Bryant noted his approach to basketball has been shaped by Chinese influences. He first heard about the concept of Qi, often translated as “life force” or “energy flow,” while in high school. He found later that Qi was a strong element in the martial arts of Bruce Lee, someone Bryant greatly admired while growing up as a kid in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“It seems Bruce Lee has nothing to do with basketball. To me it has everything to do with basketball. There are a lot of similarities,” he told his fans. Besides Lee’s close attention to detail and control over his emotions, it was his philosophical approach to martial arts that captured his interest.
Bryant pointed out that Lee approached his opponents with no rigid set structure. While playing basketball, this “formlessness” is very difficult to guard and even more difficult to stop.
“By doing so, no one knows what you are going to do next, therefore, they don’t know how to fight back. I’ve been working hard to infuse his principles of utility, agility, speed and efficiency to my own training,” Bryant says in his book.
Instead of serving us all that Qi garbage, Kobe could have said: I work on all aspects of my game because a well-rounded basketball player is tough to guard.
What a tool...