The Deep Game of Kobe Bryant (Full-Length Movie)

[Music] [Music] i just looked at it as i want to be one of the best basketball players who've ever played that's the end goal okay how do i get there how do i get through every decision i made in my life was centered around the process of helping me eventually get there just talk about staying in that zone and how you were able to maintain that it's hard man you know there's times where you come out of it and um even myself when i come out of it i i'd be aware of bringing myself right back right because sometimes you have those emotional outbursts right but then you got to find that center again because the next play is imminent you're here right so the most important thing is really standing in a moment and staying present that's all the zone is you know whether it's offensive and being in his own defensively in the zone what that really means is that you're simply hearing the president and the only thing that matters is what's right in front of you and the trick is how do you do that yeah well phil introduced meditation to us when he came to our team in 99 2000 and it was something that i instantly gravitated to because i could see the effects right you i used to watch you know studying the games the bulls teams and watching their demeanor watching their composure playing in a tough place in like utah doing the finals and being down 17 but everybody was like this you couldn't tell if they were down 17 or up 20 or tie game it never changed and i was wondering why the hell that is and that's when i started doing more research and when phil came i immediately gravitated to it and found myself accepting the challenge of finding what that space is and for the 81 point game and to be honest i was i wasn't even thinking about the game my knee was hurting so much um i didn't know then but you know i had to flap a joint of cartilage stuck in my joint line and so my mind was really trying to go to a place where i don't feel that pain and game started and because of that i was just in a different space i wasn't worried about what was to come i wasn't worried about what just happened i was just here and when you're just there in the moment playing plays right in front of you your focus is heightened because nothing else matters and that's the space i've tried to get to i meditate every day i meditate every day and i do it in the mornings and uh i do it for about 10 to 15 minutes and uh i think it's important because it just it it sets me up for the rest of the day you know it helps me it's like it's like it's like having an anchor you know it's uh if i don't do it i feel like i'm constantly chasing the day as opposed to being able to be controlled and dictate the day not that you're you know calling the shots on what comes forward but the fact that i am set and ready for whatever may come my way you know i have a calmness about whatever comes my way and a poise um and that comes from starting the morning off with meditation before you start a game how can you lock in to get into that mental space where nothing else matters you're completely locked in and focused on what you're trying to accomplish as an athlete out here the noise of the crowd doesn't matter whether you're cheering or booing doesn't matter you're just completely locked in how do you do that i bought into the meditation i bought into the deeper connection that exists within the game and so when you watch our teams or you watch any of phil's team so chicago teams game six against utah you watch our games you know game seven against boston we were never rattled ever because we're always in the moment always in the present always extremely calm always looking at the reality of the situation and not letting our emotions cloud our execution and that comes from being in that meditative state that he would teach and preach from day one the 11 point lead right now for the lakers final minute third brian won't go dunking the board that felt good i hate when shots feel good and they don't go in [Applause] but you gotta just tweak it forget everybody going to the next play yeah i don't dwell on miss shots at all i don't think about that stuff very very optimistic if i miss five in a row that means i'm due for the six months i missed the sixth one that means i'm definitely due for the seventh one i missed the seventh one i mean that eighth one's going in [Applause] you know tonight he got the best of me you know i was i wanted it so bad sometimes you want something so bad it slips away from you and uh my guys pick me up i mean i can't i can't say enough about the spaniard but that guy that guy's unbelievable and just a hell of a player and uh we wouldn't have won it without him wait i know when i'm effing up mm-hmm you know what i'm saying i can sit there in the locker room and just relax and collect myself you know i think you know one of phil's um great attributes is that he knows when players need to hear someone when they don't and when they don't he'll give you your space and he knows how bad i wanted this you know but the problem was i wanted it too much and i was exhausted so it was just like you know it was a no-win situation i had i caught a ball at the top of the key late in the fourth quarter and just just lost i mean just stuff like that so when that happens you got to try to step back relax and uh let the things flow so what you have to understand is that those pressures are self-inflicted they're self-made it's in them just the imagination so you have to be able to control your mind and understand exactly that pressure does not exist it does not exist we create pressure ourselves whether somebody's watching or somebody's not watching whether you make it or whether you miss it you're going to get up the next day and you're going to learn and you're going to do it all over again the cycle is just going to keep coming whether you make it or miss it so why worry about it [Applause] that's doing too much it's just a dumb play by me that's just a dumb play should have laid the ball up damn it it's fun it's fun to me there's no pressure in it there's no fear a lot of guys i think when they match up with other great players there's a fear of embarrassment you know to guard them afraid that they might make you