The Psychology Behind Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant

With the NBA Finals under way, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett have illustrated throughout the NBA playoffs why they are so great. Both players are the undeniable leaders of the two best teams in the NBA this year. However, there is one very noticeable difference between the two players. Although both contain the fire within to will their team to victory, Garnett is much more boisterous on the court. Although you often see Bryant getting after his teammates and referees, he is not afraid to joke with opponents on the court. Garnett on the other hand continues to grimace throughout the entire game, as if the outcome of the game depends on how much his yells and punches himself in the face.

Why are these two players so different in their mannerisms? It simply comes down to the way they handle the pressure of the situation in their own way. When people get nervous, they tend to have quirks that help them through their nervousness. Before a big presentation, people often tend to yawn way more often than they normally would. Despite having three cups of coffee and a Red Bull, the pressure of the situation forces the brain to require more oxygen than normal; this creates a need to yawn. This is the neural response to pressure and stress that many people feel.

With that in mind, every person deals with stress in their own way. For Garnett, his way of dealing with the stress of an NBA game is to let out all of his emotions through talking trash to opponents and yelling towards the crowd. There are three ways a person can react to stress. The first of which actually helps the person deal with the demands they are facing. This phenomenon is known as eustress where people learn to adapt to the pressure of the situation and use different means such as adrenaline to help them cope with the situation. The other two ways people deal with stress is to either escape the situation or to deal with the situation in an adverse manner.

To get to a state of eustress, Garnett uses outward emotion to fend off the fear that he deals with during the course of the game. This helps him deal with pressure in a distinct way. First, when a person feels a perceived stressor in their environment, hormones are released from the pituitary gland and into the bloodstream to counteract the stressor. This is usually felt through adrenaline and must be released in order for a person’s mental state to get back to normal. This is why Garnett lets his emotions go during the course of the game. It is his body’s neural response to the pressure of the situation.
If that is the case, then why does Kobe Bryant appear so cool during the course of a game? Although he lets his emotions out, it isn’t nearly as outward as that of Garnett. It is simply another way of dealing with the pressure. Instead of releasing his stress hormones through adrenaline like that of Garnett, Bryant uses his mind to deal with the stressors that are in the environment. The innate health model of stress shows that people attempt to get into a state of mind that releases the hormones caused by stress through the means of a quiet mind. Instead of releasing everything outwardly, Bryant channels his fears through a thought process that determines his response to pressure.
Despite the differences, both players have had great success with each type of reaction to their stressful environment. As a person deals with acute stress more throughout their life, they learn techniques that allow them to adapt to the situation. By finding the key to relaxing your stress agent, people can become more productive and healthier. The key is to not be afraid to try new strategies when you feel a stressful agent presenting itself. This could lead to the breakthrough of overcoming pressure for you like the NBA greats mentioned above.