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Why Did Kobe Bryant Almost Give Up Basketball for Soccer? All You Need to Know
Kobe Bryant almost gave up on the game of basketball at a very young age and the Black Mamba talked about it years after that incident.
Kobe Bryant spent the whole summer playing in Philadelphia's Sonny Hill Future League when he was twelve. It is reasonable to believe that the young Mamba excelled and was hailed as a basketball prodigy. Bryant, though, finished the entire tournament without scoring a point.
Kobe didn't even receive a fortunate bounce or a point from the charity stripe, as he explained in The Players' Tribune. Kobe wrote, "I was making my family look bad!"
Bryant’s frustration almost made him give up on basketball
Kobe was thinking about switching from basketball to soccer at this point. The legendary Los Angeles Lakers player wrote, "I considered maybe just giving up basketball and focusing on soccer." However, the incident made him think of the experiences of his idol, Michael Jordan. Jordan wasn't always the best player on the hard court, just like Kobe. MJ was also turned down a lot before he made it big.
Bryant took inspiration from Michael Jordan
Kobe explained that his respect and admiration for MJ were forged when he learned about Jordan being cut from his high school team as a freshman. Discovering that Jordan knew what it felt like to be embarrassed and to feel like a failure, yet used those emotions to fuel his strength and determination, resonated deeply with Kobe.
Jordan's refusal to quit inspired Kobe to approach his own challenges in the same way. He decided to channel his failures as fuel to keep his competitive fire burning. Kobe became obsessed with proving to his family — and more importantly to himself — that he could succeed.
Kobe used Michael's example as a guide for the remainder of his playing career. Setbacks, criticism, and failure are not always bad things. Positives can be generated from these negatives if one has the correct mindset.
