Kobe bryant quotes

Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they've taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.

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

As far as carrying the torch for the years to come, I don't know. I just want to be the best basketball player I can be.

I wouldn’t say I’m a ball hog. I’m a shooter. I don’t necessarily hog the ball, but I put them up though. I definitely much rather shoot it than pass it. That’s just how I am.

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 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.

My role is to make sure we're moving in the right direction, getting points, rebounds, steals, assists and providing leadership.

For us to be the team that got him that historic 10th championship is special for us.

Listen to how everyone is talking about you. You have to use it as fuel for motivation.

I'm going to be the Will Smith of the NBA.

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

I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success.

You just stay patient, that's all.

I wouldn't say I'm a ball hog. I'm a shooter.

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

Difficulty is a nurse of greatness-a harsh nurse, who rocks her foster children roughly, but rocks them in strength and athletic proportion. The mind, grappling with great aims and wrestling with mighty impediments, grows by a certain necessity to the stature of greatness.

Love me or hate me, it's one or the other. Always has been. Hate my game, my swagger. Hate my fadeaway, my hunger. Hate that I'm a veteran. A champion. Hate that. Hate it with all your heart. And hate that I'm loved, for the exact same reasons.

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

You just try to take it one day at a time, ... You step on the basketball floor and just play. It's fun. I'm comfortable with it.

The guy said NBA players are one in a million, ... I said, 'Man, look, I'm going to be that one in a million.

I was just letting the shots fly. You know, I don't leave any bullets in the chamber.

If you want to make history, you have to do historic things

I've pretty much done all I can here and, you know, God will carry me the rest of the way, so I'm pretty comfortable with that.

I don't just try to score. The challenge is elevating my teammates to be able to win a championship.

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

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

Friends come and go but banners hang forever.

Each moment of my life I was dreaming of how great I could be, and continued working hard. Each time I closed my eyes I could see me shining bright like a sun.

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.

I enjoy playing at the heart of it is just a kid who really loves playing the game of basketball.

When you have empathy toward your opponents, it helps you destroy them quicker. Because you understand exactly who they are. You understand what buttons to push. You understand if they're insecure, if they fear embarrassment. And you can really hit those buttons to strike a nerve.

I wear the number 10 Jersey for the US National Team in honour of the Greatest athlete I have ever seen: Messi.

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

If you don't believe in yourself...nobo dy else will.

Teach players the game at an early age and stop treating them like cash cows for everyone to profit off of.

This is an award I couldn't have won on my own. I can't thank these guys enough. These are my guys, these are my brothers.

There's a choice that we have to make as people, as individuals. If you want to be great at something, there's a choice you have to make. We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be. There are sacrifices that come along with making that decision.

You're my backbone. You're a blessing. You're a piece of my heart. You're the air I breathe. And you're the strongest person I know, and I'm so sorry for having to put you through this and having to put our family through this.

Thank god, I'm not from this world.

It doesn't matter to me what place I get traded to. If I was traded someplace - I'd play anywhere.

He is a fool who only sees the mischiefs that are past.

I was probably born a scorer, but I was made a winner. Whatever works, whatever wins championships, wins games, that's what I do.

I never tried to prove anything to someone else. I wanted to prove something to myself.

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.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

Everybody wants to talk about NBA players being selfish and arrogant and individuals. But what you saw today was a team bonding and facing adversity and coming out with a big win.

I don't set out to make a really hot shoe, I set out to make a product that is true to where I am.

When you love something, you'll always come back to it. You'll always keep asking questions, and finding answers.

I don't have to hear that criticism, that idotic criticism anymore.

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

When I'm finished playing, I want people to say, 'He handled this well, he kept his cool.'

My brain cannot process failure... It WILL not process failure

You have to be true to who you are.

Everybody has a different journey.

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

Basketball is my refuge, my sanctuary. I go back to being a kid on the playground. When I get here, it's all good.

Everything has a purpose. And that purpose has a story that goes along with it. It just depends on what your passion is.

You always have to be on edge. You always have to take every practice, every game, like it is your last.

