Bruce Lee & Kobe Bryant

Here’s the text from the recent article from ESPN.com detailing Kobe Bryant’s study of Bruce Lee's martial way. Kobe has a new shoe inspired by Bruce Lee.

From ESPN.com:

In addition to soccer, Bryant has also used martial arts to help him on the basketball court. He is an avid Bruce Lee fan and practices the hybrid fighting system and life philosophy that Lee founded in 1967 called Jeet Kune Do or, in English, “The way of the intercepting fist.” It’s an offensive system based on striking first and always visualizing where your opponent will go next. Much like in basketball, there are gestures and half gestures to make your opponents move in Jeet Kune Do, allowing you to hit your opponents on their preparation or intention to hit you.

“The art and the philosophy that [Lee] was in the process of teaching, Jeet Kune Do, is a philosophy that I try to play by,” Bryant said. “It’s an instinctual art. A lot of times in martial arts you have all these rules and regimens and basketball is the same way, everybody is taught these fundamentals, but to me you start from a base and work your way up and the defense has a hard time defending you because they don’t know what you’re doing because you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Bryant is such a fan of Lee that he dedicated one of his shoes to him. The yellow and black color of the shoe are taken from Lee’s jumpsuit in “The Game of Death,” and it has the four blood-red claw marks from Lee’s wounds in “Enter The Dragon” on each side.

“I draw so much inspiration from him and everything that he embodied,” Bryant said of Lee. “The perfection of his craft to me was something that was extremely inspirational. To be able to get to a point where you are so good at your craft that you can actually perform it thoughtlessly is something that’s still a mystery to me but something that I strive for and something that he inspired me to try and strive for.”

No one was happier to hear that Bryant was carrying on the legacy of Lee more than Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, the president of the Bruce Lee Foundation. She was Bryant’s guest at the Lakers-Clippers game last week and was sitting in the front row as he dedicated a shoe in honor of her father.

“It means everything for an athlete of his caliber to say that,” Lee said. “My father was such an amazing athlete and so concerned about all the things Kobe was talking about: footwork, having no mind when you’re out there doing your craft and being in that ready mode. The fact that he sees that and can take that from my father is terrific. He would have been a big fan of his, too.” 

© The Dragon Institute

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Here’s the text from the recent article from ESPN.com detailing Kobe Bryant’s study of Bruce Lee's martial way. Kobe has a new shoe inspired by Bruce Lee. From ESPN.com: In addition to soccer, Bryant has also used martial arts to help him on the basketball court. He is an avid Bruce Lee fan and practices the hybrid fighting system and life philosophy that Lee founded in 1967 called Jeet Kune Do or, in English, “The way of the intercepting fist.” It’s an offensive system based on striking first and always visualizing where your opponent will go next. Much like in basketball, there are gestures and half gestures to make your opponents move in Jeet Kune Do, allowing you to hit your opponents on their preparation or intention to hit you. “The art and the philosophy that [Lee] was in the process of teaching, Jeet Kune Do, is a philosophy that I try to play by,” Bryant said. “It’s an instinctual art. A lot of times in martial arts you have all these rules and regimens and basketball is the same way, everybody is taught these fundamentals, but to me you start from a base and work your way up and the defense has a hard time defending you because they don’t know what you’re doing because you don’t know what you’re doing.” Bryant is such a fan of Lee that he dedicated one of his shoes to him. The yellow and black color of the shoe are taken from Lee’s jumpsuit in “The Game of Death,” and it has the four blood-red claw marks from Lee’s wounds in “Enter The Dragon” on each side. “I draw so much inspiration from him and everything that he embodied,” Bryant said of Lee. “The perfection of his craft to me was something that was extremely inspirational. To be able to get to a point where you are so good at your craft that you can actually perform it thoughtlessly is something that’s still a mystery to me but something that I strive for and something that he inspired me to try and strive for.” No one was happier to hear that Bryant was carrying on the legacy of Lee more than Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, the president of the Bruce Lee Foundation. She was Bryant’s guest at the Lakers-Clippers game last week and was sitting in the front row as he dedicated a shoe in honor of her father. “It means everything for an athlete of his caliber to say that,” Lee said. “My father was such an amazing athlete and so concerned about all the things Kobe was talking about: footwork, having no mind when you’re out there doing your craft and being in that ready mode. The fact that he sees that and can take that from my father is terrific. He would have been a big fan of his, too.”  © The Dragon Institute