Why do so many NBA players struggle to learn the triangle offense? According to Kobe Bryant, IT'S EASY! All you need to do is spend a few years studying tape of the Bulls teams from the 1990s, pay very close attention to the movement of the ball and the positioning of the players on those teams, bring Phil Jackson into the mix to emphasize a few of the offense's key points, and—voila!—you're running the triangle! What's so difficult about that?
OK, OK, so the answer to that question is obviously "Everything." But Kobe talked to a group of kids at his Kobe Basketball Academy yesterday, and when he was asked how long it took him to pick up the triangle, he said it only took about two days…plus a few years of studying beforehand.
"About two days," he told a group of campers. "I studied the triangle offense for years before. Watching the Bulls play. It was very familiar to me. The concept was something that I grasped very quickly. A couple of days."
Even with the preparation that he did prior to joining forces with Jackson—outside of watching the Bulls, he also contacted Tex Winter once to talk about the triangle—two days is still a short amount of time to master an offense that some, er, most guys on the Knicks are still struggling with. It can be complicated. Kobe believes in teaching kids the offense while they're young, though, which is why he's currently trying to teach the kids at his camp how to run it.
"I believe you guys are capable of holding on to [the triangle offense] concepts," he told them. "And when you learn those concepts at an early age, how much better are you going to be when you are older?"
Isn't that the most Kobe thing ever? A bunch of kids show up at his camp, and they're sooooooo excited to see him and then he starts breaking down the intricacies of the triangle? Total buzzkill!
Check out what else has been happening at Kobe's camp here.
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[via Kobe Team]
