As many of you all may know, I have been a huge Kobe Bryant fan ever since the early 2000's when the Lakers were on their glorious run of three straight championships and four NBA Finals' appearances in five years. What you probably don't know is my close study of his career that is unfortunately, or fortunately for those of you Kobe haters, coming to an end tonight as he graces the court one last time at Staples Center. Everything that has happened, for good or for bad, during his career has shed light on valuable life lessons that every individual in their late teens to early 20's should learn from.

In my eyes, Kobe Bryant was destined to become the type of individual he is regarded as today on account of his upbringing in Italy. For those of you who may not know, Kobe's father was a professional NBA player who decided to go overseas to play in Italy when Kobe was six years old. Being immersed in a whole new country with a different culture and language made Kobe isolated and alone in his surroundings.

Two things came about from this:

1. Kobe learned the Italian way of life, which included learning the language and culture by picking up the sport of soccer a bit while honing in on his basketball game

2. More importantly though, Kobe learned to breathe basketball by living alone from others and this ultimately fueled his, what is nowadays regarded as the Mamba Mentality, drive to capitalize on his being different from the rest

The first thing definitely aided to Kobe becoming more well-rounded in his understanding of the world and thus greatly helped him develop and analyze his basketball game from all angles. He would draw a lot of inspiration from other cultures, especially different sports like soccer, when analyzing how to play the game and hone in on different aspects of it. Through this, we can definitely see how important it is to become well-versed in different disciplines in life in order to have a more all-encompassing approach to life.

The second thing is probably the most notable, whether for good or bad, quality about Kobe. In his early days as an NBA professional, he would be socially distant from the rest of the team because he was so zoned in on himself and didn't trust his teammates to take the team forward with the same willpower that he had. This, which I will discuss later, ultimately led to issues with his relationship with teammates and how he was trying to get everyone on the same page. Regardless of that, the inner drive to push through anything and everything is something that we all should strive to obtain.

Following his days in Italy, Kobe found himself in the national spotlight as he tore it up for Lower Merion High School's varsity team. He was revered as the top high school basketball player at that time and was being courted to multiple offers from colleges, but he was intrigued by the idea of going straight to the NBA. After thinking about it long and hard, he held a little press conference of sort at his high school and announced, with a swagger to his delivery, that he would skip college and go straight to the NBA. From this pivotal moment in his career, I learned the true value in learning to follow your heart and also to be ambitious. It had always been Kobe's dream to go and play in the NBA so once the opportunity presented itself, he took it without any hesitation. Also, he likely knew that making the leap from high school basketball to NBA basketball was not the advised move for him to make but that just goes to show how much ambition he had in trying to reach the top and that he would want to do so according to his own terms and not what society necessarily saw as the fit path.

As the start of his NBA career took way, Kobe found it difficult to really find his place in the league. This was primarily captured by the Lakers game 5 against the Utah Jazz in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs back in the 1996-1997 NBA season. With the game tied with only a few seconds left on the clock, Kobe decided to take it upon himself to take the last shot. The shot resulted in an air ball that sent the game to overtime. In overtime, there were another two instances in which the game was close between the Lakers and Jazz and Kobe took it upon himself to take the shot both times to either take the lead or cut the deficit. Both shots resulted in air balls and the Lakers went on to lose that game and thus lose the series. This was probably the most difficult experience for any NBA player to go through, let alone a rookie in Kobe Bryant at the time. Fortunately, he was able to overcome it and become the dominant player he was in his early days. However, Kobe had a problem with him being quite reserved in the early days of his career.

Kobe was often found aloof from the rest of his teammates. He would be in the gym practicing on his own, sometimes even without a ball as Shaq vividly remembers. After practice, he would sometimes be found in his car just jamming to some music all by himself. He wasn't the type of guy to want to be all gregarious and outgoing. But that's what made him the type of player who he came to be. It was the deep inner focus within himself that enabled him to reach the pinnacle of his potential. I'm not saying that one should not be outgoing to some extent but rather that people should look deep within themselves and see whether they truly know who it is they are. From this social isolation of sorts with Kobe, I can clearly see that he knew who he was, what he was going to do, and with what purpose he is going to do it. As a result, I realized that you have to sometimes take a step back from life and really assess if you really know who you are down to the very core of it all.

In mid-2000 though after an initial rift with his Laker teammates, Kobe started to open up more after realizing that he could actually trust his teammates and that he needed them and to be a unit together in order to win more championships. As someone who was very akin to being aloof and on his own, Kobe made this huge jump in his character as both a person and a professional. As a result, you could see the direct result with the Lakers winning another championship that following season. I guess what I want you to get from this particular instance is that we all have idiosyncrasies that may well hold us down in life, but we have such a tendency to hold onto those qualities; what you should gain out of this experience of Kobe's is that there are natural things that you will have to compromise on in order to still achieve your certain end goal. The big takeaway here should be that you shouldn't compromise the end goal/dream itself but you should be willing to compromise on certain things to get your end goal/dream.

