Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryantis an American retired professional basketball player. He played his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. He entered the NBA directly from high school and won five NBA championships with the Lakers. Bryant is an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and 12-time member of the All-Defensive team. He led the NBA in scoring during two seasons, and ranks third on both the league's all-time regular season scoring and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth23 August 1978
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it,
Sacramento has added a player in the mix that is everything that they weren't when we played them in the playoffs. The guy plays defense first, and now Sacramento has become much more aggressive on defense.
Very surprised. Shocked actually. Very, very surprised. I've been hit with a couple of flagrant fouls already this year. I've been hit with a clothesline and no suspensions come of that. And I get two games for this?
You got to talk to the team when plays break down, but nothing close to what (reporter Peter) Vecsey or (TV analyst David) Aldridge said.
You give us two or three days in the playoffs to prepare for a team, study them and break them down, and we'll see. That's what he lives for. That's what the system is all about.
We are a much better team right now. We are playing really well and executing very well. We are moving the ball and defensively we are working hard, hustling and closing out the shots.
We are on a journey, and to put on a show like this for the fans here in L.A. is truly something special. I grew up in front of these people, and now they are seeing me as an older, young man.
We did a good job of digging in defensively. We just tried to keep them uncomfortable. Try to take them out of their sets and try and take them out a little bit of the things they like to do.
We executed a lot better in the second quarter. Defensively we did a great job. We played hard. Lamar had a great game.
We had mental lapses in the fourth quarter. It comes from us not playing together for a long time. It comes from inexperience.
We've made some significant strides. I look for us to make more significant strides. We're not in a position where we're playing our best basketball.
That was a great class. A lot of great players came out of that draft. I don't think people are fully aware of the talent that came out of that draft.
That's unthinkable. It's pretty exhausting to think about.
I wasn't really looking to attack or to assert myself. I think we had a lot of things we could take advantage of, and we did that. We had them right where we wanted them, just a couple of bounces didn't go our way.