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Kobe Bryant’s Motivation Against Allen Iverson? Sharks Hunting Seals 

What motivates Kobe Bryant?

Over the years Bryant’s admitted studying the likes of Beethoven, Michael Jackson, Leonardo Da Vinci, and their work ethics—as well as proving the critics wrong—has allowed him to play with the vicious, no-holds-barred mentality that won him five NBA championships and overwhelming success.

Against pound-for-pound the greatest basketball player to ever live, Allen Iverson, the “Black Mamba” took the focus off how humans mentally succeed, but how predators in the wild reign supreme.

Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant both came out of the 1996 NBA Draft and became villains as the years passed. Other than yearly meetings in the regular season, their most famous battle came in 2001 when Iverson’s Philadelphia 76ers took on Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Los Angeles won the championship defeating Philadelphia 4-1.

In a recent article in The Players’ Tribune, Kobe Bryant admitted after Allen Iverson dominated him for 41 points on March 19, 1999, he became obsessed with never allowing that to happen again.

Every matchup became a “matter of life and death,” according to the five-time champion.

Via. The Players’ Tribune:

On March 19, 1999, Iverson put 41 points and 10 assists on me in Philadelphia.Working harder wasn’t enough.

I had to study this man maniacally.

I obsessively read every article and book I could find about AI. I obsessively watched every game he had played, going back to the IUPU All-American Game. I obsessively studied his every success, and his every struggle. I obsessively searched for any weakness I could find.

I searched the world for musings to add to my AI Musecage.

This led me to study how great white sharks hunt seals off the coast of South Africa.