[Kahlil Ashanti]

“Michael Jordan would go for 40 or 50 points one night, and the next morning he was right back at it in practice,” Tim Grover (his trainer) said. “He just couldn’t take a day off. His mental toughness was unbelievable, but the reason was that he was so physically ready every day. He used to have a saying, ‘I practice so hard because that makes the games easy for me.’ ”

Kobe dropped 61 on the Knicks, had a 2½-hour meeting with Spike Lee about a documentary in a hotel suite afterward, and wouldn’t you know it: “Kobe was back in the gym at 7:30 that next morning with me,” Grover said. “That’s the mental toughness that Michael had. They just always feel like that if I don’t work out, I just won’t feel right. Something will be missing in my day.”

TIB 2009,
Here's to a good game.