Lakers Former Head Athletic Trainer Gary Vitti: “If You Actually Look At Kobe Bryant, There’s Nothing Really Special About Him.”

Gary Vitti explains why Kobe Bryant wasn't special, but it was his hard work that made him special.

Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Kobe Bryant had a legendary career in the NBA, which included winning five NBA Championships over the course of 20 seasons. Apart from that, Bryant achieved a plethora of other great things in his career.

Of course, Kobe Bryant was born with incredible talent, which helped him in excelling at the game of basketball. But along with that, one thing that separated Kobe from the rest was his insane will to work harder than his competition. In fact, that's one of the roots of the famous 'Mamba Mentality.'

Prior to his tragic passing, Kobe also revealed the true meaning of Mamba Mentality in an incredible speech. But being so invested in improving himself, it certainly didn't help Kobe in getting on the positive side of other players in the league.

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Gary Vitti Explains Why There Was Nothing Special About Kobe Bryant

Bryant spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers, so it's no surprise that former head athletic trainer of the team, Gary Vitti, observed Kobe pretty closely throughout his career.

In a now-viral video, Vitti explained that talent-wise Kobe Bryant wasn't that special talent-wise, but it was his hard work that made him special.

"The more you think about it, you'll realize if you actually look at Kobe Bryant, there's nothing really special about him in terms of his god-given things. Is he big? He's bigger than me. Bigger than the average person in the world. But is he big by NBA's standards? No, he's not that big. Was he quick? Yeah, he was quick, but he wasn't the quickest. Was he strong? Yes he was, but he wasn't the strongest. Was he a leaper? Yeah, he could get off his feet, but he wasn't like Zach LaVine, he didn't have 42 inch vertical. There was nothing there. Nothing.

Why does he have five rings? And other guys that were infinitely more talented have none? I'll tell you. Number one - Nobody and I mean nobody worked harder than Kobe. But a lot of people work hard. Kobe also worked smart. ... Second thing. Nobody was more competitive than Kobe. ... He was absolutely the toughest player that I ever came across. To a point where I had a responsibility, at times, to protect him from himself. He was maniacal because he took two words out of his lexicon - can't and won't.

He replaced those words with - can and will. And somehow he would convince himself that he could do it and he did. It was a mental [and] physical thing. Not just mental, not just physical, it was a combination of those. He was an enigma. He was intellectually brilliant at everything he did."

The major takeaway from his speech about Kobe was the fact that the late NBA legend studied everything as much as possible. This helped him in getting great results. Be it basketball or anything which he attempted to do in his life.

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