As a Lakers fan and talking with other fans of other teams, Celtics, Spurs, etc, a lot of them may not like the Lakers, but all acknowledge Kobe Bryant's abilities and his unrelenting work ethic. This made me wonder, Kobe indeed wants to be the best and keeps enhancing his game (i.e. working his post game, adopting Dirk's one-legged step back fadeaway, etc.). But, this unrelenting work ethic is seen in lot of older players such as Dirk, Tim Duncan etc. This led me to wonder, how come this type of work ethic that Kobe and many other older players posses to me seems to be a common criticism of a lot of younger players. Is this a new trend in today's basketball culture or merely a lack of maturity due to youth, or both? If my perception is skewed feel free to enlighten me.