In 2001 though, things would take a drastic turn for Kobe with the fragile start to his marriage with Vanessa Laine. Kobe planned his wedding in secret because that was just the type of person he was by nature to want to keep his private life actually private. Unlike most weddings, Kobe's parents did not attend since they did not approve of the marriage because Kobe was too young at the time and the woman he was marrying was not black like his parents wanted his wife to be. Though, Kobe decided to go through with the marriage since he was raised to be independent and felt strongly about marrying at his young age to Vanessa. As a result, Kobe's parents didn't speak to him for nearly two years until Kobe's father finally said that he wanted to meet his granddaughter. These were some of what, Kobe says, his toughest years of his professional career because he didn't have his parents by his side when he wanted them to be there during one of the most happy moments of his personal life. This was also made tougher by the sexual assault allegation that took place in the summer of 2003.

Kobe was on the fast rise to becoming the Michael Jordan of this era at the time but found himself in a very delicate situation after being accused of sexual assault on a 19-year-old hotel employee in Colorado. This was ultimately, in my eyes, one of two major events that could have made Kobe really go down the ranks and forever be demoralized and criticized. If you watch some videos of how Kobe responds to the legal suit that was going on at the time (remember that some of it was taking place during the 2003-2004 NBA season), you will see such a vulnerable, humanly side to Kobe Bryant that was never seen before. He was at the top of his game at this point of his career but this off-court issue brought things back to reality in my opinion for Kobe Bryant. Fortunately, the assault case was dropped by the persecutors in September 2004 and a separate civil lawsuit was filed by the accuser and was settled to undisclosed terms. From this unfortunate incident, Kobe came out stronger as a more mature human being and realized that decision-making is vital even outside of the basketball court. This should go to show how important it is to be aware of the certain decisions you make outside of your professional space, no matter how trivial they may seem, because they will ultimately affect you for good or bad in some way shape or form.

Moving away from that incident, the next big stage in Kobe's career came when the Kobe-Shaq feud reached its boiling point and resulted in Shaq being traded to the Miami Heat at the start of the 2004-2005 NBA season. The previous season resulted in a shocking defeat to the Detroit Pistons in 5 games in the NBA Finals. As soon as Shaq departed, questions started to be raised as to whether the so-called "sidekick" in Kobe Bryant could take over the Lakers franchise and lead them to glory without the Big Diesel in Shaquille O'Neal. From 2004-2007, Kobe and the Lakers went through some woeful times with numerous playoff disappointments and growing frustration from Kobe with the Lakers franchise. Essentially, Kobe put the team on his back for those years and was scoring astronomically high as a result. He had a game in December 2005 when he scored 62 points through three quarters, outscoring the entire Mavericks team! Additionally, Kobe dropped the second most points in an NBA game by scoring 81 against the Raptors in January of 2006. While these feats did show the rest of the world the lengths Kobe would go to in order to get back to the NBA Finals, the lack of trust in his teammates led them to multiple playoff disappointments. Another dramatic shift in Kobe's career loomed with the changing of his number 8 jersey to number 24 before the start of the 2006-2007 NBA season.

Shifting jersey numbers was a good turning of the page for Kobe in my eyes at that time. It signaled a new Kobe Bryant after the dismal last few years wearing the number 8. Shockingly though, Kobe asked to be traded before the 2007-2008 NBA season because Lakers management was not doing enough to restore the Lakers back to championship pedigree. He was seriously considering making the switch over to the LA Clippers or doing a sign and trade deal to the Chicago Bulls. Thankfully, Lakers management made the pivotal move by acquiring Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies that season. Kobe and Pau instantly clicked due to their shared phenomenal understanding of the game. From that time forward, Kobe started to take on a more vocal leadership role in the team and forged a camaraderie in the team that would lead them to the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics in May 2008. Unfortunately for him and the Lakers, they lost to the Celtics in 6 games. What is most interesting about this whole period from the changing of his jersey number to the loss in the NBA Finals is that Kobe started to realize what it would take to become a leader of the team instead of solely putting the team on his back. It was a period of evolution that was signaled by the changing of jerseys in my perspective; Kobe learned to take a step back and analyze the big picture instead of smaller details here and there. This is definitely something that everyone should be doing but isn't in my opinion due to the high stress environment and pressure that engulf us all. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be focused on the smaller elements because that is what made Kobe so great; however, your true legacy is defined by the kind of impact you have on others and that only happens by assessing the overall scope and trajectory of things.

