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
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.
I was so frustrated with our last loss I said I'll fix it. Tonight I just wanted to attack and send a message. The reason I scored 62 points was because I wanted to win so bad. I just felt that I could continually attack these guys. It's a great feeling that I could do it here in front of our fans and give them an early Christmas present.
He's been doing the defensive part all year long. Sometimes, the people want more. Tonight he gave them more.
I was just determined. I was just locked in, tuned into what was going on out there. These points tonight mattered. We needed them. The points I put in the basket were instrumental. It means a lot more.
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.
Weird things happen in the NBA, and tonight was one of them. We had a chance to win the game and just didn't close it out. They made some big shots down the stretch and came away with the victory. Even though (Odom) made a mistake, as a team, defense down the stretch cost us the ballgame.
It makes me very proud of him. I look at all these guys here like little brothers. And he is out there in practice and working hard. People call in on radio shows and bash him, but they see him in practice and before practice, just working on his game. His improvement tonight just didn't come out of nowhere.
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.
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.
We knew it was a big game. Especially playing them in this city. We needed this win.
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.