look bad i really don't care it's just fun going up against them if you're playing a great player of course it's going to make you look bad sometimes but that's part of the game it is what it is first of all when you try to block something out you just you're just telling yourself to you're just bringing more tissue attention to it by saying don't think about this don't think about that you're going to think about it anyway so what i try to do is i embrace it i embrace it you know it's like a it's like a cloud passing in the night man and you see it it comes to you and then it just there goes right so when i have distractions or media requests or whatever the case may be i see it i recognize it i understand it's there now i let it go right so it's this constant cycle of things that happen instead of being rigid just embrace it just let it go take it let it flow through you and then let it pass you know what i try to do is just try to be still and understand that things come and go emotions come and go the important thing is to accept them all to embrace them all and then you can choose to do with them which you want versus being controlled by emotion you know a lot of times i've seen players even myself and you know when i was younger being consumed by a particular fear um and to the point where you're saying okay nah it's not good to feel fear i shouldn't be nervous in this situation like not and it does nothing but grow versus stepping back and saying yeah i am nervous about the situation yeah i am fearful about the situation but what am i afraid of and then you kind of unpack it and then it gives you the ability to look at it for really what it is which is nothing more than your imagination running its course you know being through toughness really is um it's all about not getting too high getting too low but just kind of standing staying pretty even kill me that's kind of trick to it is uh not to get too emotionally attached to the situation it's one thing to be excited but there's certain certain emotions you gotta watch out for like overlooking plays or getting frustrated because you missed the shot or had a bad turnover and kind of letting that kind of linger now i think it's a point where um i can identify pretty quickly so if something's frustrating me i can always i react to it i can always uh get right back to you know the pocket that i need to be in pretty quickly [Applause] the reason why i say that is because we know it's a big game so a lot of times what happens with your ball club you start you get you get a little too animated there you go you're a little too hyped up and as a result you start blowing these assignments office assignments you just become too into the game and so normally what happens is a couple minutes go by and all of a sudden your emotions settle and now you're ready to play the game the right way i think it's important for athletes to own what it is that they're going through it's awareness right i think a lot of times we try to tell children and tell young athletes in particular um that if you have those thoughts and those feelings that's weakness that's bad you shouldn't be feeling that which then causes them to feel some type of way about themselves and they carry that around with them for the rest of their lives and i think the most important thing is for us to be aware of what's going on in here not that it's bad good and different but it's awareness and once you're aware of it then you can choose to walk hand in hand with it or you can choose to fight it but you're making that decision if you just can constantly bury that in the distance then it starts festering and it comes up in different ways it manifests itself in different ways that's the game that's the trick of the game man is like can you again detach yourself from it can you remove your emotions from the situation emotion's getting away a lot especially in competitive uh competitive situations i think that there's two types of players players who love to win and players who hate to lose which one are you i'm neither me neither uh meaning that you know i i play to to um to figure things out i played to learn something right because i think if you if you play with um with the fear of failure or you play with um the will to win or that supersedes your field fairy i think it's a weakness either way right because if you play with the fear of failing you'll have the pressure on yourself to play you know to capitulate to that fear if you play with the sense of i want to win i want to win then you have the fear of what happens if you don't but if you find common ground in the middle in the center then it doesn't matter you don't phase by either right and that enables you to really just stay in the moment stay connected to it and not feel anything other than what's in front of you so i try to just be dead center if you fail on monday the only way it's a failure on monday is if you decide to not progress from that right so that so to me that's why failure's not existing because you know if i fail today okay i'm gonna learn something from that failure and i'm gonna try again on tuesday and i feel like i'm gonna try again on wednesday so it doesn't exist right so winning is really how you define what winning is for yourself and for your team for your family right so you have to know what your values are how you measure success and then that's all that really matters at the end of the day the champion gets a trophy right but for us and for me when i came in the league we didn't win right away there were other teams that won but i chose to continue to stay focused continue to learn so even though i lost by not winning a championship i won in the long run because i kept on learning and now here i am with five championships but how the public measures what success is and that's okay but that doesn't drive me what drives me is continuing to learn which is why i'm still sitting here after 18 years determined to come back next year with a vengeance what does losing feel like to you oh it's exciting why is it exciting um because it means you have different um ways to get better there are certain things that you can figure out that you can take advantage of right certain weaknesses that were exposed that you need to shore up