《The Economist》Obituary(讣告)——Kobe Bryant(4)

As in most love affairs, he had competition. One was Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of the era, the Buddha on top of the mountain and winner of six rings, whom he once asked for advice while he was guarding him. Another was Shaquille O’Neal, a charming giant who also played for the Lakers, but infuriated him because he little-brothered him and did not train like he did. (No one trained like he did.) To prove he was the best of basketball’s lovers, he would go on playing when he was hurt, shooting lefthanded when his right hand was injured, staggering on when ankles, knees and back were all sore. If he decided he was playing, no manager or coach could do anything about it. I played through the sweat and hurt/…
because YOU called me.（职业生涯所遇到的对手和朋友，这些亦敌亦友的球员，成就了伟大的科比）
He claimed to have no memory of the last game he played, though he scored 60 points in it from 50 shots. For a while his interests had been branching into multimedia, writing, film-making and setting up a Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks. But most of these still had basketball at the core. His longest film, “Muse”, was about his career, and an animated short based on “Dear Basketball” won an Academy Award. He gave motivating talks in America and Asia in which all his life-lessons were carried over from the court. At Thousand Oaks he coached his second daughter Gianna, among many others, in how to play his way.（文体两开花，写了自传，拍了电影，有了自己的动画短片，得了奥斯卡）