The man had an exceptional level of focus for his craft, and he paired that with natural talent and hard work to become a legend on the court.
“I made a point of reading the referee’s handbook. One of the rules I gleaned from it was that each referee has a designated slot where he is supposed to be on the floor. If the ball, for instance, is in place W, referees X, Y, and Z each have an area on the court assigned to them. ...When they do that, it creates dead zones, areas on the floor where they can’t see certain things. I learned where those zones were, and I took advantage of them. I would get away with holds, travels, and all sorts of minor violations simply because I took the time to understand the officials’ limitations.”
I watched him talk about his VC work some last year, and it’s clear that his intelligence and focus translated off the court as well. It’s truly tragic that we will never get to know what else Kobe Bryant could have done with that intelligence and focus.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_(basketball)#Position...
Most of the blind spots occur when the ball is transitioning coverage areas or when the Lead (baseline ref) initiates a rotation.
If your back is to the referee, you know you're probably going to get away with a discreet handball or a bit of a jersey tug because the ref simply can't see it. And once you've played enough games, it's not too hard to keep track of which direction you're facing in relation to the ref since they have a general radius of the field they stay in.
There are vids of Lebron reciting game scenes in details. I can't recite bash commands I'm repeating daily.
i know lebron isn't reading the handbooks, and he can walk from half-court on a break away fast break without getting a travel call. that's because he's lebron (can't dribble and is a top marketed player).
“Munger on Sports, Norms, Rules, and the Code”
https://www.econtalk.org/munger-on-sports-norms-rules-and-th...
The behavior I saw from mods and the HN community yesterday left a lot to be desired.
It left me questioning what qualifies as HN material and whether sometimes this group is sometimes stubborn just for the sake of it.
Kobe Bryant might not have been a technologist but he definitely played a huge role in a lot of developers' livelihood. Whether that was inspiration, motivation, drive or mental health... Kobe influenced a lot of people. It would be very arrogant to assume the HN community was free of his influence.
Every single Kobe post, no exception, was flagged or killed.
Some of us were not doing ok yesterday, and if we can't share our struggles with the rest of the community then why are we even here? I felt a lot of dictatorial tendencies yesterday on this platform and I personally really hated it.
Your heroes are different from mine. To pretend as if Kobe's death is of zero worth to this community is not only arrogant and selfish, but quite reflective of the pains minorities suffer in communities like these.
Today I showed up at work wearing my Mamba jersey in memoriam. Had I gone with the picture presented by HN yesterday, I would have thought I would have been all alone and would have had to explain my depression to a lot of other folks at work. Instead I was met with shared remorse and others also affected by the death. Most of the people at work were in similar mode and we shared our feelings and thoughts and comforted each other.
Yesterday, even if only for one day, I would have hoped HN would have been that support group.
Mamba mentality is real and has driven a number of us. May it live forever.
Rest in eternal peace Kobe!
I am not a long time fan of the NBA or Kobe himself. I got interested in the league recently due to Kawhi's dagger on the 76ers that made the rounds on Twitter. I followed last years finals, and watched a lot of highlights on YouTube. I recently just realized how big Kobe was and how his mentality and legacy is revered throughout the league. It's weird seeing old highlight clips and realizing MJ, Pippen, Bird, even Magic is still here while Kobe is gone.
He is a recent inspiration for me yet I felt the loss too. Please don't feel alone on feeling that on HN.
Regardless of that, it seems like you're upset because of some mistaken expectations of what HN is for. It's not trying to be a "general purpose" site where you should expect to be able to discuss any and all topics. It has a pretty narrow focus, and users tend to aggressively flag posts about anything without a clear connection to the set of subjects that they feel "belong" here.
You shouldn't try to treat HN as a place where you'll be able to find general news about the world or discuss anything in particular, no matter how important you feel it is. It's a good site for its particular niche, but you're going to end up with a myopic view if you aren't also using other sites too.
And Niki Lauda who is a Formula One racer https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19968174
Point is there is no hard and fast rule and is subjective. There’s plenty of people who died that have nothing to do with technology that have been not been flagged for removal.
"Those times when you get up early and you work hard, those times when you stay up late and you work hard, those times when you don’t feel like working, you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream. That’s the dream. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. And if you guys can understand that, then what you’ll see happen is you won’t accomplish your dreams, your dreams won’t come true; something greater will."
Rest in peace.
I can’t help but wonder what might have been if Shaq followed Kobe’s lead in this regard instead of becoming the player he did.
