Once again Kobe Bryant is on the cover of Sports Illustrated which hits store shelves today and inside he does a great interview with Lee Jenkins discussing the current state of his career, inviting OJ Mayo to a 3AM practice, patterning himself after Floyd Mayweather when he comes back and a few other things like his karate experience.
“Winter of 1983 and 4-year-old Kobe Bryant signs up for karate classes at a dojo in Houston. His father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, is playing his final NBA season for the Rockets. Kobe is on the fast track to yellow belt. “One day, the master of the dojo came to me and said he wanted to put me up against a brown belt,” Bryant says. “I started crying. I told the master, ‘That kid is so much bigger than me. He’s so much better than I am.’ The master said, ‘You fight him!’ So I stepped onto the mat, with my headgear on, my shiny red gloves. Kids were sitting all around the perimeter. I was so freaked out. I got my ass kicked, but I did get a couple good licks in myself, and I remember sitting there at the end thinking: ‘It wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be. It wasn’t as bad as I imagined.’ I think I realized then that your mind can wander and come up with the worst, if you let it.”
Based on what we know about Kobe as a competitor. I would bet dollars to donuts that Kbe went back and beat the hell outta that kid when he got bigger. Read the rest of the interview here.
