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
We knew it was a big game. Especially playing them in this city. We needed this win.
We've been allies for a long time, ... We've had our public battles, but we know each other so well. When pressure situations came, he knew I'd be able to orchestrate the offense exactly how he wanted it.
I thought we'd have our ups and downs being that it's a new system, trying to learn it. It's just moving the ball, spacing, timing, rhythm, things like that. I knew it would kind of be like a roller-coaster ride.
He knew what he did. When he hit me, he knew what was going to happen. It just sharpened my focus.
During the regular season, when everyone was trying to learn the offense, Phil and I both knew I was going to have to shoulder the scoring load. Now in the playoffs, everyone has a rhythm for the game and we can start attacking as a union.
This was a must win for us. We played well the entire trip, but it's just that we weren't able to close things out. Tonight was a win that we desperately needed.
We didn't execute. Tonight they stepped up their pressure.
This weekend is smooth for me. I'm looking forward to competing with these guys, getting out there on the floor and competing and trying to raise the game for all of us.
We want to go into the road trip playing with some momentum, playing with some kind of rhythm.
We just fell right in line with what we are supposed to do. Lamar is such a great facilitator, he takes a load off of my shoulders. I can just focus on putting the ball in the basket and he becomes the facilitator for our team.
You guys can go in there anytime. Crack open a book. Expand your imagination and read and learn because that is truly the key to success. The more you know, the more power you gain.
You guys are going to make your own assessment. I'm not going to comment. We're going to move on and win games. Shaq and I are going to move on and be teammates and win another championship.
We got some pretty good looks down the stretch, ... They didn't go down for us.
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?