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'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.
I've been in a lot of playoff battles but never had one quite like this. We had our backs against the wall and we were seemingly out of it.
I've been double-teamed like I was tonight before, so that's nothing we haven't seen. But I'm beginning to think that this is the formula for playing us, and other guys are just going to have to step up and make their shots.
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.
You got to talk to the team when plays break down, but nothing close to what (reporter Peter) Vecsey or (TV analyst David) Aldridge said.
You give us two or three days in the playoffs to prepare for a team, study them and break them down, and we'll see. That's what he lives for. That's what the system is all about.
We are a much better team right now. We are playing really well and executing very well. We are moving the ball and defensively we are working hard, hustling and closing out the shots.
We executed a lot better in the second quarter. Defensively we did a great job. We played hard. Lamar had a great game.
We had mental lapses in the fourth quarter. It comes from us not playing together for a long time. It comes from inexperience.
We've made some significant strides. I look for us to make more significant strides. We're not in a position where we're playing our best basketball.
That was a great class. A lot of great players came out of that draft. I don't think people are fully aware of the talent that came out of that draft.
It feels good to be mentioned among the elite players who have ever played the game.
We are a young team and we played extremely well tonight. We just take it game by game and we are starting to see more success.
We played hard tonight. Even the last two games that we lost on the road, we played hard. We just did not come through down the stretch of the game. Tonight was no different. We are a physical team and we got after them a little bit. All around, it was a good victory.