there was a window of time (in which he won MVP) where they got rid of illegal defense, people would just camp out under the rim so you had to find other places to score. this was prior to the "illegal screens are now mostly legal" pussyball era.

Kobe used to take shots that were on paper, bullshit... but make them to get around the new defense.

In retrospect, his "Michael Jordan Standom" shouldn't have worked but it did.