By Tanner Garrity The one time I met Coach K — I was a kid, waiting for him to sign a mini basketball — I asked him who was the hardest worker on the Olympic team. Without taking a second to think he replied “Kobe Bryant. Kobe is always the first guy in the gym.” That didn’t come as a surprise to me at the time, and it probably wouldn’t to you now. Kobe’s name, along with those of a half-dozen other maniacally prepared pros, has long been synonymous with work. First to practice, last to leave: Mamba mentality. There is no such thing as extra credit in this doctrine; there are only more opportu…