{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F1e7579a6-0a79-4b20-8e1e-50da88df30c7","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"<iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" title=\"Obsession Is Only Natural\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allow=\"clipboard-write\" seamless src=\"http://player.captivate.fm/episode/1e7579a6-0a79-4b20-8e1e-50da88df30c7\"></iframe>","title":"Obsession Is Only Natural","description":"In one of his articles for The Player Tribune, Kobe Bryant opened up about his competitive relationship with Allen Iverson.\u00a0 Iverson had a hot start in the league, as Bryant was struggling to make a name for himself.\u00a0 In 1999, Iverson scored 41 points and dropped 10 assists in a game where Bryant was guarding him.\u00a0<br />\r\n<br />\r\nBryant was mortified.\u00a0 He became obsessed, fixated on anything he could find to help him learn about Iverson\u2019s game: books, articles, news segments, anything.\u00a0\u00a0<br />\r\n<br />\r\nBryant got an opportunity to enact revenge the next year.\u00a0 At halftime, Lakers coach Phil Jackson told Kobe to guard Iverson.\u00a0 The Lakers won and Iverson didn\u2019t score a single point the rest of the game.\u00a0\u00a0<br />\r\n<br />\r\nWhile revenge was sweet, it taught Bryant a valuable lesson that he took with him the rest of his career: he needed to treat every matchup like life or death.\u00a0 Nobody would be able to have mind control over him like Iverson had for years.\u00a0\u00a0<br />\r\n\u201cI swore, from that point on, to approach every matchup as a matter of life and death. No one was going to have that kind of control over my focus ever again. I will choose who I want to target and lock-in.\u00a0 I will choose whether or not your goals for the upcoming season compromise where I want to be in 20 years. If they don\u2019t, happy hunting to you. But if they do\u2026.I will hunt you obsessively. It\u2019s only natural.\u201d<br />\r\nAre you treating your adversity with Bryant-like intensity?\u00a0 Get after it today.<br />\r\nThis post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.\u00a0 Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.\u00a0 You can get it\u00a0directly to your email here.\u00a0 You can\u00a0subscribe on iTunes here.","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/84060626-235a-42dc-9a40-a1eead6830e0/eAA1TPwy9oTcEamuijU4gpev.png"}