End of an Era: A Conversation With NBA Great Kobe Bryant

good morning everybody I'm Jim Gray welcome you to the Milken Institute everybody is here to see this man the one and only the great kobe bryant kobe thank you for joining us thank you for having me how's your first week of retirement it's been good it's been good you know I I wish I could say I've been relaxing but I have it but it's uh it's been fun you leave with a 60 point game and we had a chance to talk right after the game very very few people can leave like that but does it cause you to retrace in your brain perhaps I can still do this maybe I'm leaving a little bit too early instead of a little bit too soon it could but you know I consider myself very lucky because it's I didn't stop playing the game because I didn't feel like I could play at a certain level anymore you know I stopped playing because I just didn't want to do it anymore you know it's just kind of why after 20 years what hit you you know I it's just I think it's just part of of evolution you know I felt like I wanted to move on to something else and my passion and my focus started shifting towards what comes next versus being completely obsessed with the game itself so I had that inner comfort of walking away from the game nothing to do with scoring 60 or 50 or whatever the case may be that was completely irrelevant to me if you had a better team the last couple of years when made a difference seriously when it make a difference six seven eight nine or whatever my man wouldn't matter because I know when I made it the announcement made the decision and I kept tossing and turning with how do you know and I kept thinking well I want this to be the last year but we'll see what happens at the end of the season all right we'll see what happens if I get on a contending team we win but the reality is you can't make this type of a decision based on outside circumstances right this must be a decision that comes from within either you want to play or you don't want to play and the question once I answer that question it was very easy let's go back to the beginning I remember when you came into the league and I remember you playing in the bowels over the spectrum as a very very little little boy and then to see you at Lower Merion High School and then you came into the NBA was with the Hornets for about 20 seconds and then became a Laker what was your expectation of yourself and your goal when you came into the league god it's hard to remember back that long yeah I remember being extremely excited but also being extremely focused because there was a lot of talk as to whether or not I was making the right decision there's a lot of people that that were saying I was going to be a failure and so I remember my concentration being extremely extremely high and not having even one day to really enjoy it or celebrative when I was back at the gym and working extremely hard because I felt like there was just so much at stake was it your goal to be the best basketball player on the planet yes it was yeah did you achieve that well it's funny like you guys a kid you know I was growing up and saying I want to be the greatest that ever played right and then as you get older you start understanding it is really there's no real answer to that right and I found a lot of comfort once I realized that my goal really is to be the best player I can be and then what that means that means helping my teammates be the best players that they can be and once I figured that out then my game went to another lovely when did you figure that out and how did you figure that out what was the transformation trial and error it was a process I mean you keep banging your head into a wall you know eventually you're gonna try to look for the door and the key you know and so that's what I had to do and it was a lot of research from years a lot of reading it was a lot of study it was a lot of listening and try to really figure out what makes people take and how do you motivate your teammates it's one thing to say do this do that but how do you really motivate them to the point where they feel where they're the ones asking the questions of how to improve themselves like how do you flip the switch with help somebody flip the switch within themselves to want to reach their full potential and that that's really the dance so you're banging your head against this wall on this door are you saying at that time you were stubborn I'm stubborn now I mean you know there's a little less stubborn I'm stubborn with a greater sense of perspective how about that when they came to you with questions how did you know how to motivate and who you could push and who you couldn't was that also trial and error yeah it is and it was but for the most part you know what I had to become better I was just listening just listen I know the guys are they'll they'll tell you how they're feeling they'll tell you you know where their insecurities lie where their strengths are and you just have to listen and have to really understand it and it's hard in professional sports because like if you watch a game you watch the team's warm-up right you'll see players that most of the players are really locked in internally like they're locked in to their own situation you know their routine right and what I started doing is I started stepping back and instead of working on this shot that shot before a game I started watching you know what is Powell doing what is Lamar doing and was deficient or you can kind of see you know what their temperament is so it's it's listening