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
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.
Weird things happen in the NBA, and tonight was one of them. We had a chance to win the game and just didn't close it out. They made some big shots down the stretch and came away with the victory. Even though (Odom) made a mistake, as a team, defense down the stretch cost us the ballgame.
From the start of the series we've been playing extremely well, moving the ball, reading the defense well. It's been a progress.
I think their experience kicked in and overwhelmed us a bit tonight, ... We kept fighting back and did some great things with our execution. Our inexperience on defense hurt us, as they were spreading the floor extremely well and getting good looks at the basket.
They got hot in the third quarter. They made a lot of big plays when they missed, and on defense they were scrapping and hustling.
I was aggressive. I saw how they played defense and decided to come at them.
It gives us confidence. It shows that our play is not a fluke. We move the ball consistently and play defense consistently. This bodes well for our confidence.
He had an incredible game. Believe it or not, he can do this on a consistent basis and the challenge he gets is judging how to pick the defense we are going to have to penetrate.
He thinks defense first, he's committed to playing defense for all 48 minutes.
At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area.
That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we’ve progressed as a society? Well, we’ve progressed as a society, then don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself.
We just wanted to tighten them up. They looked too comfortable in the first half. We just wanted to put a little more pressure on them and challenge them a bit.
with force and violence against her will by choking her with his hands around her neck while bending her over a chair in the hotel room.
We got some pretty good looks down the stretch, ... They didn't go down for us.