Kobe Bryant: Daily Routine

From 4am gym sessions to post-retirement business hustles, Kobe’s daily life was built around one thing: outworking everyone.

The stories about the late, great Kobe Bryant’s work ethic are endless. If you start reading up on them, you’ll soon find yourself going down a wild rabbit hole of countless tales from teammates, rivals, coaches and other associates spanning the Los Angeles Lakers’ 20-year basketball career.

There was that time during the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics when the US basketball team met up in Las Vegas for a mini-camp to prepare for the games. “We’re in Las Vegas and we all come down for team breakfast at the start of the whole training camp and Kobe comes in with ice on his knees and with his trainers and stuff,” Chris Bosh said in an interview with ESPN.

“Everybody else just woke up. We’re still stretching and yawning and looking at [Kobe] like, ‘What the fuck?'” Dwayne Wade added. “We’re all yawning, and he’s already three hours and a full workout into his day.”

Or that time when Shaquille O’Neal walked in on Bryant practicing without a ball. “You’d walk in there and he’d be cutting and grunting and motioning like he was dribbling and shooting,” Shaq wrote in his book. “Except there was no ball. I thought it was weird, but I’m pretty sure it helped him.”