Most successful Standardbred trainers are hard workers. Most are driven, resilient, family-oriented people with a strong desire to win.

Most are smarter than their competition - they’re humble but confident team players who get up early, go to bed late, have a burning passion for their sport and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be successful.

Kobe Bryant was all of these things too.

Has a professional basketball player ever been the topic of a column in TROT Magazine? Not to the best of my knowledge, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

As most people know, in late January, in southern California, there was a helicopter crash that killed all nine people on-board, including former Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.

I wasn’t alive when JFK was assassinated, but in my lifetime I truly don’t recall a death that seemed to affect so many people around the world - myself included. First and foremost, not as a lifelong Lakers fan, but as a parent. As a parent, like many of you, I couldn’t help but think of the pure torture Kobe experienced in his final moments, not because he knew he was going to die, but because he knew his baby girl was going to. The only small comfort there being that at least she had her Daddy with her, no doubt trying to comfort her, in those final agonizing moments.

As the days and weeks passed following the tragedy, and the tributes and stories continued to roll in from his peers, even though I had followed Kobe’s on-court career closely, I couldn’t help but see Kobe as more than just a dad and a basketball star - the man had the will of ten-men it seems. The man had a work-ethic second-to-none. The man had a burning desire to be the best. The man had all the same traits, it struck me, of a top Standardbred trainer.

Fresh out of high school at age 17, Kobe’s desire to play professional basketball at a young age was similar to many people in our sport, who often, at a similar age, go straight from secondary school into training horses. When one has a passion so strong, why put off the inevitable?

He was confident: Early in his pro career, when the inevitable comparisons to Michael Jordan started, Kobe stated clearly, “I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.”

He was driven: “I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.”

He was willing to sacrifice: “There’s a choice that we have to make as people, as individuals. If you want to be great at something, there’s a choice you have to make. We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that… There are sacrifices that come along with making that decision.”

He was humble: “It’s hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I’m talking to them.”

He was a family man: “Christmas morning, I’m going to open presents with my kids. I’m going to take pictures of them opening the presents. Then I’m going to come to the Staples Center and get ready to work.”

He was resilient: “I’ve played with IVs before, during and after games. I’ve played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious in the first place.”

He was smart: “These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.”

He was a team player: “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”

He had a desire to win: “Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.”

Just as many aspiring basketball players have learned, over the years, to be successful, by following the lead of Kobe Bryant, there’s no doubt in my mind that many Standardbred trainers, or people in any walk of life could do the same.

And, last but not least, he was a hard worker… maybe the hardest ever: “I want people to think of me as a talented overachiever,” Bryant once said. “I was blessed with talent, but I worked as if I had none. If I could be remembered that way, it would be pretty good.”

That’s how I’ll remember you Kobe.

Dan Fisher
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