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
It's my job to pick us up when we are down. I had to sharpen my focus.
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 told my teammates to pick up the slack. My hand was bothering me, so it was tough for me to shoot the ball. ... I just decided that I cannot miss these (three at the end).
I started coming off the pick and roll and I was so wide open. It really threw me off at first. It's been two months since I've been that wide open.
I've played sick before. I've played sicker than this. It's kind of old hat for me. You've just got to use your energy more wisely, play a more cerebral game. You have to pick your spots.
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.
In the second half they looked to stop everybody else, and I got going. I picked up the momentum and was able to break the game open.
I'm just achy. You've got to push through it. My teammates talked about doing a better job trying to pick me up sometimes and not having me shoulder the whole load all the time.
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.
We're just not going to do it, period.