Dyslexia is a fairly common malady. But, when a public figure suffers from the disease, we are curious. This is doubly true when it affects an athlete, as the condition involves eyesight. Obviously eyesight is critical to any human being. A world class athlete needs his sight; Kobe is just a world class athlete either. He is at the apex of basketball players over the last 20 years. Some even consider him to be one of the top scorers of all time!
In the article, Bryant describes how his teacher was the engine who first considered that he might be dyslexic, as Kobe could not spell. I know from a former coworker that the condition causes everything to appear jumbled. Numbers and letters are an obvious limitation. A 734 appears as 347 or even 473. I would certainly be flummoxed by this. Thankfully, the teacher told his mom and she took the appropriate medical course. Well, Kobe soon thrived, and it certainly did not hurt that his dad was, at the time, an NBA player (not really a star though) and had access to care not normal for a minority child. Apparently the poem at the end was written by Bryant as an ode to his mom…not bad for a star athlete!
I couldn’t spell, so the teacher told my mother that I was probably dyslexic, it was like somebody took me and dropped me in a bucket … in a tub of ice cold water, because it shocked me.
~Kobe Bryant

Key Takeaways:

1
Kobe Bryant has written a Farewell to Basketball, in which he reveals his challenges as someone with dyslexia.
2
Being diagnosed with dyslexia as a child came as a huge shock to him and his mother.
3
He channeled anger from the challenges and frustrations of living with dyslexia into sport, which helped him, become one of the NBA’s all-time top players.

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