THE MIND OF KOBE BRYANT - NO EXCUSES

Wow what I've learned is to to always keep going always you know there's been times particularly early in my career we just feel like this is the end but what I've come to find out is that you know no matter what happens the storm eventually ends and when the storm does and you want to make sure that you're ready and so I've really learned to put one foot in front of the other good bad or indifferent is eventually that storm passes you a sense exactly what went wrong was it too many injuries was it checks but at the beginning of the year can you begin to assess why you lost this series I mean you know we have a million and one excuses that we could go to fact of the matter is we're not gonna make any they play better than we did in the series we had opportunities to win it then go for us every group like I said make season starts right now and you'll come back next season what how much harder will you work in this offseason now to get back to the championship [Applause] I'll push myself to exhaustion with what you just said it sounds like you think that if you're gonna make it you're gonna make it no matter what and if there's no like oh well things didn't go your way the first year and it ruined the you know the trajectory of your career it's either you have it or you don't that sounds like excuses to me I mean you got to figure it out right if you really have an obsession to figure it out you will figure it out right and every puzzle was constructed differently a a situation when he came into the lead was different than mine Mike situation in Chicago was different than month right everybody has a different puzzle man you just got to figure out your own pose and then for my wife it's you know she's as competitive as I am she's just like listen man if you're gonna be out here training eight hours a day if you don't spend nine months out of year away from your family you better [ __ ] win the championship I think is how do you negotiate with yourself I think that's the biggest thing is we talk about the mental side of it but then like what does that really mean like the sauce that happened in your mind when you're going through a competitive situation or you're facing a tight deadline you still might have the idea yet you know what happens inside of here you talk yourself out of it you say okay well it won't be a big deal do it or I don't have to get up on a Tuesday morning they're going to detract where's this day really mean a long scheme of things anyway it's just one day and when you have those conversations with yourself are you able to negotiate your way out of you know that little you know 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 going to do great things versus people who don't or people that do great things but an inconsistent when you're saying this cannot be accomplished this cannot be done then we are shortchanging ourselves I knew that I was not going to be stopped said the age of 18 this was my life right so you can't possibly become better than me because you're not spending the time on it that I do even if you want to spend the time when he you can because you have other things you have other responsibilities that are taking you away from it so I already won and that's the thing that's important is understanding that we have to have so much energy because for like Natalia and Gianna when they were babies especially Natalia because it was doing prime years and I go to practice and I train and I'd play the game and I come home and I'd be sore and I'd be tired and she wants to go swimming and she wants me to take her to the park she wants to just jump on my back or whatever the case may be you can't say I'm too tired I'm going to lay down mmm that's not fair she doesn't know what the hell is going on right and if this was a game you'd suck it up and play I'll play games with the flu I play games with 102 degree fever man I can't do that oh you got to be on man I think it's just finding what it is that you love to do like I didn't I don't feel like I worked the day of my life it's not it wasn't it's hard work as its 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 4:00 in the morning running wind sprints and you know then being away Rome at 6:00 and then be on the court at 9:00 and then you know train till 3:00 and to be back you know like I'd rather be doing that do anything else so it wasn't like it was hard work is I just found what it is that I love to do and I think one of the things for some if you follow basketball or now that you and Mike had in common is that it wasn't a I'm gonna take eight games off this year to try to stay healthy you know like that to you is comic I like to do that the hell is that I don't know what that is that's crazy seriously it's crazy like you know you got a lot of people playing their hard earned money to come watch it before before before sure a job to be in shape it's your job to be strong enough to perform at that level every single night and as a competitor I'm not I'm not ducking [ __ ] like it's not oh my god i'm my back hurts I'm sore we got to play Vince Carter and Toronto Raptors tonight we actually had this happen we had a game against Toronto and 2000 and Vince was tearing the league oh my back was jacked jacked but like the perception of that like but Kobe's missing the game against Toronto Vince Carter because my back was really spasm II but people who me like what oh he's ducking Vince excuse me no I don't think so so I would be in the layup line like okay there's a lot of days where you know you can rest and recover today ain't one of them your back can bother you any other day that [ __ ] ain't bothering me today we're gonna he gonna have to see me today yeah oh man yeah but I always try to do through injuries is not think about it because when the game itself is more significant than the injury you don't feel in danger get in the way because it's not important - you know as time goes on and sitting there 7080 years old and I'm gonna be wondering if I could have come back from this injury mm-hmm I don't want to wonder I want to find out we got to get to destiny I want to see man we got into that game yeah if the critics are out there saying he's done he'll never come back well maybe you're right maybe you're not but let's find out well it's been tough but you know when I have tough situations I try to look at miss challenges I don't look at them as as you know something where it becomes a burden or something that's heavy on my shoulders I look at it as a challenge it's something that you know it's just a puzzle that you have to figure out no matter what you pull your hamstring really really badly you can barely walk