7 Things We Learned From Kobe Bryant's Documentary

A rare candid moment with the Black Mamba.

We Learned Plenty About Kobe Bryant After Watching His Doc - On Saturday, the new Kobe Bryant’s Muse documentary premiered on Showtime, giving viewers a candid look at the basketball career and personal life of Kobe Bryant. The Gotham Chopra-directed doc immediately set the tone with the 17-time NBA All-Star and five-time champion declaring, “I have things I want to think about, things I want to dive into and get off my chest.” He certainly does that and more. In case you missed it, here are seven things we learned from watching the documentary.(Photo: Showtime)

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We Learned Plenty About Kobe Bryant After Watching His Doc - On Saturday, the new Kobe Bryant’s Muse documentary premiered on Showtime, giving viewers a candid look at the basketball career and personal life of Kobe Bryant. The Gotham Chopra-directed doc immediately set the tone with the 17-time NBA All-Star and five-time champion declaring, “I have things I want to think about, things I want to dive into and get off my chest.” He certainly does that and more. In case you missed it, here are seven things we learned from watching the documentary.(Photo: Showtime)

Chose Doc Because He Doesn't Have Patience for a Book - Before Kobe Bryant's Muse even begins, it comes equipped with the caveat from the NBA superstar himself. "I don't have the patience to sit and write a book, so I'll do it this way," Bryant says. "And what I found through the process is it became more than a documentary. It became a therapeutic feeling." Fair enough...you've been warned.(Photo: Showtime)

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Chose Doc Because He Doesn't Have Patience for a Book - Before Kobe Bryant's Muse even begins, it comes equipped with the caveat from the NBA superstar himself. "I don't have the patience to sit and write a book, so I'll do it this way," Bryant says. "And what I found through the process is it became more than a documentary. It became a therapeutic feeling." Fair enough...you've been warned.(Photo: Showtime)

Used Basketball to Combat Loneliness - Part of the doc revealed that a young Kobe Bryant used basketball as a means to combat the loneliness he was feeling, coming from Italy, where his father had moved the family to and where Kobe spent his adolescence, to the United States. Way before he became a rookie for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996, Bryant used basketball to further adapt to American culture.(Photo: Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images)

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Used Basketball to Combat Loneliness - Part of the doc revealed that a young Kobe Bryant used basketball as a means to combat the loneliness he was feeling, coming from Italy, where his father had moved the family to and where Kobe spent his adolescence, to the United States. Way before he became a rookie for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996, Bryant used basketball to further adapt to American culture.(Photo: Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images)

Basketball Is His Equivalent to Seeing a Psychiatrist - Kobe Bryant says doing the documentary was like a therapeutic feeling. He admits the same for playing basketball, explaining how some seek therapy from a psychiatrist, while he simply opts to figure out and solve his problems on the hardwood. He's obsessed with the game.  (Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

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Basketball Is His Equivalent to Seeing a Psychiatrist - Kobe Bryant says doing the documentary was like a therapeutic feeling. He admits the same for playing basketball, explaining how some seek therapy from a psychiatrist, while he simply opts to figure out and solve his problems on the hardwood. He's obsessed with the game.  (Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Kobe on Who His Daughters Take After - "Natalia takes after Vanessa. Gianna takes more after me; a lot of energy. They're both extremely competitive. They're very smart, they read a lot, they study a lot. They're great kids. The younger one is more like me; the older one is more like V."(Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

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Woke Up Every Morning Fearing Losing Wife, Kids - In an ultra-candid moment of Kobe Bryant's Muse, the NBA superstar reveals how the 2003 sexual-assault accusation against him had him waking up daily in fear of losing his wife, Vanessa Bryant, and two lovely daughters. Although rumored divorce reports ran rampant, the Bryants stuck it out and their beautiful family remains intact.  (Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

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Blames Himself for Wife's Miscarriage, Marital Stress - It takes a man to step up and admit he was wrong and Kobe Bryant did just that, using the documentary to share that his actions led to marital stress between he and wife, Vanessa Bryant, and even swallowed the hard pill of triggering her 2005 miscarriage. "The reality is it happened because of me," Bryant says in a poignant, brutally honest moment. Before this documentary, we have never seen this kind of vulnerability from the five-time NBA champion. (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

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Blames Himself for Wife's Miscarriage, Marital Stress - It takes a man to step up and admit he was wrong and Kobe Bryant did just that, using the documentary to share that his actions led to marital stress between he and wife, Vanessa Bryant, and even swallowed the hard pill of triggering her 2005 miscarriage. "The reality is it happened because of me," Bryant says in a poignant, brutally honest moment. Before this documentary, we have never seen this kind of vulnerability from the five-time NBA champion. (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Fears Failure More Than Death - Many people are scared about their own mortality. There's something that frightens Kobe Bryant more than death, though. That's the prospect of failure. He's a perfectionist in his craft and borderline obsessive about winning, so failure is not an option for Kobe Bryant and he makes it known, saying he's more fearful of failing even more than he is of dying. “When do determination and drive become unreasonable?” he ponders. Food for thought.(Photo: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

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Fears Failure More Than Death - Many people are scared about their own mortality. There's something that frightens Kobe Bryant more than death, though. That's the prospect of failure. He's a perfectionist in his craft and borderline obsessive about winning, so failure is not an option for Kobe Bryant and he makes it known, saying he's more fearful of failing even more than he is of dying. “When do determination and drive become unreasonable?” he ponders. Food for thought.(Photo: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

Still Unsure When He'll Retire - After Kobe Bryant suffered his third straight season-ending injury—via a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and subsequent surgery in late January—most people would think that the end of his glorious NBA career is near. But Bryant isn't ready to hang it up just yet, still with next season as the final year on his contract...and who knows, maybe something beyond that too? “I'm no spring chicken. And that’s okay,” Bryant says in the doc. “But when do you know? When do you walk away?" (Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

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Still Unsure When He'll Retire - After Kobe Bryant suffered his third straight season-ending injury—via a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and subsequent surgery in late January—most people would think that the end of his glorious NBA career is near. But Bryant isn't ready to hang it up just yet, still with next season as the final year on his contract...and who knows, maybe something beyond that too? “I'm no spring chicken. And that’s okay,” Bryant says in the doc. “But when do you know? When do you walk away?" (Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)