Kobe Bryant, NBA Hall of Fame Photographer Andrew Bernstein Shared a Special Bond
The first time Hall of Fame photographer Andrew Bernstein met Kobe Bryant, he was taken aback.
It was Lakers Media Day in 1996 and Bernstein introduced himself to the 18-year-old rookie before taking his portrait.
Bryant’s response stunned him.
“He looks me right in the eye—and he’s still holding my handshake—and he says, ‘I know who you are,’ ” Bernstein said.
Bernstein was incredulous. They had never met. No one recognizes photographers.
“I look at him like, ‘Okay, you’re a smart ass,’ ” Bernstein says. “He goes, ‘No man, I had all your posters in my room growing up.' I’m thinking, Wow, this kid is reading the minuscule photo credits? Nobody reads photo credits.”
Bernstein, who has been an NBA photographer for nearly 40 years, later found out that Bryant not only looked at his photos, he studied them.
As a child, Bryant had posters in his bedroom of Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas and Dominique Wilkins. He’d memorize their body position. Their musculature. Which way their feet were facing. How their hands were positioned.
“He was like a surgeon,” Bernstein said. “He was dissecting photos, just like he did videos."
Bernstein was the Lakers’ team photographer over Bryant’s 20-season career. They developed a friendship, and Bryant wrote his memoir The Mamba Mentality: How I Play in collaboration with Bernstein’s photos.
Bernstein witnessed many of Bryant’s most intimate moments.
He watched Bryant meditate alone in private rooms before games, putting towels over his camera so he wouldn’t make a peep. He went over to Bryant’s home and saw a young Natalia and Gianna crawling all over their father as he exercised. He once was even invited into Bryant’s hotel room in Las Vegas at 2 a.m., where the 18-time All-Star was having an impromptu pilates session in between practices with the men’s national basketball team.
Bernstein saw sides of Bryant that few were privy to. He’d watch him morph from an intensely focused superstar into a tender father immediately after games.
“It was like, 'I’m Mamba and then I’m not Mamba,’ ” Bernstein said. “It’s like a superhero kind of thing."
Bernstein was also around for some of Bryant’s happiest moments.
After Bryant won his first NBA championship in 2000, he was ecstatic, even during his obligatory portrait shoot hours after the buzzer sounded. He showed up with his hat askew, wearing only one shoe, and smiled ear to ear the entire time.
When the Lakers won another title the following season, Bernstein watched Bryant burst into the locker room with Vanessa and say, “Everybody, this is my fiancée." They were then soaked in champagne together.
Bernstein got his start as an NBA photographer at the 1983 All-Star game. He had an uncanny way of earning people’s trust. He convinced former Lakers coach Pat Riley to allow him into his huddles. He befriended Magic Johnson. And he went on to take some of the most memorable photos in NBA history.
In addition to covering each of Bryant’s five NBA championships, Bernstein also shot all of Michael Jordan’s six titles, including the iconic image of Jordan weeping while holding his first championship trophy in 1991 with his father by his side. After Jordan’s father, James, was murdered in 1993, he asked Bernstein for a copy of that picture.
Bernstein was also the photographer for the 1992 Dream Team. He took intimate photos of Jordan and Johnson laughing together. And he witnessed Jordan's fabled competitiveness.
“I saw it firsthand,” Bernstein said. “He would play 18 or 36 holes before the Dream Team practices in the morning. The guy never slept."
Bernstein said off the court, Jordan and Bryant actually had very different personalities.
“I think the biggest difference was that Kobe knew when to turn it off, if that makes any sense,” Bernstein said. “Michael was kind of relentless. When he got to know you, he would just rip you constantly. There would always be something about you, what you're wearing. I had a mustache; he would make fun of me. I mean, whatever it was. I always felt kind of on edge with him, not really in a bad way, but I just had to watch my p’s and q’s. With Kobe I guess because I was around him so much more, and in a lot of really laid-back ways, like on the team plane or the bus or the training room or whatever, I just got to see a side of him that not a lot of people got to see."
Through his lens, Bernstein witnessed Bryant play against his idol for the first time. And he watched him evolve in the way he guarded him, learning to contort every limb on his body in particular ways to best stop Jordan. He described a photograph he took of the two of them facing off.
“[Bryant’s] foot is in a certain place because he’s kind of locking Michael's foot because Michael likes to do that spin move,” Bernstein said. “And he’s got his shoulder leaning in just enough so that it would throw Michael a little bit off."
Bernstein has become an expert of sorts on the game.
His craft requires that.
He’s only able to take one photo every four seconds because the strobes on the ceiling need time to recycle their power after they flash.
“You can’t shoot a motor drive sequence; you have to shoot once,” Bernstein said. “You have to count in your head, One, two, three, four, before you shoot again. So much happens in that four seconds."
During games, he won’t talk to anybody. He’s incredibly focused. Deeply present. He needs to know where every player is at all times—and anticipate what they may do next.
“I’m locked in; I’m paying attention to what’s going on on the court; my peripheral vision is working,” Bernstein said. “Like with Magic, Magic would be coming down full steam straight down the court towards the basket, and I’ve got to know where Byron [Scott] is. I've got to know where James Worthy is. Where’s [Michael Cooper]? Because Magic is gonna probably do 12 things before I should actually shoot."
Bernstein learned to prepare for games by observing the people he covers.
He saw Phil Jackson do crossword puzzles before games to decompress. And he watched Bryant meditate during the two-and-a-half-minute national anthem to focus.
“I started learning about meditation, even just a three-second meditation,” Bernstein said.
This season Bernstein has loved covering LeBron James, saying it keeps his “juices flowing to have this other superstar there in front of my lens."
But it’s been a deeply tough year for him.
After Bryant died on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash, Bernstein was devastated. He struggled while covering his public memorial at Staples Center on Feb. 24, calling it the last place in the world he wanted to be.
Bernstein and Bryant shared a deep mutual admiration.
After the Basketball Hall of Fame announced they were honoring Bernstein with the Curt Gowdy Award for print media excellence in 2018, Bryant raved about his friend.
“I would classify him as an artist, not a photographer,” Bryant told the Los Angeles Times. “Andy’s vision for his craft goes well beyond it being a profession."
Bernstein called Bryant right after he received the honor.
He couldn't help but needle his buddy just a bit.
“I said, 'Hey, guess what. I’m getting into the Hall of Fame before you,’ ” Bernstein recalled.
The ever-so-competitive Bryant took that in stride, laughing and congratulating him.
Now Bernstein wants to do everything he can to further Bryant’s legacy. Bryant wanted their book to be a teaching tool, just as Bernstein’s photos were to him.
“It was a fascinating process for me to watch how his mind worked,” Bernstein said, adding, “my responsibility is to get that out."
