Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
25 was my number in high school and college. But when I got traded to Lakers, it was retired, and Derek Fisher had 2, so I was stuck with 5. Nothing more special behind it than that.
Learn your craft. You want to be a doctor or a teacher - it's very important to learn your craft and indulge in it. You have to get involved and learn as much as possible and go for it.
To me, I have always been a Rick Adelman fan. I felt like if I had been in his systems, I probably would have been a better player than I was because if you look at his system, it was ideal for me.
I had some moments in my career where I'd walk on the court, and I look around and feel, 'Oh, I'm the best one out here.' But then you go on another court, and you could be the worst player out there.
The Laker brand and name itself is fantastic. When you have a guy like Kobe Bryant in that brand also, it takes it out of this world. I think the fact that everybody sees the work ethic this guy has makes them work harder.
The thing about playing basketball in Houston was we had a great coach, great system, and we had guys that believed in me. Once you get that belief in you, it's easy to play basketball, so, we really never had so-called role players.
You know what's funny, I really hate Par 3's. I feel like you have to be perfect from jumpstreet. But on Par 5's, you can mess up a little bit, but you still have time to adjust before you get to the hole and still end up with a birdie or a par.
Every year's going to be a what-if. That's the game of basketball. What if a guy turns his ankle? What if a guy gets in a car wreck coming to the arena? There are so many different aspects that could happen that nobody knows. Only the man upstairs knows.
If I played basketball, and you played with me, and all of a sudden you become my head coach, there isn't anything you can tell me, dude. Because your years in the league were just as long as mine. Why are you coaching me? That's one of the things that I hate.
I think Phil Jackson started that feud. It happened many times that after team practice he would say, 'Kobe said this about Shaq, and Shaq said that about Kobe... ' We couldn't believe how could that happen, because just the day before we saw them together, jumping on one another.
Whenever I hear people crying about Kobe yelling at people in practice or wondering whether or not LeBron is best friends with his teammates, I just roll my eyes. You know how many off-court conversations I had with the Zen-Master Phil Jackson in my entire time with the Lakers? One.
A lot of guys... they want to take the big shot, and they talk about it because they're scared of it. You never heard me talk about it. You heard a lot of guys talk about it. But you don't have to talk about it, because if you have the confidence in yourself, and your team believes in you, you don't fear anything. You don't fear losing.