it's listening and it's also observing and taking that all into account so what's it like to be you I mean very few people I mean Michael Jordan Wayne Gretzky Joe Montana Tiger Woods are at Tom Brady are at the pinnacle and can walk around with this moniker of the best basketball player on the planet the best anything on the planet you don't have a moment really to yourself it's impossible to have a conversation with you anytime unless we're sitting in your home because there's a crush everybody wants your time so I'm just wondering how do you handle that and what's it like to walk around as you well you know it's uh you know there's there's that aspect to it but there's also the aspect where you really have an opportunity to make it a lot of people have come up to you in the street to shake your hand they want to talk about being at the eighty one point game or the 60 point game there you get a chance to make a lot of people happy it's easy to look at the negative side of those things but I think the positive vastly outweighed and they use did you suffer because you were so myopic the tunnel vision and and and wanting to attain your goals um suffer no friends no these are his words folks here not mine a lot of this tongue-in-cheek Matt you know it's uh obviously have friends oh I know you did but you know what I mean I know what you laugh they have a friend takes time you have to have an investment sure sure yeah it's uh these are choices like I made a conscious choice to go after my passion obsessively it's a conscious decision so it's not like you know missed out on that II missed out on that like it no I made a choice to consciously miss out on those things because I'm much rather be here it's more about the sacrifice I guess is the question but that's my point it's not a sacrifice to me okay I'm saying it's not a second like this is my choice like I rather do this like if you put a you know both ice cream in front of the kid and a plate of broccoli the kids probably need ice pain right so to me the game is the ice cream to some people on the outside all this hard work looks like broccoli it's all perspective you had a lot of ice cream in a different way lotta ice cream how much do you detest a lack of hard work and despise lazy it drives me crazy I don't understand it but but you know at the same time I was a talk to my kids about hard work and stuff and I say honey you can either be the line and you can be the gazelle nature needs both so you gotta have a hard working people you have to have lazy people way to see it's the balance of all things right so how much rather you'd be the lion if you want to be the gazelle honey be the fastest gazelle in the world you know how do kids take that conversation I'll be the lion if I ask my girl all right so when you saw that you couldn't motivate others and they were lazy or they didn't put out the same effort that you had in yourself and expected in them how did you respond well I I grew up to Phil Phil's office and Mitch's office and we have a nice salary cap conversation about how we can move these players and get him out of here pack them up and move them out so you were the general manager well no but I was the one that was like listen at the end of the day and the career said and done you know I'd be damned if I don't lose if I lose these championships because I'm playing with a bunch of lazy dudes this is not happening right so either you know this train is going this way one way or the other and you're gonna be on it you're gonna be off it you're gonna be under by it's just it is what it is it is what it is so if you you know I like to motivate players to be better I don't want to have to motivate you to get in the gym in the first place not the motivation getting a gym in the first place you probably you're probably playing basketball because it was easy for you or whatever other reason that's not your true calling that's not your true passion maybe it was something else and you know I just want to help you find it someplace else so I'm really like doing them a favor how would you describe yourself as a teammate extremely unselfish as you just saw like I'm helping them out what can I do man congratulation thank you amplify on that if you would would you put your arm around a guy was it always tough love how would you go about it so yeah you have to balance those things so you know every teammate responds differently right like you know POW responds differently you have to be able to push power needle POW a little bit understand when I put your arm around and talk to them you know it's it's it's a fine to find dance and you can't treat them all equally and it goes back to listening you have to be able to listen to the guys and understand who they are as people what their journey has been to get to this point and they're from that you can make decisions in the moment of how to respond to certain situations with them how did you do that with Shaq well with Shaq was interesting with Shaq I had to challenge that all the time all the time I mean we'd be in practice and you know mark Madison who's on the second team yo mark could be you know Mark's like full of energy all the time and like we're coming off of the back-to-back and Phil Nevers gave us days off right we show up to practice and Mark's just running in the shack and just you know Shaq's just trying to not to get hurt at this point and you know I would just go to feel and say Phil hey put me on the second team so we put me on the second team and I'm playing with mark and all it takes just one just