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
I try to show my daughter that you have to compete at everything. You can't back down. I want my kids to understand that so when somebody puts an obstacle in front of you and says you can't do something, you don't back down. You push through that to get something accomplished. I tried to set that tone for her even at an early age. She's competitive already at the age of 3. Seriously.
Christmas morning, I'm going to open presents with my kids. I'm going to take pictures of them opening the presents. Then I'm going to come to the Staples Center and get ready to work.
I enjoy playing at the heart of it is just a kid who really loves playing the game of basketball.
I was an idiot when I was a kid.
Basketball is my refuge, my sanctuary. I go back to being a kid on the playground. When I get here, it's all good.
Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It's stupid. It doesn't teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don't know how to post. They don't know the fundamentals of the game. It's stupid.
Can I jump over two or three guys like I used to? No. Am I as fast as I used to be? No, but I still have the fundamentals and smarts. That's what enables me to still be a dominant player. As a kid growing up, I never skipped steps. I always worked on fundamentals because I know athleticism is fleeting.
I mean, it's tough to make the jump, ... So you know, the person's going to be faced with a lot of challenges, some ups and some downs...I can't speak on behalf of other players, but I can only speak on behalf of myself. And in that situation, you know, it was best for me to skip college and go straight to the pros. It worked out well.
I know this city is used to championships, and I am as well. But it's one step at a time, and this is a step in that direction.
I'm proud of us. We came back and played hard. We got into a big hole in the first quarter but we were able to fight back. Late in the fourth quarter, we were able to make a push and give ourselves an opportunity to win the game. Both teams played hard, it's a shame somebody had to lose.
I'm just sick and tired of talking about it. It's been two years. Enough is enough.
It's such a learning curve. Once you start getting it, it usually comes at the end of the season. Everybody is pretty much in rhythm and in tune with one another, and then you start playing better.
It's not going to have any carry-over effect from a mental standpoint or anything like that. Everything's thrown out the window. It's a new season.
Everyone is not jumping for joy with finally making the playoffs but it is a big accomplishment for us being that we didn't make it last year and nobody expected us to make it this year and here we are.