I'm enjoying a relaxing Saturday morning and I'm doing a bit of reading on ESPN.  I see the article about Kobe reaching another scoring milestone and decide to give it a read. I'm admittedly a Lakers fan; I have been since I first watched Byron Scott knocking down outside shots. So naturally, I enjoy reading up on the Lakers and what their players are doing. It's a normal sports article talking about Kobe's scoring, and I begin to yawn, and then I see this:

Bryant visited Olajuwon over the summer to learn more about low-post play, and the Houston Rockets' famed center provided Kobe with even more skills to keep knocking down scoring marks.

Now that caught my attention. Here is a guy who just won the NBA championship... again. He's won a scoring title. He's considered the greatest closer in the game. Yes, even over Bron Bron. Don't believe me? go back and watch the end of the gold medal game against China. We were going to lose. And Kobe took over. Everybody, including Lebron, deferred to Kobe. And USA won. USA won because when Kobe gets that glint in his eye, nobody can stop him. He has too many offensive options. And if he happens to get hot as he's taking over a game? It's over and over in a hurry. He can beat you inside. He can beat you outside. He can beat in the low post or driving the paint. He can beat you when you're sleeping in your bed and he's two zones away watching Lionel Messi light it up on the pitch. So if anyone doesn't need to worry about his offensive game, it's Kobe. But Kobe obviously didn't rest on his laurels. He went and visited Hakeen "The Dream" Olajuwon to work on low-post play. Olajuwon had that post-up fade away jump shot no one could stop. He could up and under on a spin move that was equally unstoppable. It was all part of his "Dream Shake" package. And that's who Kobe went to learn from.

And that reminded me that I can never stop learning. There's always more to do. There's always more to understand. If Kobe can go to Olajuwon, I can go to the top folks in whatever field or endeavor I'm working on, whether it be SQL Server, the Bible, flute, cooking, chess, or something else. Speaking of chess, I'll end on another guy who hasn't stopped, Victor Korchnoi. At the age of 78 he won the Swiss Chess Championship. He continues to play well at grandmaster levels, despite his advanced age. That's an inspiration to keep pushing hard to grow and do better if there ever was one.