one can sit Shaq you're not the most dominant center of all time you're not gonna best player on the team then that's it and all of a sudden it's trash-talking all day you know the physical the physicality of the practice goes to another level and you know poor amar and he's just like demolished poor gonna have to pay but that's how let you're being serious weren't you oh that's kidding on the level but you were there were various maintenance but you can't you can't really you can't talk trash to say things that are just unrealistic you know what I'm saying I got be it like I'll play in there was a game in Utah doing a playoff mmm back in the day and uh I'm in I'm taking the ball out of bounds like the fourth quarter and a fan yells behind me goes Kobe you're garbage that's her I said dude be more creative say something that's kind of somewhat realistic that can like needle me a little bit so what's the best what's the best thing you heard from a fan Thank You Washington did he drive you crazy no no I was I was too young for that like I was on a I watched him you know drive everybody else crazy but um when 2005 2006 I would give you can't win without Shaq okay I had no response as I had to just bite my time into but I remember that fan he was in Sacramento I do so right behind the scorer's table with the cowbell after 2009 I went back and said hey I see you yeah and there's somebody we see here in the front row that I want to acknowledge I want to thank he's made it better for all of us that's commissioner David Stern they you know it's um I grew up you know when I'm growing up overseas the game wasn't as global then as it is now and so my grandfather used to record all the game send me all the games you know but the thing that I don't even know if he knows but the biggest impact that he had on me was the NBA Entertainment Division because all the videos that they used to put out the history of the game the golden grades back to back video to come fly with me - Larry legends and also so if I used to sit at home and just digest these things man just digest them and so you know I learned the game so much from those videos and obviously what he's done for the game down is so international it's unbelievable let's go back to Shaq for a moment did it work in terms of motivation and did you get more out of him or did it just cause this Gulf that became so wide that it was not able to coexist now we were smart enough to understand what we were doing for each other like we knew that we needed each other to be successful and the tension that we had with each other created an environment of brutal honesty brutal honesty my teammates felt I wasn't passing the ball to him I didn't see him they'd say it if I felt like Shaq was completely out of shape I'd say it and so that trickled down throughout an entire organization where this brutal honesty for the benefit of for the goal of winning a championship was what we stood for so from the outside you see this tension you see this friction but internally we understand that this is getting us to to this place so work just fine so then what caused the ultimate fracture you can't win without sag dude seriously right so it's that challenge that created that separation eventually because you know I read a story where Shaq said that I couldn't win without him once I saw that I was like okay we're done yeah we'll see because you know it's it's I felt like I had a lot more in there and I wasn't going to retire without knowing if I could have so you satisfied what you wanted to do on your own now do you look back and you say that was good that I did that or do you feel somewhat maybe remorseful or melancholy that perhaps if you'd have stayed together you'd have had even more no I'm happy I had five years for I'm okay with that and how are you all today fantastic because I have five he has four so we're all good no I mean we see each other we catch up all the time you know you asked me about my kids asking about his and it's great man mm-hmm during that period though things were not easy there was also a Gulf and a problem with your coach Phil Jackson who I know you have the ultimate respect for but there was a time that and I'll just say what you told me you'd like to choke this guy look oh no question no question but looking back now the thing that I wish I could have done differently is structured some kind of business arrangement we're selling all these damn books about me at least let me get a royalty on it now you can have your own book to tell the truth you're gonna do that not oh I got other stuff to do but when he wrote those things I think a lot of people think the professional athletes don't have feelings and so when something is written or said about you that it just rolls right off and maybe that does with certain riders and certain people but when it's your coach it has to sting and hurt how did you react to that yeah it did but you know by that time I was really really good at taking negative things and just refocusing them right so I didn't linger didn't I used those things to help me get up at 4 a.m. and hit the track and then hit the weights and then get the shots like I used that as a source of motivation for me so no matter what said the appositive would be a negative when you have the point of view that no matter what is said it's going to do nothing but fuel my passion then you really does nothing anybody can say that's really going to take you backwards I mean because you just use it also I want to amplify on that and by doing so let's take a look at the symphony