right so it was exciting i mean it sucks to lose but at the same time there are answers there if you just look at them um because you get the information from losing more than from winning probably yeah yeah i mean the answers are there when you win too you just have to look at them yeah right so it's a constant process it's exciting when you win it's exciting when you lose because the process should be exactly the same whether you win or you lose as you go back and you look and you find things that you could have done better you find things that you've done well that worked figure out how did they work why did they work how can you make them work again yeah and but the hardest thing is to face that stuff you grow up and you make game winning shots and it's awesome you come back the next day and miss a game when it's shot and it's misery and then the next day comes and you're back playing again and you understand that life has this cyclical nature where it's you know what you do on monday it's fantastic but then tuesday's a bad day but guess what there's wednesday so are we just supposed to live our lives like this the whole time you know versus just staying like this and understanding that it's really just a journey of evolution every day it's just constant improvement constant curiosity constantly getting better the results don't really matter uh it's the figuring out that matters yeah and if there's a challenge that ensues oh good i want to see how i stack up to that so you go after you go after it and it's just um it's fun it's like you get a chance to compete against opponents and you get a chance to see where you stack up against them it's like i want to see it maybe i'm not good enough today with that that's fine i'll be good enough the next time i see you though you know and you get a chance to always measure yourself at 13 years old and i played the longer game because my game wasn't about being better than you at 13. it was to be better than you when you know the chips are really on on the line so we played at 13 i would size you up and see what your strengths and weaknesses are how do you approach the game are you silly about it are you goofy about it are you good at it just because you're bigger and stronger than everybody else right or is there actually thought and skill that you put into it right and when i'd play i'd played in my weaknesses i went and played in my strengths i played in my weaknesses because when you're playing summer basketball there's so many games so there's not a lot of skill work being done so when are you going to get better right when you're playing in competition situations you're only playing to your strengths why because you want to win right so what i would do i always work on the things during those games that i was weak at left hand pull up jump shot uh post game right so i have a strategy and so then fast forward to when i'm 17 and my game is completely well-rounded and that player at 13 that i saw at 13 is still doing the same at 17. now you got a problem and so it's always um that competitive nature the work ethic and curiosity because i asked a lot of questions you know playing with byron scott i asked him a lot of questions eddie jones who was great at chasing guards off the screens and i didn't understand how to do that i would sit with him before practice after practice um magic james worthy kurt rambis kareem abdul all the laker greats i would always sit down and just ask him questions about certain games that i studied growing up what actually happened there what did you feel there why you know very tough to defend why because you look slow as to me i'm like i'm missing something so like tell me what i'm missing you know what i mean and so i would always ask questions and try to learn as much as i could it's a good separation for me you know emotionally to be able to put myself in a place where at practice or when i'm training or during games i switch my mind to something else i switched my mode into something else right for me it's the equivalent of maximus desmus meridius and gladiator picking up the dirt smelling the dirt is go time right so that was my mental switch it was like an actor getting ready for a film you got to put yourself in that cage when you're in that cage you are that character then when you leave there is something completely different but when i'm in that cage bro don't touch me don't talk to me i had to separate myself because going through that that time i felt like there's so many things coming at once it was just becoming very very confusing i had to organize things so i created the black mamba so kobe has to deal with these issues all the personal challenges the black mamba steps on the court and does what he does that's it be you be you there's no gimmick there's no you don't have to contrive anything who are you where are you today what is your story where does that come from right and then all you're doing is not communicating the story to the public i tell you like when we when i was in high school um and uh i used to work out with the 76ers i used to ask him you know what's it like to guard mike you know mike you mean black jesus like what the black hoof or we call them black jesus or you can call him black cat i'm gonna call him mike that's his name so the level of fear that he inspired in others was insane and i would tell him i said when i face him we're gonna go at it says oh you don't want to do that i'm like what man you don't know me man and so when we matched up i think he understood that and you know when i was 18 my first year he got the best of me a bunch of times i was right there the next play you're not intimidating me i'm not going anywhere and i think he saw that level of respect because i think he was the same way at 18 years old and that common bond is what i think uh you know where our connection was built can i just ask a question three titles could be a fourth in a matter of weeks league nvp could be finals mvp and by the way you're going to win the goal this summer only one other person has done all of those things in one season which is michael jordan are you gonna get mad at that comparison well i'm mad at you talking about the greatest that they ever play the game okay come on i mean let just let me do