Kobe Bryant: Imitating greatness (Hakeem Mentioned)

Kobe Bryant is ready to come clean. As the Los Angeles Lakers prepared to defend their NBA championship against the Boston Celtics, their gifted leader confessed he has plagiarized almost everything in his patented basketball portfolio.

"I seriously have stolen all my moves from the greatest players," he admitted.

Watch a highlight reel of Kobe and you will witness Hall of Fame hints of influence sprinkled throughout: the way he freezes defenders and creates space in the mold of Oscar Robertson, or the explosive pull-up jumper he copied from Jerry West, or the post-up shake-and-go he took from Hakeem Olajuwon.


As the odometer on Bryant's body keeps advancing, he recognizes the need to be more effective below the rim. In September 2009, he spent an afternoon with Olajuwon breaking down post moves. He learned it was the subtle shift to either side of the block, or the sudden upfake, that made the Dream so effective. Bryant has incorporated some of Olajuwon's sequences on the block and enjoyed tremendous success with them.

In the late stages of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against Phoenix, Bryant sealed in the post, caught Phoenix napping with a head fake, and nailed a turnaround jumper that was positively Dream-like. The experts lauded the move as yet another weapon Bryant created for his arsenal.

Yet Kobe knows he stole it from Hakeem.

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