commercial I've been too long to stop don't you want to be free Mahe was growing stronger as you became a habit that's brilliant was that your idea um the Corbett yes so once we sat around I came up with the idea of what hero villain represents from that cinema an idea that originated in Kobe ink then it became very easy to parcel those things off to our various partners you know an IGN sold for fright but the idea starts with us at its core of what the hero villain is and then from that day's gonna be created explain the hero villain hero villain is a simple philosophy of you take how do you challenge channel the villain to unleash the hero how to use darkness to create greatness that's the that's the premise of it so why do you think you were booed particularly that night in Philadelphia and we did the interview together at the all-star game and you played very well and you're from Philadelphia and the boos are pouring down while we're doing this interview and while you're wrapping up the game and it set me back and I'm not you yeah what are you thinking while this is going on and I are you wondering why no it's that's tough I mean you feel they believe in Santa Claus before seriously literally um so no I mean it's but you're still young and impressionable at that time or at least you know not not with the warrior travel hardened I know but that drive was still there man that you know taking those negative experiences and using them that was that was always there right so once I had that once I embraced it I just I used it I used it was there a model you followed perhaps Ollie or somebody who you'd seen have this sort of circumstance um not one in particular but I used to read a lot and watch a lot about people who have done phenomenal things I've created great things and then try to ask okay how they did him and then why and kind of what was their journey you know what's their process and and not so much like that like the actual executional details of how you create X Y & Z but it's more so the inner journey that they go through and from that I was able to learn a lot myself but I was always still now I mean reading a lot and learning a lot like what what type of books what type of material people you know the journey that people go through what is the inner conversation that they have the inner monologue how do you how do each of us navigate through our own insecurities all moments of doubt and then when you have those doubts understanding where those doubts come from in the first place you know and I think once you understand that and really you can create anything you want it's just a matter of first how to navigate the journey of the self and once you have that you can be dropped into any industry whatsoever and you can figure it out we see you as a real confident guy you'll take every last shot you'll go out and you'll take 50 shots what doubts do you have about yourself internally it's not I've never doubted such a strange thing I mean it's you know there'll be times where you succeed there are times that you fail so waste wasting your time doubting whether you're gonna be successful and not is pointless it is you just put one foot in front of the other you control what you can't control and then you see what the outcome is right if you went great you're gonna have to wake up the next day and do the journey over again if you lose sucks but you have to wake up the next day and do the journey all over again anyway right so it's really pointless to sit here and debate or have doubt understand the other you train as hard as you can and you step out there and you let it flow how much did the losses bother you well they bother me but then I was able to let him go big losses championship losses pistons 2004 yeah you let him go you what I did is I learned from him you know very specific things like against the Pistons we didn't execute well enough to beat the Detroit Pistons I'm gonna get all basketball techie or whatever but I can't help myself so if you watch the series the Pistons brought pressure full-court right which forced us to stretch our offense in order to stretch the triangle offense you really have to be sharp like you have to understand what the sequences of options are stone-cold to run it 94 feet and we weren't ready to do that you know if you look at the series you compare that to Larry Brown in Philadelphia when we played in 2001 and he tried to apply the same pressure and we beat the hell out of him because that team was extremely well prepared to execute that and I point the finger on myself and I put my teammates in those right positions from day one so that we were ready for that in case that happen are you a perfectionist for better for worse yeah so was your experience a joyous occasion or did you become like many people who touch perfection can never really totally harness it nobody can so were you tortured by the journey no whoa I'm realistic I'm a real I'm a realistic professional about that it's pretty good you understand and knowing that perfection can never be a team but it sure there's a hell of a lot of fun trying to get it but some of your brethren in fact people who you're close to drives him so crazy that they can't function Tiger Woods you know an unbelievable 15 year run and dominant like we've never seen but it was totally joyless each step was a struggle becomes hard I mean how did you know how to become realistic as a perfectionist well because you know I know that perfection isn't a real thing like there's some people when if we relate just insanely competitive