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
From the start of the series we've been playing extremely well, moving the ball, reading the defense well. It's been a progress.
I didn't shoot well for three-fourths of the game. I've had some games like that where I don't start off well, but I know if I stay within the game and keep shooting I can get hot at the end.
They did a good job defensively. They were just crowding me and trapping me every time I came off a pick-and-roll or when I was in transition. We were playing so well as a team. Everybody was contributing. We had a nice lead. There was really no reason for me to push it or force shots.
What people see on court is another side of me; it's not me.
I'm not jumping through the gym by any means. But I don't need to be able to do that in order to be a great player.
They got hot in the third quarter. They made a lot of big plays when they missed, and on defense they were scrapping and hustling.
I wasn't really looking to attack or to assert myself. I think we had a lot of things we could take advantage of, and we did that. We had them right where we wanted them, just a couple of bounces didn't go our way.
Lamar is such a great facilitator, he takes a load off my shoulders so I don't have to facilitate, I can just focus on putting the ball in the basket.
I'm proud of us. We came back and played hard. We got into a big hole in the first quarter but we were able to fight back. Late in the fourth quarter, we were able to make a push and give ourselves an opportunity to win the game. Both teams played hard, it's a shame somebody had to lose.
I think it's great. You know, just putting the past behind us, just move on. We had three great years together. I think it was important for the fans to see. It was good for us to be able to put this behind us and move on.
My brain . . . it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I sit there and have to face myself and tell myself, 'You're a failure' . . . I think that's almost worse than death.
The people who truly know me know what I'm like. There have been people who try to say things that aren't fair, and I check them. And then they don't like me because I checked them.