Kobe Bryant Quotations

These young guys are playing checkers. I'm out there playing chess.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

The important thing is that your teammates have to know you're pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.

Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.

Dropkick Murphys get me going, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana... plus, all the regular hip-hop stuff.

What people see on court is another side of me; it's not me.

The people who truly know me know what I'm like. There have been people who try to say things that aren't fair, and I check them. And then they don't like me because I checked them.

I focus on one thing and one thing only - that's trying to win as many championships as I can.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.

I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. No matter what the injury - unless it's completely debilitating - I'm going to be the same player I've always been. I'll figure it out. I'll make some tweaks, some changes, but I'm still coming.

I'm more than comfortable just sitting back and scoring 21, 22 points or whatever and getting 10, 11 assists whatever the case might be. More than comfortable with that. It's just a matter of the pieces that you have around you and what you can do to elevate everybody else.

I can't relate to lazy people. We don't speak the same language. I don't understand you. I don't want to understand you.

My parents are my backbone. Still are. They're the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

One thing you gotta know about me is I have absolutely no filter. I have no problem saying what the hell I think of someone.

I'm reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

Can I jump over two or three guys like I used to? No. Am I as fast as I used to be? No, but I still have the fundamentals and smarts. That's what enables me to still be a dominant player. As a kid growing up, I never skipped steps. I always worked on fundamentals because I know athleticism is fleeting.

If you're afraid to fail, then you're probably going to fail.

I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I'm like, 'My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don't have it. I just want to chill.' We all have self-doubt. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate to it. You embrace it.

I've played with IVs before, during and after games. I've played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don't miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn't that serious in the first place.

Everyone looks at your watch and it represents who you are, your values and your personal style.

If there were camera phones back in the day, the biggest athletes in the world would have had a lot of explaining to do.

I've got four dogs, and I just don't do dog doo. I'm a diva when it comes to that.

Christmas morning, I'm going to open presents with my kids. I'm going to take pictures of them opening the presents. Then I'm going to come to the Staples Center and get ready to work.

It's different from being 21 and you think there's endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer.

It never bothered me when people would say, 'You only win championships because you're playing with Shaq.' It bothered me when he said it.

I love going one-on-one with someone. That's what I do. I've never lost. It's a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want.

People just don't understand how obsessed I am with winning.

There's been a lot of talk of me being a one-man show but that's simply not the case. We win games when I score 40 points and we've won when I score 10.

I like playing for the purple and gold. This is where I want to finish up.

I don't talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.

I don't want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.

Winning takes precedence over all. There's no gray area. No almosts.

The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don't have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven't had that fear.

In an individual sport, yes, you have to win titles. Baseball's different. But basketball, hockey? One person can control the tempo of a game, can completely alter the momentum of a series. There's a lot of great individual talent.

The only thing I'm afraid of is bees. I don't like bees. I'm allergic to them.

Eeew, I'd be a little uncomfortable Googling myself. People sit there - and Google themselves? That's kind of weird.

Twitter is great to connect with fans and be transparent. I enjoy that aspect about it. But really, I'm still trying to figure it out.

I don't think a coach becomes the right coach until he wins a championship.

It's hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I'm talking to them.

I'm extremely willful to win, and I respond to challenges. Scoring titles and stuff like that... it sounds, well, I don't care how it sounds - to me, scoring comes easy. It's not a challenge to me to win the scoring title, because I know I can.

Pooper scooper? Yeah, I've done it a few times. Every once in a while, you have to.

It's disgusting, but my father taught me when your mouth gets dry, just suck the sweat out of your own jersey. There's no bravado to any of it; it's just a disgusting little trick.

The Black Mamba collection of watches is me: It is my alter ego, so to speak. As I mentioned before, it is sharp, cutting edge and sleek which are characteristics I try to apply when I'm out there on the basketball court.

Magic has five championships. I have five championships. I'm pretty sure we both know what we're doing.

At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area.

We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren't really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water.

I was so frustrated by the loss the other night I was going to will us to victory.

I was so frustrated with our last loss I said I'll fix it. Tonight I just wanted to attack and send a message. The reason I scored 62 points was because I wanted to win so bad. I just felt that I could continually attack these guys. It's a great feeling that I could do it here in front of our fans and give them an early Christmas present.

My hand was bothering me. It was tough for me to shoot the ball. I asked the team to put up the steam a little bit.

Oh yeah? That's pretty good company -- excellent company.

Phil and I kind of have an understanding, ... A lot of things are said without being said. I'm the type of person, I can just move on from something.

I got some pretty good sleep. I'm just so excited. I don't really need much sleep right now.

I don't feel pressure. I just go out and do what I do.

If this is a formula that's going to carry us the rest of the season, I don't know. It's a pretty good formula for us. We'll see if we can keep it going.

I don't know what to say. I'm happy to win MVP in Philadelphia. The booing was just hurtful. But it's not going to ruin this day for me.

