself leads to ideas of grandiosity, and you belittle other people unnecessarily. And then there's a healthy narcissism. They actually call it the Nobel Prize complex. It's the belief that, for instance, you could win a Nobel Prize, that you could be as good as Michael Jordan. So this wound itself is probably the origin of his work ethic, along with the ideas of greatness he had.
So the psychology here is that the ego, when it's harmed, it creates an alternative reality that is exaggerated or the actual opposite of what has just transpired. And you've done this before. Have you ever been dumped? Have you ever lost somebody that you loved? And in your fantasy, you see yourself meeting back up with that person, but now you're not the poor guy you were. You're not the flabby guy. You're in great shape. You're rich. You're healthy. You're happy. And you've taken that wound itself and you've flipped it into ideas of grandeur. And that's what Kobe did with this wound itself. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say these sort of things in his early childhood, maybe not directly led to this the idea in the conception that he could be great, but the roots are there. That there was something in that that he still talks about. It means something.
Another idea we want to talk about is that Kobe, you might say, and this is ironic, is the quintessential American in the sense of an American capitalist. He's ruthless. He's willing to do whatever it takes to win. He believes in extreme hard work. He believes in working long hours. I read a study somewhere that Americans on average work four to five more hours per week than Europeans. And the reason I say it's ironic is because Kobe lived in Europe, but he's more American than a lot of Americans who never lived in Europe. And when we do LeBron's breakdown later on, the profiles LeBron, we might say that LeBron is more European than he is American. And what I mean by that is one might call LeBron's style socialistic or collectivistic. It is the idea that everyone should be involved, and that fairness is an equality of wealth. He wants to spread the wealth. It seems as if LeBron would be very happy on a team where everybody's scoring 15 to 20 points. Don't you guys see that? My single LeBron's not gonna get his stats, but he seems like he is genuinely happy when other people do great. If you compare that to Kobe, he wasn't very happy that Shaq was getting all the credit. And I think that's very American of him. And that's not to say LeBron doesn't have, you know, the tendencies to. But I don't think Kobe would be ecstatic if Kyrie came down, hit the game-winner in games. He'd be happy, one, because winning's at the top for him. But in his heart of hearts, he'd wish he'd hit that shot. I don't think LeBron cares. And again, I think that makes Kobe a little bit more American, a little bit more narcissistic, and it makes LeBron a little bit more European, a little bit more socialistic, a little less narcissistic.
Kobe is ruthless. His shoe, for God's sakes, it's called "Ruthless Precision." He's cutthroat. He has the, the words we associate with him are the words we associate with great killer CEOs. They're the words we associate with warriors. Right? LeBron, on the other hand, we could say is more of a statesman. Often he's saying things that are a bit more diplomatic. So it's not saying one's better than the other. It's not saying that two different styles can't both be equally effective. It is saying that Kobe Bryant is the archetype for that warrior who is going to go it alone, and to hell with everybody else. I'm going to make my own way. I will fight everybody by myself if I have to. Of course, as you know, and as we'll see, sometimes this works, sometimes this doesn't. We also see a similarity with Westbrook trying to do too much. So it's a double-edged sword. It can lead to greatness, or it can lead to an immense amount of frustration because the inability to rely on other people and only rely on yourself, especially in a league as competitive as the NBA, well, doesn't always lead to championships, which is what he most desires. So we can see where Kobe has to grow, where he has to learn more, where he has to become a better leader, and we're going to explore that in future parts as well.
I mentioned earlier that we were going to talk about how Kobe uses people as tools, and that's just not my opinion. Now, I had this idea about Kobe before I read Tim Grover's book, "Relentless," which you should pick up. And he talks about how Kobe and MJ look at people as either useful or not. And if they're not useful, then they have no use for you. Get off the team. They don't look at you as human in the aspect of basketball. You either are very good, you can hit game-winning shots like Derek Fisher, you're Ron Artest, you can shut somebody down, or you're Dwight Howard, and you're no good anymore, and you can't jump, and I don't think you can play, and you're soft as Charmin. You're so bad that now I'm thinking Shaq for what an asset he was. I used to hate Shaq. Now I appreciate Shaq because you're so useless to me. You're that doesn't work. Just about five of those tonight. The Lakers of mana get it powered with the elbows, and Kobe was defending some words exchanged, and this goes back to what was the story? The two around the same uniform, but we'll never play it on the floor together.
[Applause] Lion can't beat the toughest guy.
