"Phil didn't really tell him no to anything" - Brian Shaw on how Phil Jackson treated Kobe Bryant early in his career
Kobe Bryant entered the NBA in 1996 as a talented prospect. Just a few months earlier, the then-18-year-old had been the best player in high school basketball, so he expected to be a contributor in the league from the get-go. However, that did not happen right away.
Luckily for Bryant, it all changed when Phil Jackson took over as the head coach in 1999 and learned to maximize Kobes talent.
“I think that during those first three (championships), we needed that raw Kobe that was - nobody was going to deny him,” Brian Shaw said on NBA TV’s "Kobe Bryant: Through the Years" retrospective. “Phil didn’t really tell him no to anything; he just let him go because we needed him to be in attack mode all the time. That young Kobe was a beast. He brought it every single night and he prepared, unlike anybody I'd ever seen before.”
Kobe was always hungry for success
From his arrival in the NBA, until he retired in 2016, Bryant was always working toward success. He wanted to prove every doubter wrong, and his uncanny competitive drive was only rivaled by that of other all-time greats like Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.
Kobe backed up his hunger for championships with hard work and consistent production. But it wasn't until Jackson gave him the freedom to operate the best way he wanted that Bryant's hunger grew into confidence. Not long later, he became one of the best players in the Association.
During the 1999/2000 season, Kobe averaged 22.5 points in 66 games. He would not look back from then on, putting up 20+ points per game for the next 14 seasons and again in the 2014/15 campaign.
The confidence Phil instilled in him allowed "The Black Mamba" to elevate his game and become the league's most lethal bucket-getter. He no longer relied only on his freakish athleticism but developed moves out of the triple-threat position, post moves with a signature fadeaway, and a reliable jumper from three that made him a threat to score from all three levels.
Kobe and Phil's success
Just like MJ, whom Kobe grew up idolizing, Bryant was willing to entrust his whole career to Jackson, especially after the legendary coach led the Los Angeles Lakers to a three-peat from 2000 to 2002. But after "The Black Mamba" had a fallout with Shaquille O'Neal, Phil decided to leave the organization in 2004.
However, Phil returned in 2005 to help Kobe win more championships in the post-Shaq era. In the end, the two led the purple and gold to back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010, with Bryant winning Finals MVP in both championship series.
