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.
You think about what they went through and have to ask yourself, 'How well would you get through the same thing?' Their strength is just tremendous. It's just overwhelming.
That's not what we play for. That's not what it's about. It's not to score 70 points. We wanted to win the game, and the game was in the bag. It was in the refrigerator.
That is experience and age. They are veterans and knowing what they need to do within their system to maximize the whole. They have guys who are extremely talented.
That's a good, astute observation. I wanted the shot. I always want the ball in my hands. They had me covered. I wish I could have gotten a better screen on the play. But Luke had a good look in the corner.
That just shouldn't happen. Next time, I'll guard him.
It's a different feel than I'm used to, that's for sure.
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.
It's a great feeling, to do it here at Staples Center in front of our fans kind of an early Christmas present to them.
I told him it was all him. 'This is you, being a warrior.
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).
It meant a lot to me that he saw the difficult time I had last season, taking the brunt of the load, and him wanting to come back and help me out through the process, ... It's important for me to get his back.
It really hasn't set in. To sit here and say I grasp what happened tonight, I'd be lying.
It's a huge honor. I'm very proud to be a part of the team and us trying to gain back what we feel is ours -- and that's the gold medal.