me just let me do me but does not kobe want to be the greatest yeah i want to be compared with michael jordan but don't you want to be the greatest i'm going to be the best i can be you understand what i'm saying like mike michael is michael yeah and i've learned so much from him and he and i always talk i could pick up the phone and call him he's always there for me and [Applause] but you got to let me be me you know this is we're different different people now at that point was that when the black mamba raised its head yeah yeah or was identified because he was always always there it was always there it just identified let's put a name to it yes tell me about that well i mean like i said it's it's there's a difference between who you are and what you are and what i am when i step on that court is you know i become that i i am i am that killer snake you know i'm stone cold man dribbling has to put it up with the buzzer he backs in the three and the lakers win the game of all your nicknames which one is your favorite and why it's like mama vino [Applause] um i like right now i i like i like vino right you like vino right now like video is a great yeah black black mama's like you know that i i enjoy that obviously that's that's the that's the alt to ego that i turn into when i step on the court i can't remember where this was you mentioned you studied actors to get mindset it was kind of a throwaway line but i'm wondering who you studied the most like who are you watching you're like i love that cold ass from whoever in this video um hillary swank and i had a lot of conversations about that actually and talked to kate winslet about it as well um but we we really got into how they build their characters and how they get into character uh i spoke with larry moss about that process as well and there's something to that because like as an actor you are trained to get into that zone find that pocket and as athletes the psychology is the same you know the the the sean penn as well we had a great conversation about it as well the discipline is different but the behavior is the same before you start a game how can you lock in and get into that mental space where nothing else matters you're completely locked in and focused on what you're trying to accomplish as an athlete out here the noise of the crowd doesn't matter whether you're cheering or bullying doesn't matter you're just completely locked in how do you do that as a kid i said i want to be the best ever right and now you go through your life and everything you do is try to be the best ever be the best ever be the best ever as you get older you start understanding that those things are very superficial things right and everybody has a different opinion about it no matter what you do i can win 20 championships there's always an opinion on who's the best everybody has different opinions and so i started really kind of understanding maybe that's not the important thing maybe important thing is to you know how do we as a team grow how do i help my teammates be better so that was the first change for me and then as i got older still it became more about how are you inspiring others right to find themselves that is the ultimate championship so i've won five championships that's great another team won a championship this year team's gonna win a championship next year those things come and they go but what stays is how do you use your passion and use that to inspire somebody else to create their passion and then how can they pass that on to the next person that is true success phil will come to me and say there was a year there in 03 where i had 40 points in nine straight games right shaq was out it was a toad thing so phil comes to me before the stresses kobe we need you to take over the offense i'm like all right cool so that's no more i got it i'm fine i got it so that literally started the streak a 40 straight game you know 40 points in nine straight games shaq comes back from injury and phil goes you know i still continue to do it right and then phil calls me to his office goes hey you know we're starting to lose the big fellow what do you mean well he's not getting the attention you know this this 40-point streak is starting to kind of take away his fire to prove something right so i need you to start dialing it back i'm like what he says we're going to lose them and we need them in june okay all right you have a game against the clippers i got like 38 or something like that and a chance to score 40 and to get 40 again it's a blowout game like dump the ball in the shack instead of shooting wide open shot the 40-point streak ended that night wow that was it and that's inside stuff that people don't know right are you happy yes yeah cause phil was like hey we gotta dial it back we gotta dial it back we're starting to lose the big fella perfect kobe 2. you're like he's like you got to dial it back you're like all right i'll score 38 instead of 40. well i mean it's the streak thing i wouldn't it would have been 10 in a row broke a record right right right would have broke the record but instead so on team buses team planes in a locker room after practice i would look at the film i'd pull powell lamar d fish pull him aside and say let's look at this right we probably should have done this that and the other so you'll show them the game from a little bit here and there and then you speak to them in executional terms it's never come on guys we can do better come on guys we can do better that's rah-rah stuff right a leader must give very tactical you know things that we can do adjustments okay the defense is doing this that and the other that means we should probably do this this this by midway through the season through that behavior you start seeing them communicating the same way back to you right and it's like okay cold they're doing this that any other to you maybe we should do this like okay yeah awesome great let's do it yeah yeah when i was playing what i would do is um study the film but study our younger players and see what areas do they need to develop in and how can i help them develop i mean that's that was the big challenge as you move from you know being a single dominant player to understanding okay i have to help these other guys how do i lift everyone