about everything right so like you know if you come up to me and say hey let's play ping-pong and you know there's bet five bucks on this ping-pong game now watch you play and you're better than I am I'm good I'm not gonna fly I can't beat you why how am I gonna do that Michael Michael and I had this conversation recently so okay not at your retirement you can come out with me and play golf no okay so you're gonna have to play golf yeah now with you though good plan since college like you want to get me out there just kill me like no I'm not a golfer I'm not gonna play I'm a realist so take us inside what's your conversations with Michael would be because you guys are one in two of a kind he he looks like a big brother from second time I play him to 1998 and asked him a couple questions and he gave me some very detailed responses and he said hey I'm gonna send send over my number if you need anything just just call and to this day I Colin for anything calls me right back and we'll have very in-depth conversations he'll share it whatever it is that he's learned over his career and be a leadership or you know how to chase cows off the screens and he's been a fantastic mentor leadership is an interesting question how did you know when to lead and when to be passive all right I can get from the given give a very weird answer to that just like stay with me for a second so we my wife and I went on vacation after 2000 and 2008 finals we lost the southeast and we're on vacation in France and we're walking around and the thing that was really beautiful to me was how beautiful everything was how beautiful nature was the flower the trees everything was just gorgeous and my mind got to thinking well I noticed the beauty of these things in there in there elements but these things cannot be beautiful without the Sun but yet I'm not sitting here and saying wow the Sun is so beautiful then I am appreciating their own standalone beauty right and by the same token the Sun also knows when to disappear right too much of the Sun comes hazardous right and so that helped me understand how to lead my team right so when you come back in 2009 and you watch the Lakers play and now watching Lamar Odom playing saying wow he's great because Kobe's there Kobe's making him better right that's not you know yeah you have to sit and watch the game and appreciate Lamar Odom in his own right Powell in his own right so as a leader in practice you're there you're helping them grow but you also have to know when they go away right and let them grow in their own and so that walk kind of helped change my perspective on how I approach reading so you were still learning and that's 12 years into the journey distillers no we're not yeah still learning no so when you backed off and people would say he's not leading I just thought they were just very stupid people okay but you read that yeah you'd see that yeah and obviously you read and saw a lot more than you ever indicated you written and saw no I don't know seriously I just got you know I commentating in a broadcasting a lot of times it's just very it's like very surface information it's like things that are very easy to digest like okay you make your teammates better by passing the ball you pass him when he missed 30 times I mean that's right the key is not passing the ball the key is how do you motivate them so that they stay in the gym hour after practice shooting shots and making shots so that when they do get the ball they're ready to knock it down you know that's making people better there's how do you get them to want to be the best version of themselves that's making somebody better truly better so did what we say or what the media wrote piss you off no I found it funny so you're like that it wasn't like a source of motivation for me it was always like kind of like the cherry on top I can just kind of needle you guys every now and they would you guys were wrong but I never really motivated me if I needed it I'd use it but it wasn't something that drove me day in and day out explain what it's like to focus and to have that vision or maybe even a little wider than the vision of what's necessary to win well it's um you know you watch Game film and you study what the team does well but they don't do well what they like to run when they like to run it strengths weaknesses yadda yadda yadda and then from that you devise your plan and then you go out and you try to execute that plan and now after you have that plan you also have to have a backup right because you have to count on them making adjustments right so if they make adjustments I have to be able to go to POW and you know being prepared you have to go to policy okay they did this like we thought they were going to do like we talked about it now let's go to this right so it's nothing more than homework I don't have to be lying on imagination or being creative to be creative you sit down you watch prepare and the answers are literally right in front of you you know but it's just taking the time to sit and watch it what's winning the only thing that mattered to you it was at the beginning but after that after a while there and particularly after 2008 it became getting the best out of the other guys and I'm playing with that became my mission and funny things once that happened then we started winning so I believe knowing you that your greatness is in your future that it's not in the rearview mirror of what you've done on the basketball court how are you going to apply everything that made you what you are and got you to this point now in