| Kobe Bryant Improves Shooting Mechanics During Season |
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| Monday, 19 April 2010 21:10 |
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Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s best player. Even with 5 championships and counting, some don’t want to give him the credit he is due, but he has been its best for quite a few years. I don’t want to get into the Michael Jordan comparison or the best of all-time, but I did believe that he was a better player than Michael was early in their careers.
Kobe came from high school, with Jordan playing 3 years in college at North Carolina. Bryant was starting his fourth NBA season at a similar age that Jordan was a rookie. Jordan spend his first few years driving to the basket and finishing at the rim more often than not, mostly because he couldn’t depend on his longer range jump shooting. Bryant has always been a good shooter from anywhere outside. I don’t know that Bryant will ever surpass Jordan’s greatness, even if he passes him in the ring count, but I think he has equaled it. Great players never stop learning and trying to push themselves to get better. Even though Kobe was in his 14th season and had been a prolific scorer throughout his career, he allowed former NBA player and current Lakers’ assistant coach Chuck Person to help with his stroke. Person saw something in Kobe’s fundamentals that could be improved. What? Chuck was going to mess with Kobe’s shooting motion? The story is in the June 7, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated. Person believed that Bryant was using too much of his index finger when releasing a shot (a common mistake that players learn from their youth) and getting a little bit of side-spin, which would cause more misses when it hit the rim than if it spun straight back. Since Person was not Jordan, telling Kobe Bryant that he needed to change his shot was a delicate issue. After Bryant broke his finger one night, Person told him of the same injury that he had suffered in 1991. Person also asked Kobe to trust him. Person told him to put more pressure on the middle and ring fingers to get a straighter backspin and better rolls off the rim. These changes were being made during this past regular season. Kobe put in the extra practice required to change his ingrained habits. His shooting percentages in all categories went down for a time, but he emerged a better shooter in the end and Craig Hodges, the Lakers’ shooting coach, agrees. This story reminds me of so many quarterbacks that say they want to get better, but don’t want to change the way they grip the football or release it a little differently, because it doesn’t feel right. Most guys have held it the same way for so many years, it is like giving up a security blanket, but it might be necessary to get the ball to come off your hand properly for better ball flight. Chuck Person also worked on Kobe’s ball position before he began his shot. Kobe would bring the ball from his hip up to the release point, but it took longer than it needed to get to the release point. Person also got Kobe to raise his release point, raising his elbow from his nose to his forehead and square his elbow to the basket better as well. So the NBA’s best player, in his 14th season and 4 NBA titles, had multiple mechanical issues that he could still improve. He spent the time he needed to break the old habits and make it work for another championship and inch closer to Michael Jordan in more ways than one. It is a good read for those that care to take their games to the next level. |
| Last Updated on Monday, 28 June 2010 20:04 |
