My name is Kobe Bryant. I'm 17 years old. I have the hunger, the motivation, and the desire to be the best high school basketball player that I can be.
With the 13th pick in the 1996 NBA draft, the Charlotte Hornets select Kobe Bryant from Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania. I had a purpose. I wanted to be one of the best basketball players to ever play. And anything else that was outside of that lane, I didn't have time for.
I made that deal with myself at 13 years old. 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. So at 13 years old, I had a kill list. And so, you know, they used to do these rankings. It was Street and Smith basketball rankings. And I was nowhere to be found because I was like 6'4", scrawny, like 160 pounds soaking wet. So I was like 57 on the list. And so I will look at 56, 55, all the way up to number one, who these players are with club teams. they played for. So when we go on an AAU travel circuit, I got to hunt them down, right? And so that became my mission in high school, is to check off every other person, all those 56 other names, hunt them down and knock them down. You know, you got to look at the reality of the situation. You know, like for me, it's not, you know, you kind of got to get over yourself. Like, it's not about you, man. Like, okay, you feel embarrassed. You're not that important. Like, get over yourself. That's where you go. Get over yourself, right? Like, you're worried about how people may perceive you and like you're walking around and it's embarrassing because you shot five air balls. Get over yourself, right? And then after that, it's okay. Well, why did those air balls happen? Got it. High school, year before, we played 35 games. Max. Right? Week in between. Spaced out. Plenty of time to rest. In the NBA, it's back to back to back to back to back to back to back. I didn't have the legs. So you look at the shot, every shot was on the ball. line. Every shot was on line, but every shot was short. Right? I got to get stronger. I got to train differently. The weight training program that I'm doing, I got to tailor it for an 82 game season so that when the playoffs come around, my legs are stronger and that ball gets there. So I look at it with rationale and say okay well the reason why I shot air balls is because my legs aren't there. I go next year they'll be there. That was it. Done. Done. So many guys tell stories about your work ethic. What was really your work ethic like and for how long did you stay disciplined? Well I mean I mean every day. I mean since you know 20 years it was an everyday process and trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses. For example jumping ability. Man my vertical was a 40, it wasn't a 46 or a 45. 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... 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. But I enjoyed it though. So like from the time I was, I can remember when I started watching the game, I studied the game. And it just never changed. Technical question here. Let's see how you're going to answer this. Who would Shaq be if he had your work ethic? He'd be the greatest of all time. If Shaq had your word, he'd be the greatest of all time. Greatest of all time by a mile. For sure. He'd be the first to tell you that. For sure. I mean, this guy was a force like I have never seen. I mean, it was crazy. You know, a guy at that size, generally guys at that size, are a little timid and they don't want to be tall they don't want to be big and this dude was he did not care he was mean he was nasty he was competitive he was vindictive i mean he was yeah i wish he was in the john would have had 12 rings What is the conversational life like with your wife and kids to say, listen, this is what I'm doing. How did that conversation go? Well, with the kids it's different. So like the communication with our children is that Pops is working. Working hard. This is the level of attention to detail you need to have in everything you do. So it's setting the example. Same thing with my wife. My wife's a stay-at-home wife. It's the hardest job, man. So she works really hard at that. I mean, it's, you know, so her attention to detail with that as well are examples for our children. And then for my wife, it's, you know, she's as competitive as I am. So she's like, listen, man, if you're going to be out here training eight hours a day, be patient. If you're going to spend nine months out of the year away from your family, you better fucking win the championship. But it's a balancing act. 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 they were doing prime years. And I'd go to practice and I'd train and I'd play the game. And I'd come home and I'd be sore and I'd be tired. And she wants to go swimming. She wants me to take her to the park. She wants to just jump on my back. back or whatever the case may be, you can't say, I'm too tired. I'm going to lay down. That's not fair. She don't know what the hell's going on. Right. And if this was a game, you'd suck it up and play. I play games with the flu. I play games with 102 degree fever, man. You can't do that. It's so powerful. You got to be on, man. Is there a story where it's like, you know, no one knows about where you went and played a game and it was so insane for whatever reasons? No sleep. You played a game with zero sleep? Zero sleep. Zero sleep. It's like, you know, kids, my family had a certain health situation, what have you, and you're 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 gotta perform, right? And so you just gotta go to work, man. You got a lot of people playing their hard-earned money to come watch you perform. Perform. It's your 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 ducking shit. Like it's not, oh my god, my back hurts, I'm sore, we gotta play Vince Carter and Toronto Raptors tonight. We actually had this happen. We had a game against Toronto in 2000 and Vince was tearing the league up. Back was jacked, jacked. But like the perception of that, like what? Kobe's missing the game against Toronto and Vince Carter because my back was really spasming. But people will be 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 shit ain't bothering me today. He gonna have to see me today. Yeah. Yeah. You're playing against the Golden State Warriors. Score is 107-109. You guys are close to getting into the playoffs. You know exactly what happens in the game. You go up, you're about to take your shot, and then all of a sudden... And then all of a sudden, boom, Achilles happens, right? He went and hit the free throws and then you walked off the stage and then you got the surgery done. How the hell do you tolerate that kind of pain? You know, I tell this example, and I think this is the best way to explain it. You know, you have a hamstring injury. You pull your hamstring really, really badly. You can barely walk, right, let alone play anything, soccer, basketball, volleyball, whatever it is. You can't do anything. Doctor tells you to go home, sit up on the couch, rest your hammy, right, stay off of it, don't get up, no sudden movements. You're at home all the time. All of a sudden, a fire breaks out in the home. Your kids are upstairs, your wife is wherever she may be, you know, shit's going down. All right? Willing to bet that you're going to forget about your hamstring, you're going to sprint upstairs, you're going to grab your kids, you're going to make sure your wife's good, you're getting out of that house. Right? Hamstring be damned. You're not going to feel your hamstring. Right? And it's not going to happen. 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 damn injury. Not at that time. I went in the trainer's room, my kids are in there, and they're looking at you and stuff, and I'm looking at them and I'm like, it's all right, dad's gonna be all right. It'll be fine, it'll be all right, it'll be all right. As a parent, you gotta set the example. You gotta set the example. This is another obstacle. This obstacle cannot define me, it's not gonna cripple 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. made that you know what I'm doing it. I'm doing it. As parents you gotta lead by example. If you want your kids to do whatever it is they want to accomplish in life you have to show them. You can't. You gotta show them. And that's what I tried to do.