else up it's [Music] [Applause] tough [Music] reason why i did that is because i know san antonio is not going to leave me bruce is not going to take his body off me so that's a great opportunity to get somebody else involved to give somebody else a really good shot especially derek it's important for him to get a good rhythm [Applause] though sophia wants me to take that shot but i'm saying you know if this winds up being a close game uh i'd rather save that shot for the fourth quarter continue to punish them with my teammates and with power rolling to the basket if he doesn't have it you got another shooter coming up that'll have it hey hit me on the pitch come off i'm going to hit him coming off that double 4-3 [Applause] now reason why i do that because i want to ride monitors to get going it's important because he's such a great shooter i want to get him a look i feel like he's not a part of this game yet now and it's important that i that i make him a part of it so i know i can be a decoy on that strong side we can get him coming up for a three on the weak side [Music] and this is what i couldn't do years ago because i i didn't have the personnel on my team that i have now see in the past i would have to you know score 35 40 points just to keep us competitive now i don't have to do that so you see me you know directing more so than anything you're more of a compass making sure we're going in the right direction making sure we're executing well because i have the personnel to be able to do that now [Applause] a lot easier i'm still capable of having big score nights but i just don't have to do it that's reverse action every team in the league knows what this is you know this is me just basically coming up uh to the top of the key or the elbow area and uh and making a play you see the isolation or you know we go to drop right here and i'll clear them out and we got some on the weak side here we go that's a three because you know they know that's coming so they think i'm going to isolate and go one on one so as a result they got to have help defense when they have helped defense i know i got a shooter field sanitarium of the third quarter and we're almost halfway through and before that wasn't derek fisher so i'd have to i'd have to go one or two but now yeah i can make just make the defense pay they want to lead me i'm going to hit derek there's going to knock it down fisher pulls up he's feeling it fish see now he's in a great river we're a better team because we got power going lamar is going dude fish is going oh shut up so you know now what is the defense gonna do are they going to stay at home with these guys and then that's what i give them understanding empathy and compassion because as a young kid when i came in the league it was like i'm driving this way and either you're going to be on the train or be on the track right where there was no such thing as understanding that people have lives outside of the game which apparently i did not um but like if i understood at an early age it helps me as a leader to communicate better i came to understand that later um and getting to know people on a personal level um what are their fears where their insecurities right where their dreams and ambitions desires those sorts of things when you come to understand that about a person then you can help them reach the best version of themselves so i wish i'd known that earlier phil said wrote that you were he said that your philosophy was give me the damn ball but at a certain point you that changed you started taking your teammates to dinner you started socializing with them and treating them like partners was was that a conscious decision you made or did that just it was it was part of the evolution of understanding um you know what it takes to enhance the group around you you know i was a person that was completely consumed with my craft and you know i i got to a point in my career where i had to kind of take a step back and start looking outwardly and not looking you know internally of how to make improvements but start looking at others and saying okay how can i make him better how can i improve him what's he going through et cetera et cetera and that you know that would that came from you know phil's direction um i think the definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you yeah i think that's what greatness is or should be it's not something that's that that lives and dies with one person it's how can you inspire a person to then in turn inspire another person that inspires another person and that's how you create something that i think lasts forever yeah and i think that's our challenge as people is to um is to figure out how our story can impact others and motivate them in a way to create their own greatness what does mvp mean i to you special about this season is that you know i felt like we were such a community we're such a great team we all got along i felt like it was an award that we shared together [Applause] which made it more special because i felt like we did it you know because they made you better keep it going by them you know getting in the gym working on their game and making plays and making shots that in turn brought me to mvp duncan get the banker walking the rebound you know in the past you know i hear a lot of my fans saying i should have won it before maybe maybe not i don't know but winning the mvp was uh you know it was a great honor because it was something that we shared together as a union um you know i was i think i was born to play man i started playing at like two years old and my father wasn't one of these fathers that was like you're going to play basketball or you know he wasn't one of those guys he was just kind of i was just around the game a lot and i gravitated to the ball and i was completely geeking out about like the smell of the ball and like the way it sounds when it hits concrete versus how it hits a parquet floor and like the sound of the nets and the different material of the nets and you know there's certain basketball hoops like in high school gyms and in college gyms the rim sits slightly above the lower part of the backboard and it was like i was geeking out if i got into a gym with just like the nba with the lower stanchion of the backboard and