Kobe ink and you're after basketball life well I mean the hardest part for that has been trying to figure out what comes next you know it's used to terrify me 20 21 years old looking at athletes we've retired and really have nothing to go to kind of try to figure it out I can retire and then you say okay I got to figure things out and I didn't want that you know so at the age of 20 and 21 I started really reading a lot and trying to like fine what do I love to do and you know I was fortunate but unfortunately have to have these injuries you know with your killer used to shoulder and the knee I say fortunate because it gave me a lot of time to think gave me a lot of time to sit gave me a lot of time to say man my career could be over right now and all of this work that you've done trying to figure out what comes next you're unprepared for right I didn't want that so I kept thinking asking the wrong question what's the biggest industry I can get into from what industry can I could get I can get into that has the biggest upside wrong question and then I started asking what do you like doing what do you love to do the most I love storytelling I absolutely love it I've been loving love it love it love it and so that's what I decided to do so you want to tell stories now with your own story which was Muse which was on Showtime which was a terrific documentary and if you haven't seen it I recommend that you get it on demand or go to Showtime comm that was your first start were you pleased with that effort yeah I was you know it's uh no storytelling gives you such such a broad lens but the opportunities that it that you have in media and technology opportunities that you have to entertain and educate are endless I mean literally story is the seed of everything it's a seed of everything none of us would be sitting in this room right now without the power of story because somewhere somewhere along the lines you either read a story either heard a story that inspired you and that gave you that you know that that that dream of accomplishment what it is that you've accomplished so I think story the story can seriously can literally change the world and extremely fascinated by that and even beyond that storytelling through sports what does that look like you sit there and I'm sure a lot of us have many of you have kids at home that play sports you tuck your kids in the bed you read them a book what sports book are you gonna read to them that touches fantasy that touches the imagination that adds mythology to it there are no stories out there like that and I'm really really really really excited about bringing that to the world how are you doing with it oh great I mean it's it's a long you've been doing this plus basketball it's just not a week-long event now or two weeks oh oh you know it's funny like the day of the last game after the game I got a lot of questions about what this day was like you know and I woke up take the kids to school went to the office and sat there and wrote stories edited stories so four so four 4:30 4:30 went home changed went to the game I can cup the next morning went back to the office guess it wasn't too much different than what you had been doing other than basketball was the the point is and I really want Ashley to understand this is that you really have to work hard to figure out what comes things like for some of us like we were born and basketball was here like I start playing basketball knows too you know and for a lot of us it's really easy that first phase but it's really really hard to find something else that you love just as much or more so right and that's really the key is that keeping yourself busy that you have to figure out what it is that you really want to do like wake up in the morning and say yeah I'm excited to go do this what is that don't you figure that out everything will be fine do you think you'll have that same passion well I have it now I mean I can't you know I'm really really really fortunate to be able to sit here and say that like I you know I love being here with you fine folks but I have to be at the office writing stories right now I sleep so much I enjoy well maybe maybe that'll change how many of you folks out there would like to be in business with Kobe Bryant raise your hand like I don't know after hearing some of these losers go home be a lot of hands there Kobe I think a lot of those people have stories maybe you'll tell their stories I want to go back to a couple of other things here best player you ever faced we tell Michael Jordan n-no no sure yeah it's Michael it would be ever right Michael right of course and now current day ah see the hardest player I had to defend was Kevin Durant he gave me the most problems because of his length and his versatility he's the one I had trouble guarding the most I remember when Julius Erving and you may have been at that game did that great dunk under the rim against the Lakers and the finals and magic was standing there and Magic has a very famous quote afterwards he says you know we really didn't know what to do asked him would he do it again or inbound the ball so I'm wondering who you admire and like watching and became mesmerized with while you were on the court and said jeez I really just did that there's a lot of players maybe you know there's a lot of players have done things during the game while just like damn nice move so nice move and I tell them it was a nice move but I'll be ready for that next time but if they're we're appreciative there's somebody who causes you to style Steph Curry I mean he seems