Kobe Bryant has always embraced his natural obsessiveness that helped drive him to greatness during his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Whether it's stories about gym sessions at 4 a.m., watching National Geographic documentaries to study nature and apply it to basketball or going back to practice floors after losses on the road, Kobe is without a doubt maniacal in his preparation. 

It may have taken a thrashing from another legend of his era to push him to that next level, though. Bryant wrote a short article on The Players' Tribune - a digital publication he owns a stake in that features content directly from athletes - that had a surprising revelation.

Kobe and Allen Iverson are uniquely tied together because they both entered the NBA in 1996. Iverson was the No. 1 pick after dominating for Georgetown, while Bryant was a mid-round pick coming straight out of high school. 

Their careers started off with very different expectations and roles, though. Iverson was immediately thrown into the fire, averaging 40.1 minutes per game. The Lakers didn't overdo it with the young man they hoped would become a star, limiting him to 15.5 minutes per game. 

Kobe had his eyes on Iverson just a few games into each of their professional careers. The Black Mamba cited a specific date in November as the moment he told himself he had to work harder. He needed his own answer, it seemed.

"On November 12, 1996, Allen Iverson dropped 35 on the Knicks in a win at the Garden. On November 12, 1996, I played five minutes and finished with two points in a Lakers win at Houston," wrote Bryant.

"When I checked into my hotel room later that night and saw the 35 on SportsCenter, I lost it. I flipped the table, threw the chairs, broke the TV. I thought I had been working hard."

Yes, Kobe apparently flipped out over his lack of production just six games into his first regular season. It's a fitting tale, but it didn't stop there. He fast forwards to 1999, when Iverson scored 41 points and dished 10 dimes while Kobe defended him.

"I had to study this man maniacally.

"I obsessively read every article and book I could find about AI. I obsessively watched every game he had played, going back to the IUPU All-American Game. I obsessively studied his every success, and his every struggle. I obsessively searched for any weakness I could find," Kobe wrote. 

Somehow, this story gets better the further Kobe goes down the rabbit hole. This obsession of his took him to researching great white sharks - his love of nature has been highly influential in his approach - to help give him an edge. 

"This led me to study how great white sharks hunt seals off the coast of South Africa. The patience. The timing. The angles," Kobe said of studying sharks to gain an edge. 

A few years ago Kobe revealed that he studied how cheetahs hunted their prey, impressed with their agility, precision and balance. He wanted to apply it to his game, and he did so by applying how they used their tails for balance to how he extended his leg on jumpers. 

Bryant fast forwards once more, this time to a game in 2000 where he was assigned to guard Iverson at halftime. AI had 16 points at the half and finished the game with 16, never scoring against Kobe. 

The Internet, being the amazing place that it is, has video of his lockdown defense:

"I wasn’t satisfied after the win. I was annoyed that he had made me feel that way in the first place. I swore, from that point on, to approach every matchup as a matter of life and death. No one was going to have that kind of control over my focus ever again," Bryant said. 

if anyone needed further proof that Kobe was and still is absolutely crazy, look no further. He studied great white sharks to systematically pick Iverson apart on defense. There will never be another like him.