Lakers photographer recalls Kobe Bryant's private moments
The first time sports photographer Andrew D. Bernstein met Kobe Bryant in 1996, he was taken aback that the young Laker knew who he was. "He had all my posters in his room hanging up as a kid," he told CBS News' Dana Jacobson.
"Who reads the photo credits except another photographer? So this is a kid who is like, obsessed from the beginning," Bernstein marveled.
The veteran photographer who spent so much time around Bryant remembered a few rare moments he got a look behind his "Black Mamba" persona. One of those times was when Bryant tore his Achilles in 2013, and Bernstein saw a side of him he had never seen before.
"It's the only time I really saw fear. Coming off the court, he came towards me and for the first time, I saw in his eyes he knew something was just really wrong here," he said.
Bryant would come back from that injury spectacularly, ending his career in 2016 with a 60-point performance in his final game.
But Bernstein also saw another, gentler side of Bryant when he was around his family.
"I got to see him in his private moments with his girls and how he was so full of joy just to be around them," he said. Bernstein said Bryant "shed this whole persona of having to be the 'Black Mamba,' You know, it's just like – 'I'm done with that, it's daddy time.'"
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE
Asked how he would like people to remember Kobe Bryant, Bernstein pressed that it was important to remember "what he stood for in terms of never giving up and never stopping short of what your potential is."
"Mamba mentality is going past your own potential," he said. "It's really seeking out greatness above and beyond."
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