to have captured the imagination of the country and yeah but did they you know the point is that there's so many great athletes and players like they are like Steph Curry does that Westbrook does that and quietly in order to do that Damian Lillard I mean there's a lot of players that'll just do something that it's just so phenomenal and they make it seem so easy that you have to appreciate it so it's happened over and over with me over the years do you have an eye for talent Matt could tell if a player sucks pretty easily all right let's take it back to when there were children because he thought I'm a Thompson as a child you saw Steph Curry as a child did you see greatness in their future no it's it's hard to determine what that is you know I had a bit of Nike skills Academy years ago and Steph was one of the players there and it's just kind of flew under the radar you know because you can see how players shoots you can see how you moves how you passes but what you can see is you can't see what's in here you know you can't see the inner determination that they have or their ability to navigate through their own emotions that you can't see you have to be around a player you have to see them go through things and you have to see how to handle it how they channel that sort of stuff so you know that part's very hard to hard to be so what's this final year been like for you we've seen the adulation we've seen the full circle you've gone from somebody who they cheered for as a real young man coming out of lower merion to being booed to being hated to the hero villain to five championships - now this outpouring which has been unbelievable how has it been to receive this it's been an amazing feeling to have this year we're you know I can say thank you to them and vice versa because they really pushed me to try to be the best version of myself and have all those years we've had these rivalries and these heated confrontations that all come to this point we can kind of look at each other and kind of you know salute each other's it's been great what did you expect did you think this would occur no no I was really surprised first game after I announced it being in Philadelphia and the reaction in the ovation that I got there was was really unexpected I can see a little welling up here in your eyes was there somebody or something along the way that touch me that's not go that far perhaps the lights are just bright was there something that touched you however along the way yeah the game in Philadelphia really did because they you know there's I got here when I was like a baby you know I mean and they remembered me when I was a baby and my coach was there a lot of my high school teammates were there high school friends were there so you know being in that environment was very emotional to have been like the commercials suggested you hate me and I accept that and how to be loved is that a hard adjustment well yeah I mean you played the other one pretty well it worked for you yeah I'm more comfortable in that you know especially when it comes to competition but uh yeah it took a little bit of a little bit of adjusting it was a little uncomfortable I'm not quite sure that do you wave like this like kind of like what do you I'm not sure what to do there he's just kind of like how is your family don't hate parts easy you just how's your family dealt with having to share their father and their husband with the world no they've been great you know they've been around me doing the training and recovery like they've been a part of the process you know and it really happened in their last game when I scored 60 it was like whoa dad what was that you don't know because they hadn't and seen that you know and so it felt good to kind of take him down memory lane a little bit and say you know your dad used to be really really good didn't have to go to youtube tonight no I don't have to go to hit me tonight so now you can see alive and in person yeah that was that was awesome you know I remember when John Madden retired he told me he retired because he wanted to spend more time with his family and he said he was home for about three weeks and his family decided they didn't want to spend more time you have a plan if this doesn't go right house a little bit you're used to traveling yeah I can see how that could happen but no I know like I said I have a very clear purpose or what to do I have something to go to you know I have have something I'm really passionate about so you know and for the last three years I've been injured so I've been at home most of the time anyways right so I know the kids schedules like I know when to pick them up I know when drop-off is I know what's also has ballet I know what's also as I said the other I got I know those things and I know what time I need to be there and also the stuff so I'm already kind of housebroken already you sound like a man who is totally satisfied and totally comfortable with what you've achieved and where you are in life I am I feel I feel fantastic you know it's a it probably be different if I didn't give it my all every day you know and then you have regrets you have regrets I think the key is really not to focus on the accomplishments but more so in the effort that you put in to try to accomplish those things because at the end of the day did you look in a mirror so I gave it everything I had you can be comfortable which is why I feel comfortable saying here today well you gave us all one more thrill a couple of weeks ago so if we can queue up the tape let's take a look at how