[Applause] You can't be the one doing all the wulfing here. So Kobe, like MJ, were looking at people as just instruments, very Machiavellian. And again, we'll start to see where Kobe learned to grow, and he didn't completely ever get rid of this characteristic, but he got better at seeing people as humans and treating them more appropriately. But Kobe, when he was in Italy, learning a new language, and being as intelligent as he was, he had great SAT scores, which he probably didn't even study for, he just did well on him. He absorbed the language eventually in Italy, and he also absorbed soccer. So along with just the, the wound itself and the desire to be great, he also develops the ability to absorb information, to learn, and then to sort of cross-pollinate things that he sees in one arena with the game of basketball. And probably the best example of this, the very best example of this, is in his shoes. He had the famous Lou. He's the first guy to kind of do low-top shoes, and they were based on soccer players and their cleats. Had Kobe not been in Italy, I don't know if Kobe ever has the low-top shoes. So he's absorbed the, the language, he's absorbed European culture, he's absorbed the footwork and the slithering of soccer players, and you could see when he plays that there's a, there's a soccer-esque style to it. There's a European style to it. So Kobe's this contradiction of a psychology of, you know, a ruthless American capitalist, let's say, but he also has this slithering, snakey soccer style. So along with this workaholism, this wound itself, this narcissism, he's also become a learner. He's also become somebody who absorbs things. I'm saying learning, but I'm really talking about stealing. Kobe is a master thief. We call him the Black Mamba, but he could be the Black Cat Burglar because he's constantly stealing ideas from other people. We're gonna again touch on this later when we talk about how he stole from Michael Jordan. I heard in an interview that Kobe once said, "If I see a high school kid make a good move, stealing it, I'm taking it." So geniuses, it doesn't matter who the genius is. They start to model other geniuses. They start to steal from other geniuses. They investigate geniuses, and they're not above stealing from people who aren't quite yet geniuses, but have mastered a certain aspect of the game. The famous, you know, video of Kobe working with Elijah Wan. Right? Elijah Wan had great footwork. I'm gonna go steal that. Jordan had a great fadeaway. I'm gonna go steal that. We're gonna get into a deeper analysis in the later parts about how he copied body language, belief systems, speech patterns, which is basic fundamental NLP, neuro-linguistic programming. And a lot of people hated on Kobe for supposedly not having his own style, but by the end of this, you'll see that while there were similarities to MJ, you're going to recognize the originality of Kobe Bryant. And Kobe Bryant was an original. He was a creative player who expanded on the foundation of Michael Jordan's game. And a lot of ways, that doesn't mean he's better than Jordan, but he did new things. He did different things. And all this starts to begin in his early childhood, his exploration, his creativity, his inquisitive mind, and his search for uniqueness, for greatness, for finesse, for intricate moves.
So we can already see in the early years a few things: the hurt, pain of not scoring a single point in that season, the dissociation from his native land, and now he's on the hero's journey. He's taken from the US and he's thrown into Europe. He has to later return to the US and show what he's learned, who he's become. Number three, there's the desire to learn, to incorporate, to steal. And then all this taken together gives him a work ethic, a workaholism, but that is fueled by delusions of grandeur. But they're not completely delusional, simply because Kobe does have a certain DNA. He's probably going to have the physicality to be what he envisions. He's going to have the body, the height, the speed, the strength, because his dad was in the NBA. Now, we haven't even touched on Kobe Bryant's family. We're going to do that later. If you guys know anything about his father and his mother, it's not been exactly the smooth ride. They've had some ups and downs, and we're going to look at that a little bit more.
One more thing about Kobe. Kobe, from a young age, is around great basketball talent. Again, dad's an NBA player. He's playing professionally in Italy. And I think this being around NBA players, and this applies to Curry as well, and Klay Thompson also. When you're around pro players, when you're a young kid, being around pro players as you get older doesn't affect you as much. Doesn't impact you as much. They don't seem as big because you've been around them. They don't seem as quick because you've been around them. I think this really helps people like Kobe and Curry and Klay. I think it really helps Curry, for instance. He's not like a big guy, six seven, six eight, six. He's been around them his whole life, and shooting over them, playing with them is regular to him. Now, you're just playing with guys in the park. And so were Curry and Kobe, but they also had access to NBA players. So the size doesn't bother them. And I think that's not a necessary condition for success in the NBA, of course. There are a lot of guys who never were around NBA players and are still great. But I think it surely doesn't hurt.
Going forward in the next parts, we're going to see how this healthy narcissism, how this wound itself, starts to explain some of the behaviors we see in his career, and one might call sort of a tyrannical existence at times, where he's ruthless, completely ruthless, and has characteristics of sociopathy, for instance, or there's no remorse or regret. You know, we're going to see how this manifests, and we'll also see Kobe mature. We'll see him become somebody who is really inspirational, who made some mistakes, but who really won over the hearts of people after being the NBA villain for so many years. And if there's something you can take away from this first part is if you've been harmed, if you've been hurt, if you had a major failure, flip it around. And not just imagine something that's pie in the sky and unlikely to happen in the future, but let's say you had a terrible season. Can you flip that around and see yourself having a great season next year? Right? So you take the wound itself, you create a new image that's not delusional, that's realistic. You don't want to go, "Okay, I scored five points a game this season, I'm gonna score 40 points a game next season." But what's a realistic outcome for you? 20 points a game? 17 points a game? And what would you have to do to get there? How hard would you have to work to avoid the feelings that you're feeling now after this humiliating season? So anything in life, it doesn't just have to be basketball. You know, if something happens to you and your self is wounded, because that's what it feels like, doesn't it? When you really love what you do and then you try to perform and succeed and you fail, it feels like yourself has been cut. The invisible part of you has been cut. And instead of just letting the mind unconsciously project a grandiose vision, or to curl up in a little ball and just disappear from the world, to vanish and hide, why not create an image that empowers you? That's the opposite of what you feel. And then have a plan to work on it, to adopt a little bit of workaholism without, you know, being somebody who's miserable to be around. You still want to be somebody who can have some fun. But think about that. See if that can help you in your life. We want to not just go through into Kobe psychology here, we want to start thinking about how that can help us, how that can help us become what it is we wish to be. I'll see you in part two. I'm hoping to put one out every Friday, Thursday or Friday of every week until we're done, and then I'll move on to a new player. If you have anybody you want me to do, put it in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you guys. Thanks so much. Please like, subscribe, hit the notification bell. Can't wait to hear from you guys and what you think about these videos. It's the first time I've done this in-depth psychological analysis. Check out the full program at basketballbrain.com. It will help your game. It's not just motivation, it's drills you actually do every day.
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