the um and the hoop were completely parallel with each other like like little like that would freak me out like so to answer your question i was born to do this thing man and i did it um nonstop all day long um from the age of two to when i retired man i love playing basketball there's nothing like it what is it you love this is the ball when it bounces the sound that it makes the smell of the basketball the nets when you shoot the ball and it goes right through the net the sneakers as they squeak on the wood the strategies the competition the camaraderie the fans you just go on and on and on i think it's just finding what it is that you love to do like i don't i don't feel like i worked a day in my life you know it's not it wasn't it's hard work as it's defined by the world but to me there was no place i'd rather be like you can't like i'd rather not be anywhere i'd rather be on the track at four in the morning running when sprints and you know then be in the weight room at six and then be on the court at nine and then you know train until three and to be back you know like i'd rather be doing that than anything else so it wasn't like it was hard work i just found what it is that i love to do probably different for me the most because it was a it's real i truly wanted to do it's what i enjoyed doing so it wasn't like i was i didn't feel like i was giving something up i felt like i was gaining something because i enjoyed i enjoyed playing you know things are never perfect yeah but through love you continue to persevere and you move through them you move through and then through that storm beautiful sun emerges yeah right inevitably another storm comes guess what you ride that one out too so i think love is a certain determination and persistence to go through the good times and the bad times with the someone or something uh that you truly love well no i mean it's it's you know that's the trick isn't it it's finding what you love to do we talk about hard work all the time it's like you know man if you got to get up every single morning remind yourself how hard you need to work probably need to choose a different profession you know because i shouldn't be there i wake up in the morning excited to get to it you know if i'm not training i'm missing it i'm not watching the game of basketball i miss it you know there's no place i'd rather be and if you have that feeling then you're truly doing what god has put you on this earth to do at what age did that goal become crystal clear i made that deal with myself at 13 years old at 13 years 13 years old clear about it crystal clear and where did inspiration come from um the love of the game the love of the game the challenge like i would watch magic play i'd watch michael play and i would see them do these unbelievable things and i say you know can i get to that level i don't know but let's find out players oftentimes they lose that passion right they're playing for economic stability they show up and they're like oh for the first time in my life i can go to vegas and be the ball out and be popular and famous and i'm going to enjoy that how do you stay hungry because you might have had that situation too i mean you could just as easily have gone down that road but you didn't i i didn't enjoy it you didn't enjoy it no i enjoyed playing basketball oh okay yeah and you know and when i say that people tend to have a tendency to take that lightly yeah but no i love the game i love it right i didn't want to be away from it i wanted to play all the time like a lot of guys have fun hanging out in the pool in vegas and that's that's fine it's a time and place for that right but like when i was 18 20 and 21 years old i wanted to play basketball i was consumed with this quest of trying to be the best you know and we weren't there yet i had to there's so many things i had to figure out like am i training properly am i working on the right things on the court there's so many things to do i didn't have time to go and you know hang out over here so if you're using let's say shaq as competitive fuel on the court who are you using for competitive fuel in your business now do you have that i never i never use others for competitive fuel like i would only do that for that extra like two percent at the end you know like the other 98 came from within it just came from like the the the love of of playing and the love of figuring things out and so that's what i do here like it's the love of creating something and i'm really excited because i feel like we're creating something new the world does not have stories like this we do not have sports fantasy stories we don't have those and so i become very excited about getting those out into the market i had the power to turn back time i would never use it all right think about it because then every moment that you go through means absolutely nothing but you can always go back and do it again so it loses its flavor it's loses its its beauty when things are final you know moments won't ever come again well what i found out is that the game of basketball has really been a great teacher of life as far as unending challenges teamwork you know doing things together getting along getting along learning the ups and downs of a season and you know enjoying the journey of the season and it's really helped me mature i've heard michael use that quote before and i've heard magic use a quote before saying how the game has really been a teacher of life for them and a couple years ago i really didn't understand what they were talking about i couldn't see that but now i can i can definitely say the same thing if you finished your career without a championship you would not have looked at that as a failure no i would have looked at it as being extremely disappointed because i had a dream and i had goals that i wanted to accomplish right and if i don't accomplish those goals i have to ask myself why right if so so for my pis position the reason why i would not have accomplished those things is poor leadership failure to communicate properly with my teammates to put them in positions to be successful um lack of preparation you know all those things would be reasons why i don't win right so now if that was the case in my career i have to sit and i have to analyze that