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 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.
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.
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.
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.
It's a different challenge, but something we've tried to do all season long is just learn how to play with one another. And what I mean by that is to play to everybody's strengths, know what our weaknesses are and how to counteract that, pretty much pick each other up.
I think it's a learning experience. We've learned we have to do a better job of closing those games. We'd much rather have won them, but we're not that far off. A play here and there and we're in a completely different position right now.
We've been through so much. When I try to play the game, I try to please him. So when he's happy with my performance, it makes me happy because I learned the game from him. He taught me how to play.
I can't take credit for what's happening out there. I learned it all by watching tapes of Elgin, Oscar Robertson and all the great players. I stole everything and incorporated it into my game.
I didn't even know the record existed until a couple of days ago. I never, in my wildest dreams, dreamed of being in such great company like Elgin. There have been a lot of great players in this franchise and I have learned a lot from some of them.
When we all walked in, you could feel their spirits being uplifted, like they felt very encouraged and happy that we were there. It was just real cool to see that. To be able to go back (to New Orleans), play a game there and be able to uplift them again, that's special.
We both know what we need to do. And we're both determined to make it happen.
We botched the play up and didn't execute it right. The spacing was messed up. We had a nice screen and roll situation. ... We just didn't execute if properly.
We're more than good. It's beyond comprehension. That's my guy. We go out on the road. After games, we sit and talk. We review film on the plane. That's why it bothers me when somebody says something like that.
We're pleased with the way we played. We feel good.