THE MIND OF KOBE BRYANT - BE THE BEST

[Music] I want to learn how to become the best basketball player in the world and if I'm gonna learn that I gotta learn from the best kids go to school to be doctors or lawyers it's hopeful for sewing that's where they study that's the place for them to study my place to study is from the best I just looked at it as I want to be one of the best basketball players who have ever played that's the end goal okay how do I get there how do I get there and every decision I made in my life was centered around the process of helping me eventually get there you know so I had that purpose once I had that purpose every decision that I made was centered around that purpose exactly I was just determined I'm just locked in just tuned in to what was going on out there and just blocked everything out and just zeroing in on being more aggressive and just setting the tempo so this was very similar to the Dallas game as far as you know a mentality I do view myself as being one of the best we've ever laced them up but in terms of ranking them I can't possibly imagine because I everything that I do I've learned from the guys will come for me it's competitiveness yes but it's a simple theory or idea to live life by if you're going to do something do it to the best of your ability no matter what it is if you're gonna do it do it to the best of your ability and so like the consistency of work Monday get better Tuesday get better Wednesday get better right and you do that over a period of time you know not like one month or two months I mean it's three four five six seven eight nine ten years and then you know he'd get to where you want to go you know basketball for me was the most important thing so everything I saw whether it was TV shows whether it was books I read people I talked to everything was done to try to learn how to become a better basketball player everything everything and so when you have that point of view then literally the world becomes your library to help you to become better at your craft we're not on this stage just because of talent or ability we're up here because of 4:00 a.m. were up here because of two-a-days or father days we're up here because we had a dream and let nothing stand in our way if anything tried to bring us down we used it to make us stronger we were never satisfied never finished will never be retired my high school English teacher mr. Fiske actually paid attention one time in class and he said yeah this beautiful quote and I read rest at the end not in the middle and I took that to heart I believe there's time for resting at the end but for me that time is not now thank you for this tremendous honor and acknowledge of my basketball career but I'm far from done my next dream is to be honored one day for inspiring the next generation of athletes to have a dream sacrifice for it and never ever rest in the middle trying to be the best version of yourself that's what the mentality means it means every day you know you're trying to become better it's a constant quest it's an infinite quest so starting at the age of two when I first start playing the game and on and on and on I always ask questions I always try to get better every single day learn more you're asking questions that you oh dude I was you'd be surprised like some people like my kids at two could do a lot of things mm-hmm right at two I could dribble the basketball I could shoot a basketball on the nerf hoop at the house and I would go to practice with my father I would observe my father I'd sit and watch games with him I think the best way to prove your value this to work is to learn is to absorb to be a sponge you always want to outwork your potential as hard as you believe you can work you can work harder than that and that's what I try to do when I first came and lead but you know basketball is such a direct competition sport and me coming in at 17 I hated when like my teammates would say you know I did hit with an elbow right Shaq with me would elbow in practice and like you know big bad actor will come up and say are you okay [Laughter] Wow are you okay hello how would you know so like I always had that extra chip on my shoulder so like every day I practice for me was really trying to annihilate everybody that was that I was playing against cuz I wanted to prove you don't need to babysit me like I'm fine you know people don't really understand how obsessed I am with win it it's not I don't care about anything else on the basketball court but win it you know I just try to use everything I can for motivation that's a tool you know for me to be able to elevate my team to play the best basketball so I try to use a bit of everything sense of purpose not since the purpose was there ever since I was a kid I knew exactly I felt like I knew when you're in high school you would show up for practice at 5:00 a.m. and not leave until 7 p.m. yeah do you think that's because you love basketball or because you're crazy both it's a competition my mission is to destroy you it's not you know I mean like I don't say it you know like we're playing I'm not stopping that dirty like I'm gonna keep going till you figure out something else to do I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep going you know and like actually after I got drafted you have to go and you have to do your calls yes I go and I do a calling to speak to a representative from the organization at the time they said yeah they told me that you know they were looking to move me because they really didn't have any use or a need for me I said they didn't have any use for you even though they traded you for Vlade Divac well you know I was at the time I was you know 17 years old and I heard that and I was like okay I know what I'm gonna be doing everyday to someone what was that if someone trained my butt off you know cuz when I hear stuff like that I mean that's just automatically just telling me you can't do something you can't you know we don't need you okay you know you get you know you get drafted you're on the phone with the GM of the team that drafted you in also so so I get on the phone with the Sharlee GM he just tells me a you know what's going on yeah yeah and you got media in front of you and all that and he goes well it's a good thing we're training because you couldn't use you anyway mother okay okay all right so that's what happened on draft night so I was already I was already true mo I was triggered I was really Jim like [ __ ] the media me I don't want to do any more interviews I'm trying to try it yeah yeah yeah what you telling me that for I'm 17 okay all right well I learned that you have to work hard and you have to approach the game with a serious mind thing step well from high school when I understand that so therefore every time I step on a basketball court with a strong effort out there on the floor I'm not gonna leave anything on the floor hey all-star I'm still hungry I'm still thirsty to improve and to learn that's never gonna stop is English I'm just gonna keep on moving keep on marching keep on learning I enjoyed playing basketball okay yeah yeah 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 on the pool in Vegas and that's fine as the time and place for that right but like 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 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 they don't hang out over here so it's just it's an obsessiveness that comes along with it you want things to be as perfect as they can be understanding that nothing is ever perfect but the challenge is try to get a mess perfect as they can be you know what can you do it's in your control so control what you can I can watch them all day long he's gonna help me get better yes it's just a matter of what's important to you mm-hmm what's important to you for whatever reason you know I felt like I didn't feel good about myself if I wasn't doing everything I could to be the best version