If we're in a situation where I need to put points on the board, then I'll do it. I really do it on a needed basis. I don't do it just to do it. I don't try to go into a game saying, 'this is what I'm going to do.' We've had a couple games where my teammates were struggling shooting the ball. Then I take it over.

We needed a challenge like this, ... I think we did a good job keeping our poise when they jumped out to an early lead. Everybody just kind of stayed with it.

Shaq is Goliath. I was just playing off him, ... They collapse on him and make it hard for him to breathe down there. Then that?s when I take over.

Shoot, the guy schooled me. What do you expect?

I was just determined. I was just locked in, tuned into what was going on out there. These points tonight mattered. We needed them. The points I put in the basket were instrumental. It means a lot more.

The only thing I will feel on eggshells about is questioning from you guys, the media,

He knew what he did. When he hit me, he knew what was going to happen. It just sharpened my focus.

I found out 30 minutes before the game, and was told that I would have to handle the bench.

from a business perspective, it's great for the NBA... Notoriety sells.

I enjoy seeing how we respond in big games. Most of our guys haven't played with this much hype before.

From the start of the series we've been playing extremely well, moving the ball, reading the defense well. It's been a progress.

I don't think it's a story. The guy's in Miami. I mean, who ... cares?

I had two guys on me. Somebody else should've been open.

I don't care about 50 points. It doesn't matter at all. ... Weird things happen in the NBA. This was one of them.

I had in my mind that it was just going to be a really sad sight, ... But when you walk in you see that everybody was just real spirited. There was a lot of energy in there -- a lot of resolve and determination to bounce back.

Today I brought some champagne into the locker room. They all wanted to spray it around, but I said no, we'll sip it from a glass. I told them next year, when we win it all, we'll spray it around then.

What I'm doing right now, I'm chasing perfection.

What I saw today was a collection of people who have obviously been through a devastating time but are not down. Their spirits are not down. It's a bounce-back kind of attitude and energy that I got from them. ... Their energy is just tremendous.

We're not worried about getting him more touches. We're worried about winning the game and getting everybody better looks.

I look forward to it. You know he's going to compete no matter if it's the All-Star game, on the playground, or versus the Lakers. He's going to compete hard.

I absolutely hate it. I just hate it. I don't want to hear any comparisons between me and him. Enough is enough. He had a brilliant career, obviously, one of the greatest careers ever, if not the greatest, and I'm here playing with my team and we're trying to do great things. Just let the past be the past. Just embrace what I'm doing. Stop trying to compare it to what he did. Just enjoy what's going on now.

He can play. I think he's been a surprise to people. Now I don't think he's so much a surprise anymore.

I am just blessed. I have just been blessed to be able to play this game. I am just very fortunate.

He taught me how to play the game. He's the coach, I'm the player, ... We don't think we're going to have any problems.

He has been solid for us all year. Now he's putting points on the board, which is very popular with the people.

He had an incredible game. Believe it or not, he can do this on a consistent basis and the challenge he gets is judging how to pick the defense we are going to have to penetrate.

I'm always going to look to be aggressive and take those shots, but we let this one get away because we lacked defensive intensity in the fourth quarter.

His strength is really to get everybody on the same page, ... He's masterful at doing it. We're just going to follow his lead. Anybody who wins that many championships puts the opposition in a defensive position.

He's helping to protect our country, ... It's a chance for me to give back. I'm deeply honored to be here. It goes beyond words. To request my presence to be here, it's unbelievable.

He's been doing the defensive part all year long. Sometimes, the people want more. Tonight he gave them more.

We can have all the excuses in the world. You can say we're young, we have guys hurt, but we just have man up and be ready to play every night.

He had a great game. He actually taught me to play defense. I wasn't surprised by his play at all.

He had a great game. He did exactly what they brought him here for. He made timely baskets. Gary's been a heck of a defender his entire career. He actually taught me how to play defense. I wasn't surprised at all.

We've been through so much. When I try to play the game, I try to please him. So when he's happy with my performance, it makes me happy because I learned the game from him. He taught me how to play.

I went after it a little bit more aggressively and the team did a good job looking for me. I felt we had to get something going in the third quarter.

I was aggressive. I saw how they played defense and decided to come at them.

Lamar is a dangerous player. There are not too many like him in the league. As a matter of fact, he's probably the only one in the league that size who can handle the ball, post you up and shoot the 3.

Lamar is such a great facilitator, he takes a load off my shoulders so I don't have to facilitate, I can just focus on putting the ball in the basket.

That felt good. That's basketball. That's how basketball was in the '80s. You see Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson standing, talking in the tunnel, and that's basketball.

Play defense. Don't stink it up on the defensive end or you will not win.

I was a little tired at the end, but I was motivated.

I think that from the start of this series we have just been playing extremely well and we are moving the ball around really well. We have just evolved into this from the start of the season, it has been process. We are just playing so well together.

Ooh, ... you just gave me goose bumps.

I think this was our best game this season. We played very well at both ends of the court consistently. We did a great job containing our energy and when we went to our bench they came in and maintained our energy. We had guys step up consistently and make big plays. That is what we have to do. If we can keep this rolling, we will make a lot of noise.