Video montage features Kobe Bryant’s difficult shots

When no one is looking, Kobe Bryant practices them. When everyone is watching, Bryant attempts them. And when the odds suggest otherwise, Bryant often makes them.

Bryant’s 17-year NBA career spans plenty of qualities that’s earned him five NBA championshps, two NBA Finals MVPS and a fourth-place stnading on the league’s all-time scoring list, ranging from playing through injuries and obsessing over everything basketball. But nothing defines Bryant’s legacy more than his ability to make seemingly impossible shots.

We’re talking up-and-under reverse layups, jumpers while facing double teams and fadeaways over the backboard. No one has performed an exact breakdown of what percentage of Bryant’s 31,617 career points reflects the difficult shots he made. But it’s safe to say that skillset enabled Bryant to post a career-high 81 points in a game. It helped him convert on countless game winners. It left defenses in fits over wondering if a double or triple team will do enough to stop him.

Sometimes it has. Many times it hasn’t. And the video montage above shows how Bryant converted a seemingly impossible shot into one he’d normally make.

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@dailynews.com