Kobe was eliminated from the playoffs during his rookie year (1996). Ultimately, he was blamed for the loss due to shooting multiple air balls and accumulating errors. Here’s what happened directly after the elimination (note how Kobe handles setbacks, embarrassment, and extreme negativity).

“That evening after the loss Bryant went straight to the gym. I am not exaggerating either- he left and went directly there. He stayed there until 4am shooting hoops. There was no crying, none of that shit. He went straight to the damn gym. I think that game was vital to how good he became. That level of embarrassment to happen to somebody like him…the next year he came out like a fucking maniac.”

Joe (Kobes father), was subscribing to a service that delivered video tapes of old basketball games directly to their house. Joe and Kobe would pour over them together, taking notes of all the key subtleties. The footwork, the various offensive and defensive styles of NBA teams, etc.. This was the beginning of a career long focus on studying game film. He would invest long hours each day in breaking down his own performances and those of opponents far more than any other NBA player would ever contemplate undertaking. Kobe watched so much film that he accumulated closets full of VHS tapes as the years passed. He would he come to refer to these collections as his ‘laboratory’.

Kobe recalls-

“I used to watch everybody- from Magic to Bird to Michael Jordan to Dominique Wilkins. I used to watch their moves then I’d add them to my game.”

Tim Grover (Kobe & Jordans Trainer) Recalls-

“Everybody watched film of current players. Kobe would get his hand on films going way back. He’d watch Jerry West, Oscar Robinson…

He would say- “I want to see what those guys did to be successful.”

“This will happen. You can either help me, or you can get the fuck out of my way.”

“It was during the 2012 olympic basketball team training camp. We had a solid team. One night early on in camp, me and all the other players except Kobe went out to a club. It was a great time until we came back to the team hotel at 5:30am and saw that Kobe was already working out. That motherfucker Kobe was already drenched in sweat and we hadn’t even slept yet! Yeah…he's different.

By the end of that week, the whole team was on Kobes schedule. That passion was contagious, and when you feel it bleeding out of someone like that, you just want to be apart of it.”

Kobe randomly calls an opponent up, Don Carr, before a high school game against Catholic-

“Don what's up?”

“Who's this?” Carr said.

“It's Kobe. What's up man? I was just thinking, I'm looking forward to the game and I heard a rumor that Arthur Davis (who was a top 50 player on Catholics squad and Carr’s teammate) wasn’t playing this weekend. I wanted to know if this was true.”

Carr already knew that Davis was leaving the school and would not be playing, but he replied-

“Uh, I am honestly not sure Kobe”

Bryant responds-

“Okay. I was just curious because, if it's just you there, I don't even know if it's worth me coming.”

Carr was stunned. It was Kobe’s way of saying- I'm coming to kill you. I'm coming to rip your heart out when you get on that court with me.

“That's when I first saw it…

We worked out twice a day. We would start at 10am but Kobe was there at 8am.

We get done at noon, Kobe would stay till 2pm.

We'd start again at 7pm, Kobe would be there at 5pm.

We'd finish at 9pm, he'd stay till 11pm.

This happened religiously. Every day. None of the pros were doing that.”

Part 1:

“Being Kobe Bryants girlfriend at that age meant lots of evenings at Kobes house watching endless basketball videos.”

Part 2:

One day just before practice the team was informed that they couldn't use the gym because there was flooding.

Practice had to be called off. 14 guys sprinted out of their high-fiving each other excited about the cancellation. Here was Kobes response:

“This is bullshit!” Bryant screamed slamming a ball on the floor.

“This is bullshit! We've got to practice. I want to practice. This is ridiculous.”

Part 3:

Kobe was paid heavily by his sponsors to wear certain clothing brands during his High School prom. During prom night, People Magazine, Journalists, and TV broadcasters were there to record his entrance, but Kobe nearly missed the event. He and a teammate lost track of time while they were watching basketball videos and game tape and barely made it to the prom on time.

“West had long held to the belief that, as a scout, you could see what a player could do on the floor but it was much harder, and almost impossible, to read a player's heart which is where real greatness lay. But Bryants workout had been so impressive that, for Jerry West, it had revealed his heart. It was there in his skill set alone. Just the amount of work that a player would have had to do to possess such immaculate moves, footwork, fakes and execution…the hours that must have been put into it to get THAT kind of perfection is crazy.”

A counselor from the summer league Kobe locally played in as a young boy tried to give him advice when she noticed that Kobe wrote ‘Professional NBA Basketball Player’ under ‘Future Career Plans’ on his application. The summer counselor made it a point to tell Kobe he had to be more realistic…

"Only one in a million make it to the NBA, so you have to plan for a future outside of basketball," the counselor said.

"I’m going to be that one in a million," Kobe replied.

He was eleven years old at this time.

“Bryant had lived his life as if going on a mythical quest. The only way he could keep the whole dream going was to work harder and harder and harder. To spin his fantasies around and around until they wrapped him tight in a new reality. Visualization was immense. For that was what drove his many hours of solitary practice.”