of myself if I felt like I left anything on a table it would eat away at me I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror right so the reason why I can retire now and be completely comfortable about it because I know that I've done everything I could to be the best basketball player I could be you know listen these practices of practices are meant to be competitive they're meant to be competitive if your practices aren't more competitive than the games themselves you're doing the wrong thing mm-hmm and most of these teams and coaches have gotten into a mindset of resting players oh it's too much you know we're not gonna practice light daylight daylight they feel never gave us a light day there's no days off you show up in your work in practice yeah and practices are going to be worse it'd be more physical there's gonna be more trash-talking now I'm gonna let you know right yeah you're gonna show up today I'm gonna let you know yeah it's gonna be embarrassing you're gonna hate it but when Game seven rolls around the NBA Finals you will be prepared we had a really competitive household with my cousins you know my father and my uncle and stuff like we was very competitive you had to really really work to just survive like you know that's with swimming that's playing basketball I was playing video games whatever I mean it was a [ __ ] talking family away then when you lose not only lose but you get embarrassed why you know I mean so I grew up in that kind of environment so you had to work hard just to just to kind of keep your head above water sort of thing and I came into the NBA I was like man these dudes really don't hard you know was pretty it's kind of an eye-opener it was like like 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 trying to be the best I would be the best ever be the best ever and as you get older you start understanding that those things are very superficial things 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 the 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 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 you know I trained my butt off this summer I'm out really I really went pedal-to-the-metal saw conditioning wise I'm ready I'll prepare myself every game so I'm ready for that and you know I call Kwame Brown and Chris Munoz God calling my offensive line you know because they said incredible screens for me to freed me up you know so it's a you know it's a collection of things it's not just me going out there and score now I need help for my teammates and them didn't recognizing when they gave me the ball certain situations and they said actually screenings for me they look for me made great passes so you know without them I couldn't scored 81 points I mean they did a great job framing up I mean every day I mean since 20 years it was an everyday process and trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses for example jumping ability my vertical was a 40 it wasn't a 46 or 4045 my hands are big but they're not massive right so you got to figure out ways to strengthen them so your hands are strong enough to be able to palm a ball and do the things that you need to do quickness I was quick but not insanely quick I was fast but not ridiculously fast right so I had to rely on skill a lot more I had to rely on angles a lot more I had to study the game a lot more and but I enjoyed it though so like from the time I was I can't remember when I started watching the game I studied the game and it just never changed like we used to have an all-american camp I used to go to and at the time I first showed I was a sophomore and one of the things I would do is everybody would be at the cafeteria where you know eating and doing all sort of stuff I just go back to the job they'd be resting and they'd see me leave right but now you're in a tough position he's like okay I want to be like I'm following the kid to go work out but I know he's working he's up early and he's doing all the stuff and so that was my way of shut up showing them yeah I may be on the suburbs but you're not gonna outwork well I tried to find a balance right I tried to do both you know I had a great deal of energy so if there was a school party going on or something like that I mean I'd play basketball for a few hours do what I have to do and have fun doing it and then I go to the party and I show up I'd have a good time have fun and I'll be up at five o'clock in the morning we don't work in art working out and you know training the next day so I tried to try to do both so it's my responsibility to make sure everybody's holding themselves accountable I'm holding you accountable if we just play two back-to-back and we have practice the next day your ass better be there tape ready to go mm-hmm right cuz I'm there and I'm ready and I just got finished lifting weights for two hours right so our whole guys to a higher standard before you start a game how can you lock in and get into that mental space where nothing else matters you're completely locked and and focused on what you're trying to accomplish as an athlete out here the noise of the crowd doesn't matter whether the cheering or booing doesn't matter you're just completely locked in how do you do that that was one of those zone moments man we're like things happened it just led to that big moment but like Andrew Bynum we just lost the game before and you got an injury against Memphis right and so I'm like we just lost to the Celtics and oh wait but think we got Andrews gonna make a big difference for us now he goes down and how long he's gonna be out for the team was a little deflated I was pissed off you know I mean because it's like no we're winning the championship be sure come hell a hot water and my guys were down and going into New York big game I said I gotta send a message to my guys to say no listen we're doing this you understand it's hard you went down but damn it we're getting it done at 13 years old and I played the longer game because my game wasn't about being better than you at 13 it was it be better than you when you know the chips are really on on the line so when we played at 13 I was sighs 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 play I play to my weaknesses I wouldn't play to my strengths I play to 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 gonna 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 post game 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's why 13 is still doing the same [ __ ] at 17 now you got a problem my basketball team for example I have the girls run lines and you know we could just as easily say I got had a parent who's encouraging his daughter she runs seven teams and it was encouraged come on you can do it you can do it dig deep dig deep and then after practice I blew him say you know when she's doing those line drills don't say anything because there's a cot there's a conversation that's happening inside of her head she's like talking to herself trying to pump herself up to do it she's already having those conversations so for outside voice to come in to give her guidance and they give her the the kind of the push to keep going actually interrupts her process just let her be let her figure it out herself because as they go through life as parents we're not gonna be there all the time you know I mean so kids have to be able to navigate those things themselves if you want to be a great player if you play every single day two three hours every single day we're course of a year how much better are you getting most kids will play maybe you know an hour and a half two days a week right it's not gonna get it done get it done right so if you're obsessive obsessive obsessively training 2-3 hours every single day over a year over two years make quantum leaps matches

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Id: a60NoCMJi0A

Length: 17min 32sec (1052 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020