Michael is Kobe Bryant's biggest inspiration.

[soulmum]

Bryant premiered "Dear Basketball" Sunday afternoon (April 23) at Tribeca Film Festival, also taking part in a conversation with Keane and moderator Michael Strahan which revealed much more than just Bryant's love for basketball and new found love for storytelling. One of the most surprising parts? Who he revealed as his biggest inspiration.



"Michael Jackson," he said in response to an audience question. "It's the craziest story. I was working out at Gold's Gym in Venice Beach and my phone rings, and it's Michael Jackson. I was like 'What? Why?' It was this moment in time where I was really focused on my game, and I was getting a lot of flack for being too focused, being too serious. He was a big basketball fan, so he called just to tell me to stay on the right track, keep focused. I said, 'Okay, well how did you do it?' And he just went into his whole process of how he studied the greats, how he studied every note in all the Beatles' classics to try to figure out if there's a connection between that piece of music and Mozart's piece of music. He said 'You have to study the greats, learn everything about them.' He showed me all kinds of James Brown, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly -- he showed me 'This is where I learned this, this is where I learned that.' I thought I was working hard until I met him, and he became my mentor. I've had a lot of muses in my life, a lot of inspirations, but he is the chief."

Here's a link to the entire interview/article.
https://www.yahoo.com/music/kobe-bry...035237141.html