So I refer to a game which sees a pawn storm by Black. Does it resemble Kobe's play? Are there other situations in chess or sports which resemble the other? For example, in baseball with a fly ball and runner on third (with less than two outs), the runner is "pinned", since he must "tag up" before running. In football, the pawns easily resemble offensive and defensive linemen in football, moreso when they meet an opposing pawn or piece head-on and just stay there.

I don't know what the equivalence in chess would be, but maybe a Pillsbury game, where the attack does not work until the defenders are called away to quell a skirmish on the opposite side, and there is an opening when they leave. Another Nuremburg game Pillsbury vs Lasker, 1896

I'll bet Dennis Rodman, Jerry Sloan, Michael Cooper, KC Jones, Oscar Robertson, etc. never backed off as Kobe says.

Aim to step on the opponents foot.

He is always nudging the opponent while he tries to attack, getting him slightly off balance, so that the attack almost works, but Petrosian's more nimble forces pick off the attackers as they drive toward his King.

In the second NBA game I ever attended, Piston center Bob Ferry starting pulling down Wilt's shorts while guarding him. Wilt shot out an elbow and Ferry slid about twenty feet across the floor.

Many players have now adopted this technique.

One of the strengths of those Pistons was that they had four first-rate forwards, so they could go all out without worrying about fouls. Mahorn or Aguirre fouls out? No problem, here comes Rodman or Salley. Nice luxury to have.

If at the end Albin defends against the threat of Bxg2+ with 23 gxh3 the Queen dunks over him with 23...Qxf3+ 24 Kg1 Qf2+ 25 Kh1 Nf3 26 Qg2 Qe1+ and mate next.

The Black Queen's back-rank mate potential is just a Sam Jones or John Havlicek jumper waiting to happen, from a pass off an offensive rebound by Russell.

McAdoo became a better team player later in his career, on the Lakers I think, when he was no longer the main guy.

A close game in the fourth quarter may prompt the TV commentator to say that this is a real chess match. (Of course, I'm talking North American football, not soccer.) Here, we see no small compliment to chess.

But...Black's clock was running, even though White was in check (to a hanging bishop no less). So apparently creating a realistic chess game for photographic purposes remains impossible in the 21st century.

Mostly though in sports commentary, the reference to chess just means thinking ahead and is so vague as to be useless.

So a staunch defense on Kobe could lead him to play Bg2 or Bh3, and a defender is left in the dust. A running back in football has similar options, and sometimes runs backwards to outflank the defense, but perhaps does not have as many as eight vectors to travel, since football is so gain-oriented. In basketball and chess, moving backwards is not per se bad, though seems to be in football.

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