Following the 2007-2008 NBA season, Kobe took the Lakers to new levels. As more of a vocal leader who would lead by example, he refined the Lakers into true champions once again. We would see this all culminate in the 2008-2009 NBA season when the Lakers defeated the Magic in 5 games and the questions as to whether Kobe could win a championship without Shaq were answered. As a side note, I'm still kind of irked by the fact that LeBron didn't hold up his end of the bargain and give the entire world the coveted NBA Finals matchup between Kobe and LeBron but that's whatever. From here on forward, Kobe just took his game, both individually and with the rest of the Lakers, to new levels. They were clicking on all cylinders and it showed through with another rematch against the Boston Celtics in the 2009-2010 NBA Finals. Now you have to realize that the result of this Finals rematch with the Celtics would likely have made or broke Kobe's legacy as a Laker since the greatest measure of your legacy as a Laker is the results of Finals matchups against the Celtics. The first time around, the Lakers were physically just not up to par with the level that the Celtics possessed so Kobe made sure that this time around, that would not be the case.

It was a grueling matchup against the Celtics that required seven games. The Celtics looked to be in cruise control once they were up 3-2 in the series and they only needed to win one of the next two games that would both be played at Staples Center in order to become NBA Champions. Thankfully though, the Lakers blew out the Celtics with a 22 point victory in game 6 to force a game 7. Game 7 was the difference maker between making Kobe just one of the greats to one of the five greatest basketball players to ever lace them up. From the get go, it was a low scoring game with Kobe struggling to make a shot all night. It was horrifying as a Laker fan to see the Lakers seemingly going on to lose this one with such a lackluster performance from Bryant; all of the hard work and change that Bryant implemented to himself and the team were not paying off in the last game of the season. Fortunately though, the Lakers surmounted a comeback, highlighted by a dish from Bryant out of a double team on him to Ron Artest who nailed a three pointer when the crowd at Staples Center was screaming for Artest not to shoot it. That moment alone signified the lasting changes that Kobe made to his game and personality, showing how important it is to change for the greater good in life. The Lakers would then go on to win the game, captured by the iconic moment with Kobe running down the court to chase the ball in the final seconds when the victory was sealed. This was then followed by Kobe jumping up on the announcers' table and taking in all the glory from winning his fifth championship. That moment of finally beating the Celtics in the finals and to do so by playing all 7 games will forever cement Bryant's legacy in NBA history.

Kobe would have been pissed had he lost to the Celtics twice in the finals so it was gratifying to see him get his fifth ring at the expense of the Celtics; however, Bryant would continue his chase for that elusive 6th ring to match up to the Michael Jordan standard that he was trying to emulate all career long. Unfortunately, Kobe had some tough team dynamics with the addition of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in the 2012-2013 NBA season and injuries plaguing the latter stages of his 20 year NBA career in these last three seasons. On November 29, 2015, Kobe Bryant announced that he will be retiring at the end of this season. Through various interviews and interactions of his on the court, you can see how content he is and how at peace he is with his decision to retire, and that goes to show how much Kobe has grown and evolved throughout his career to realize that there is more to life than just basketball. In the end of it all, the light at the end of the tunnel has not fully come about as Kobe is set to grace Staples Center and be in an NBA game for the last and final time of his career tonight against the Utah Jazz. He has been paid the due respect along his "farewell tour" in these past few months when travelling to various different arenas around the country. Along the way, he has past along gifts to notable players in the league by sending them a message that the league is in good hands with him finally stepping away from the game.

Through it all, I have seen the evolution of Kobe and taken the lessons from each stage of his career and incorporated them into my very own being. From being not trusting of his teammates and stubborn to becoming more vocal and patient, Kobe has truly left a legacy that far extends that of the basketball arena. He has pushed us as human beings to excel past what seems to be the ceiling of our capabilities. He gave us 4 AM. He put up 1000+ shots a day at the gym. He was in the film room when everyone else was out partying. He went through hours upon hours of rehabilitation when the critics said he was done. That was Kobe Bryant and his Black Mamba Mentality that could not be contained. In fact, it was for those reasons that many hated him but he thrived off of that animosity shown towards him. We were his motivation since he loved to shove our own words down our throats with his success. But with time, he realized the patience and finality of it all and there was beauty in seeing that process and evolution in the Mamba. Never will I forget the Mamba Mentality and the life lessons and legacy he left with us all. Read between the lines and you will see the true meaning behind it all. Mamba I salute you for your time and now hope to take all of the teachings from your career and incorporate them into my own as I go forward.