and then as i move and i evolve you know post basketball to business or whatever those same weaknesses are going to reveal themselves there right so if i don't learn from that i'm going i'm going to struggle here too right so i can take those situations and learn from those and have them you know uh make me a better person later in life but if i don't take that stuff and apply that someplace else then that is that's failing which to me is the worst possible thing you could ever have is to stop and to not learn well max i think the greatest fear that we face is ourselves actually you know i think it's uh it's not anything that's external or anything that's superficial i think the greatest fear you face is yourself because you know we all have dreams and it's very scary sometimes to accept the dream that you have and it's scarier still to say okay i want that it's scary because you're afraid that if you put your heart and soul into it and you fail then how are you going to feel about yourself right so being fearless means putting yourself out there and going for it no matter what go for it not for anybody but for yourself you know sports is the greatest greatest metaphor we have in terms of dealing with life because you know even if you listen to music music will give you guidance right that you can then meditate on and think about how you would apply it in sports you have to apply it in the here and now i mean you're faced with challenges moment to moment you're faced with pressures and anxiety and communication or the lack thereof and also their stuff like it's in the moment so you have to live it and when you practice those things you become better at it even now that i'm retired you know everything that i've learned from the game of basketball i've carried it over into life you know like basketball's helped me be a better person a better friend about how that well because there's life lessons that are within the game like communication like unselfishness um like attention to detail and um empathy and compassion like all those things are in the game and uh as an athlete if we are aware of those things it helps us become better human human beings did last year at any point with you going through your first season not playing basketball never not once did you never got it never here's the thing is for us athletes it's really hard to transition from that right and i was really personal about it when i wrote dear basketball but that is the true challenge of finding what comes next and finding something that you love to do every bit as much as you love your first passion that is a challenge for us and i think unfortunately for us athletes we've been pigeonholed they're thinking that we can only be one thing and so when i retire and everybody is saying okay he's too competitive he's not going to know what to do with himself he's going to have to come back i took that as a personal challenge of them thinking i'm this one-dimensional person that all i know is how to dribble a ball shoot the ball and play basketball and compete at that level so i think that as a personal challenge i will never come back to the game ever i'm here to show people that we can do much more than that and creating this business winning an oscar and i mean annie those are things that are showing other athletes that come after no no there's more to this thing i think it's how do you negotiate with yourself i think that's the biggest thing is uh we talk about the mental side of it but then like what does that really mean like the thoughts that happen in your mind when you're going through a competitive situation or you're facing a tight deadline you still don't have the idea yet you know what happens inside of here you talk yourself out of it do you say okay well it won't be a big deal if i don't do it or i don't have to get up on a tuesday morning they're going to hit the track what does this day really mean the long scheme of things anyways just one day and when you have those conversations with yourself are you able to negotiate your way out of you know that little voice telling you it's not that important or does that little voice get the best of you i think that's what separates people who are going to do great things versus people who don't or people that do great things but in an inconsistent way you said i read a quote that you said you love business as much as basketball there's no way that's true it's a hundred percent true there's no way you lo i mean basketball was your life your passion everything you you're telling me you love doing business as much if you could you know basically snap a finger and be 25 year old kobe or the kobe today you wouldn't go back and keep playing basketball no because i've already done it see here's the thing when i was playing and you know teammates would say oh kobe's not out on the road what is he doing you see me on the plane he's reading what is he reading he's writing what is he writing i'm practicing i'm writing i'm practicing i'm understanding how to tell stories i'm reading joseph campbell and how to create arcs compelling arcs and plots i'm reading that stuff so this is going back 15 years right so i don't just retire right dear basketball and luck into winning an oscar you know what i'm saying that stuff comes from hard work and from studying for 15 years how to write and how to organize structure right and you can't do that without having a serious love or commitment to the craft i sometimes forget that i played basketball in the major leagues for i mean baseball for 23 years because i'm so excited in the moment yeah that sounds really weird to people right they think we're lying i feel like you're like possible there's no way man like you know like i remember i said um i told somebody i said listen if what i do in the next 20 years is not better than my last 20 then i failed and like well that's disrespectful to what you've done the last 20 years how could you say my man i wouldn't accomplish what i accomplished my last 20 years if i did not have this mentality to begin with so the kids are running they've been running for two hours run and run and run in this one kid misses the line by like half inch no it wasn't even half inch it was about that much he misses the line kobe's like stop stop