Kobe Bryant Sends Unprecedented Message With Late-Night Shootaround in Miami

It's stories like this that makes legends. It's actions like these that define dedication and sacrifice. It's a work ethic like this that makes everybody in the NBA shudder with fear every time they hear the name Kobe Bryant.

The Miami Heat defeated the Lakers 94-88 on Thursday night in a heated duel.

The Heat really needed this more than the Lakers did with all the constant criticism that they've been facing recently. Some might say "the law of averages kicked in" tonight. The Heat are now 2-0 against the Lakers, showing that they can match up well with the back-to-back defending champions and silencing some critics for now.

So what does this mean?

Absolutely nothing.

Why? Because Kobe Bryant, after a tough loss, decided to come back out on the opponent's home court and work on his game.

There is no recent precedent of an NBA athlete going out to practice after a game on the opposing team's floor. As noted in Adrian Wojnarowski's column on Yahoo! Sports, one of the security guards mentioned that he had never seen anybody do this in the eight years he had been working there.

The thing is, Kobe knows it's a marathon. He knows each and every single regular season game has the same value of just one win. He knows that he may have been the reason that cost his team the game with under a minute to go.

So what did he do?

He went back out there and showed the world that while the Heat sleep easy tonight, he'll be working hard. Not just tonight, but every single day until June. He'll work until that trophy is over his head again.

There is just so much to say about what Kobe did tonight.

For one, the Lakers were the real winners of tonight because of it. Having a leader like that to set such an example and send such a message, not just to the Heat, but to the rest of the league is a huge advantage.

It makes one lo...

About the Author