Before the Toronto Raptors recent game against the Los Angeles Lakers, interim head coach Jay Triano was asked if he needed to remind his players that Kobe Bryant is in fact human and just another player.

Without missing a beat Triano joked, “No, because we’re not sure he is (human).”

While Bryant is indeed human, what he has been able to accomplish on the basketball court are things a mere mortals shouldn’t be able to. Decades from now fans will look back on Bryant’s career and will be astounded by his 81 point explosion against the Toronto Raptors in 2006 and his four games with 60 plus points with awe and amazement. Throw in his three NBA Championships, an Olympic Gold Medal and his MVP award last season and his career is clearly the stuff of myths and legends.

While fans can be awed by Bryant, opposing coaches aren’t awarded that luxury. Instead, they are forced to create defensive schemes to slow him down and as a result coaches around the NBA have spent countless sleepless nights trying to figure out how to do so.

So, how do you go about stopping one of the greatest players to ever play the game? It’s no easy task according to Triano.

“He’s tough,” Triano admitted to the media scrum last week prior to a game against the Lakers. “I think the best thing to do is to try and disrupt his rhythm if you can. You need to put different guys on him and show him different looks. If you guard him the same way all the time he’ll eventually find a way to break through because he’s an intelligent enough basketball player that he’ll find ways to score and he’ll get his teammates open. You just have to try to find ways to keep him off balance.”

Some coaches claim the key to stopping Bryant is forcing him into becoming a jumper shooter by taking away his ability to drive through the lane. The problem with this idea is Bryant is shooting a career high 47.6% from the field this season.

When you have a player hitting nearly half of his shots, allowing him to shoot at will is more like a recipe for disaster.

“He’s deadly shooting the basketball and puts as much time into shooting the ball as anybody I’ve ever seen,” Triano explained. “He’s creative on his drives to the basket and he makes plays for other people.”

Plus, Bryant’s work ethic is such that an area that was a weakness early in his career is no longer. Earlier in his career he wasn’t a strong shooter as he shot an abysmal 26.7% (1998-98 season) and 25.0% (2001-02 season) from three-point territory, but this year he’s shooting a respectable 36.7% from beyond the arc.

While Bryant won’t be taking part in the three-point shootout during All-Star weekend, he’s proven to be a strong enough shooter that you have to guard him from anywhere on the court.

“I thought in working with Steve Nash that I had seen one of the hardest workers at the game in terms of repetitions of shots,” Triano explained the media. “Then when I saw Kobe (Bryant) in the summertime, the repetitions were there but the intensity of every one was there. That’s why when you see him hit fadeaways and shots that are off balance, he practices those. And he practices those going hard all the time. He was one of the only player who went back every night to shoot the basketball and when you are in one of those elite group of 12 of the best basketball players in the world and you are the only guy going back to get extra work it shows a drive that is unparalleled.”

A lot of the success Bryant has enjoyed stems from him possessing one of the strongest work ethics in the NBA. Sure, he was blessed with great genetics and natural athletic ability, but make no mistake, Bryant has worked hard to achieve the success he has enjoyed.

Now he’s making opposing coaches like Triano work even harder to create defensive schemes to slow him down.

Photo Credit: ICON Sports Media