stop stop stop we had to stop we had to stop everything and he's like nobody gets shoes and all these kids are like oh they're mad at the kids nobody gets shoes you guys sit on the sideline and then kobe made this kid run suicides which is another drill baseline free throw line baseline half court baseline opposite free throw line baseline baseline and back three in a row three times you had to run three of them yeah but the best part was the best part was uh the last one kobe ran with this kid he ran with this kid okay yeah it's awesome we ran with this kid and there's a mill 1.1 million people are watching online crazy he went with this kid this kid was dry heating he was about to die yeah but you're lucky he didn't die no he's he wasn't gonna he wasn't gonna die but but the important thing to understand is you can't you can't shortchange yourself like you're not you're not cheating anybody but yourself right i mean you're tired you're literally this far away from the line why would you not go that extra to touch the line right so if i let him get away with that right all of a sudden he starts maybe he'll cheat something over here right not give his best over here not give his best over here and as years go on he's going to be extremely he's not going to reach his full potential because he's been taking these little shortcuts that just add up add up add up add up add up and you can't let that happen our job as teachers as mentors as inspirers it's our responsibility to hold them accountable to those things if we have a project and you're saying okay i can do that that's not the project we want the projects that say i don't know if i can animate that i don't know how to write that story i don't know how to do that those are the things we want because through that curiosity you'll reach a level that you didn't think was possible and so running the studio that's what i'm doing and the the whole idea is that you know when i started playing the game everything was about trying to be the best when this meant you know when as many championships as you can yada yada yada you get older you start to understand that really it's about the next generation that these championships do come and go right and there'll be other people that win championships but the most important thing you can do is to pay everything that you learn forward to the next generation to come and that's truly how you create something that lasts forever my kids volleyball basketball school work they work every day and that's how you instill it in them where it becomes a behavioral thing and it doesn't matter what they decide to do like if gianna decides to not play basketball when she grows up it's fine but she understands the discipline that it takes to work at something every single day so whether she wants to be a writer a director a doctor a lawyer she'll have those characteristics i think curiosity is the most important thing like you have to be infinitely curious about things and pursue things that you really enjoy you know despite what others may say so i'll give you an example during my last year of playing i would get the question all the time from other players from media people would pull me aside and they would be genuinely concerned like okay what are you going to do when you retire like like we're concerned about you because you're so competitive and so focused on basketball what are you gonna do next and i'd say well i'm gonna i'm gonna be a storyteller and they just kind of pat me on the shoulder and say okay yeah that's cute so here's what's gonna happen you're gonna retire you're going to go through a state of depression i'm like no like i figured out what i'm going to do no storytelling that's not a real thing right but i got that a lot and if i if i didn't learn from the game i would have allowed that reaction from people to deter me from what it is that i was doing and it could have completely pushed me in another direction but instead i stayed focused on it i remained determined and i believed in it and i pushed forward uh and lastly our daughters natalia gianna and bianca um you know i i i hope that tonight is not you know you guys know that you know if you do the work you work hard enough dreams come true you know that we all know that but hopefully what you get from tonight is the understanding that those times when you get up early and you work hard those times when you stay up late and you work hard those times when you don't feel like working you're too tired you don't want to push yourself but you do it anyway that is actually the dream you know when you have a dream as a kid to say okay i want to play in the nba sometimes it feels like the worst thing you can do is actually share that dream with other kids and other people because they have a way of kind of talking reality into you and saying okay you have to have perspective not a lot of people make that let alone some kid that's playing basketball in italy is going to make it to the nba and do all this sort of stuff so the the biggest challenge i think is is believing in your dream and not losing that childlike innocence and quality to be able to have these big dreams and go after it because it can be done it's just unfortunate there are some people in the world that don't believe that they can achieve those dreams and so they try to talk you out of your own so that that is a really really big challenge that i face as a kid as i'm facing the nba and as i continue to face now i hope people appreciate what we've seen from kobe bryant [Music] it's been fun been amazing playing against this younger generation seeing them grow up after all these years and uh i guess it's a wrap i see you when i see you toby bryant one of the greatest players to play the game it would never ever be another kobe bryant [Applause] you

Channel: DeepGame

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Keywords: deep game, deep game basketball, deep game of basketball, kobe bryant deep game, deep game of kobe bryant, kobe bryant motivation, kobe bryant interview, kobe bryant interview motivation, kobe bryant mamba mentality, kobe bryant mamba mentality interview, kobe bryant tribute

Id: qcXfK6fo7sE

Length: 53min 30sec (3210 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 16 2020