It’s not a question of if we make the playoffs; we will. And when we get there, I have no fear of anyone.

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

Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It's stupid. It doesn't teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don't know how to post. They don't know the fundamentals of the game. It's stupid.

If I panic, everyone else panics.

I felt like when we came back from the All-Star break we needed everybody to feel like they were part of the team, ... I'm just trying to do whatever the team needs at any given time.

I had some shots that I felt like I should've made; I just didn't make them. I'm not going to shoot the ball great every night.

I think that game is a testament to what happens when you put no ceiling to what you're capable of doing.

Heroes come and go, but legends are forever.

You can't be held captive by the fear of failure or the fear of what people may say.

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

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.

Once you open your eyes and start looking around you, you start picking up things that are very obvious.

If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear.

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

You want a CEO that understands they need to build a team around them that's sharper and smarter than they are.

I was shooting 45 times a game. What was I supposed to do? Pass it into Chris Mihm & Kwame Brown?

We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make sacrifices that come along with making that decision.

Sometimes I do wonder what college would have been like. But I made my decision.

Diligent accumulation of personal wealth is not inherently ungodly so long as it is complemented by equally diligent distribution of personal wealth.

You have to rely on others to have success as a group.

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

The Kobe 8 is about enhanced performance. It's the most comfortable shoe I have worn. It's simplistic but has an edge to it.

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 realize now that there's a strength in dunking that I can use to my advantage. When you dunk all the time it isn't as demoralizing to the opponent, but when you dunk at a key moment in the game you can use it to change the momentum.

The most important thing, the thing that unites all of us, is that we can INSPIRE and CHALLENGE one another TO BE BETTER.

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.

If you make it, great. If you miss it - what's there to be afraid of?

You have to go with things that you understand. Businesses that you know.

There is power in understanding the journey of others to help create your own

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

Everybody shut up. Let us work.

What I'm doing right now, I'm chasing perfection... and if I don't get it, I'm going to get this close.

The hunger [to success] is the same, no matter what it is that you're doing. It's like an unquenchable thirst to learn more, or to feel like you could have done more, and to be brutally honest and self critical, which is very hard to do. It's easy, and human nature is to just blame somebody else. It's very, very hard to self assess.

I feel like I just returned a 100-yard kickoff in the last two minutes of the Super Bowl to win it all, only to have my run called back by a flag on the play.

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

The party's just getting started. This is where the fun starts.

Once you know what it is in life that you want to do, then the world basically becomes your library. Everything you view, you can view from that perspective, which makes everything a learning asset for you.

You can't go and anticipate what it is that you want to see. You just have to be present. Be where you are.

The motivation for me is just the game itself, just playing the game the right way and trying to win, compete every time I step out there on the floor. That's motivation enough for me to go out there and play well.

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

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

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.

It doesn't bother me at all. Do I hold any hard feelings? Not at all, ... Life is too short to sit around and hold grudges. I don't hold any whatsoever.

Being a leader, it's the art of trying to find the balance, the right times with each individual and what they need at that moment. It requires looking outward as opposed to looking inside.

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

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.

We're grown ass men, you don't need to be falling all over the place.

I'm focused on the task that lies ahead for us.

Dear Basketball, From the moment I started rolling my dad's tube socks and shooting imaginary game-winning shots ... I fell in love with you.

There's a through line that connects all of us.

It's not about the number of hours you practice, it's about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice

I've been watching Messi for some time now, and his ability to decide games and keep possession of the ball is amazing.

I'm chasing perfection.

I'm playing against great players, playing against the best in the world. The competition-that's what I've always wanted.

I've known for a long time that they're a bunch of idiots.

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

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.

I wanna be the best, simple and plain

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

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.

My brain . . . it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I sit there and have to face myself and tell myself, 'You're a failure' . . . I think that's almost worse than death.

He shouldn't have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard.

To be honest with you, I (would) much rather play basketball and not be famous.

Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.

When you start training camp, you're building the tools necessary to win a championship. You have to have the patience.

I'm a scorer, not a triple-double player