Kobe Bryant decided to say goodbye at the Los Angeles Toby's got the Lakers last job right sports free he has sex 64 games history had you reviewed that before is this the first time you're seeing this no I watched it and I was like nitpicking right man I should have had a tea I'm looking like at the certain balance you know that one shot a three-pointer I hit the end of the game going left it was like there's no kids in rooms you don't do this but like if you ride on a bicycle in your kid yeah you ever play this game with your friends we have to throw a rock and try to hit like a telephone pole so as you're moving this way you kind of have to throw it back right right if you throw it directly this way you don't miss it right so you kind of gotta throw it back and so hitting that shot I literally thought of being on the BMX bike and trying to hit one of those things seriously because you should look at the shot I'm sliding left so I'm off balance is my laser tire so I had to pull the follow-through back so I had to shoot it back a little bit for it to have a chance to go in so inspirational it good in that game for quite a while how did you will your team backhand and you scored those 17 straight points and at a huge fourth quarter and they got out of your way if that's the right term but you were exhausted how did you do that well because I know there's no tomorrow you know literally but literally I mean it's like you know everything that you have you give but now like I've made the decision to do that I'm comfortable going past exhaustion now becomes a executional thing okay make sure you have in your balance in your shot making sure you read the defense correctly make sure you're taking your time like it went back to light they're like the basics of the game how to handle screen roll we are double teams coming from all those little things it wasn't a championship but on an individual level was it possibly as exhilarating um yeah I'm excited this is what the fans came to see you know I was like this was the moment to say goodbye and you know I wanted to be able to say bye and I'm I called my wife before the game and I said oh it feels it feels like everybody wants to be sad you know I'm not sad like hopefully we can make this night some type of celebration where I can give him something where they're not thinking about the fact that this is my last game like they're just thinking about a hell of a game to watch you know and fortunately it worked out that way and what was the car ride home like that night with Vanessa and your children oh it's about time you play like you kids are like man that was awesome it was awesome but those free throws they were funny because it was you wanted 60 you you knew every word it would be so anticlimactic I missed it but when I if you if you contrast that with the 81 point game and the free throw that I hit there I remember taking a free throw for 81 point game and looking and seeing all the fans standing up and watching and then flip that with this one in Santa at the free-throw line all I saw was the back of phones you know I was like had to refrain from smirking so this was like damn I'm old as hell last time this happened who was his eyeball and I was like the back of phones in fact there's crazies like I see you phones when you had the 81 you grew up in Philadelphia in that arena you saw that picture every time you went into the spectrum of wilt with a hundred yeah Hershey Pennsylvania think about that when you had your 81 I thought about it after thought about it after and I thought about all the times I was kidding I dreamed of scoring 100 points like I dream about it and I try to work it out in my brain like this is this is this can logically be done all right because if you scored 20 points the first quarter now you're on fire second quarter you have 20 if you've scored twenty one quarter you can't score 20 another right she scored 22 first score 22 second that's a 40 point naive already all right and so now you're rolling so at that point the moe just feeds upon itself so now you come out the third quarter get off to a good start I have ten quick points all of a sudden there you are sitting that fifty with a lot of game to go alright and so that's how I always kind of process that and worked it out to believe that is this is actually possible when you look back in that game do you think you should have had more just like when you look back on your championship do you think more about the games you won and the titles you want or the couple that got away I do both I do it I do a balance of both and I enjoy it but I also look at things that I could have done differently you're done better cuz that's that's how you learn you have to be able to look at things and not just like like the last game was something I could look at the highlights just for pure entertainment you know and just make little criticisms but yeah I let it go what do you wanna do them right we're back then it was like you have to look at those performances and nitpick every little thing to learn from Kobe congratulations it's been a wonderful career it's been my honor to have been able to cover you I did the first interview you ever did you allowed me to do the last interview and you're like your uniform it's been a privilege and thank you for all you've given thank you I appreciate

Channel: Milken Institute

Views: 277,992

Keywords: kobe bryant, lakers, nba, nba champion, jim gray, fox, all star, retirement, miglobal

Id: 5ma2oQfiLF4

Length: 53min 49sec (3229 seconds)

Published: Tue May 03 2016