right let alone play anything soccer basketball volleyball whatever it is can't do anything doctor tells you go home sit up on the couch rest your hammie all right stay off of it don't get up no sudden movements you're at home all of a sudden of a fire breaks out in the home right your kids are upstairs you know wife is wherever she may be you know as shits going down all right I'm willing to bet that you're gonna forget about your hamstring you're gonna sprint upstairs you're gonna grab your kids you'll make sure your wife's good you getting out of that house right hamstring be damned you're not gonna fill your hamstring right and the reason is because the lives of your family are more important than the injury of your hamstring and so when the game is more important than the injury itself you don't feel that damaged not at that time you can't you can't shortchange yourself like you're not cheating anybody but yourself 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 all right so if I let him get away with that right all of a sudden he starts maybe you cheat something over here right and I give his best over here not give his best over here then as years go on he's gonna be extremely he's not gonna reach his full potential because he's been taking these little shortcuts that just a dub a dub a dub 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 that's all you need just to reload yeah yeah because I'm already in shape I don't need to sleep to being shake the baby I have to run all day already my stamina is already where it should be so like whether or not I'm sleepy or not they're like being sleepy and and being fatigued or two different things now I can play the game and be sleepy and not be fatigued it's fun what's the least amount of sleep you played a game on no there's story where it's like you know no one knows about what you went and played a game and it was so insane for whatever reasons no sleep you played a game game circles co-sleep it's like you know kids no Natalia had a certain you know health situation what have you and you staying up all night and then you got to go out and perform because fans don't know teammates don't know nor do they care nor should they that you've been up all night you got to perform right and so you just got it's got to go to work man's respect disrespectful things like that and I say listen you got a you know the answer to that I don't know but you know it makes you uncomfortable when you play and I think that's the biggest thing for kids nowadays is that they want to rely on coaches too much and workout guys you know which is fine I have them help you work out but you have to tell them what you need right you have to be able to say okay I feel uncomfortable with this and if you don't know then you're not as prepared as you should be right you need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are first and then you know I can tell you some of the things some of the rhythmic things or some of the exercises or how much repetition you need to be doing on certain things but you got to know your game [ __ ] did you say all men should because everybody's expecting me to be invincible man like freaking let me just play the pan game I'm a human being is that kind of what you were thinking or was like the world's expect me to come back in the next month cuz I'm Kobe like what were you thinking and demo all that pressure I was thinking like I don't know if I can do this the kilise were like the kiss of death yeah athletes like yes I don't I don't know if I can do this I don't know there's so many factors is the surgery that has to take place the surgery has to go well right and then just it's a tendon I'm not dealing with anything that's muscular things that I can control I can't control a tendon you know and so I like I don't know and then thinking about what that process of recovery is gonna look like it's a long one do I want to do that [ __ ] I don't I don't know if I want to do it I don't know so that was the hardest part you don't know if you want to do it or you don't know if you are gonna be able to come back from it both like oh no it's I can do it I don't know if I want to do without it this it's a long process but like when I went in the trainer's room my kids are in there and you know they're looking at you and stuff and I'm looking at them and I'm like you know it's all right dad's gonna be all right it'll be fine it'll be alright it'll be alright it'll be all right as a parent you gotta set the example you gotta set the example this this is another obstacle this obstacle cannot define me it's not going to [ __ ] me it's not gonna be responsible for me stepping away for the game that I love I'm gonna step away on my own terms and that's when the decision was made that you know what I'm doing it doing it you were to receive a compliment from one player in the league whose compliment would mean the most to you we care about it seems very simple because you know when you you have a situation and you're struggling or you're going through something and then you step on a basketball court or you're faced with that you know the fight or flight option you you have a choice to make and to me it's a very easy choice I'm not I'm not gonna fold I'm not gonna you know crawl up in the ball I'm not just not gonna do that so you know you you can either let this situation continue to affect you or you can win at something so if you're struggling in this area you don't want struggle in this area to you know so you want to try to compartmentalize your emotions and focus on what you're doing at that moment in time and you'll find that when you do that it it brings peace to other aspects of your life as well if I could work that hard every day with being blessed with the physical tools that I have with my career being and I made a promise to myself from that day that I was going to work that hard every single day so that when I do retire I have no regrets and that was the most important thing for me is to leave no stone unturned get better every single day and if I live it that way then over time you know I'd have something that was beautiful but that was my philosophy it seems like a pretty simple one but you know if you live your life to just get better every single day and do that for 20 years would he have

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Keywords: kobe bryant, mamba mentality, kobe bryant workout, kobe bryant motivation, kobe bryant obsession, kobe bryant mix, kobe bryant quotes, kobe bryant hard work, kobe bryant career, kobe bryant interview, the mind of kobe bryant, mamba mentality motivation

Id: WwKRp9oREdo

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2020