Kobe Bryant

Interviewer: All right, you ready to go? Kobe Bryant: I'm ready to go. All right. I feel a little underdressed.

I just came from the basketball court. Interviewer: You know, there's been so many athletes that have made the NBA the highest echelon of professional basketball in the world. And there's athletes that can jump as high as the sky, run as fast as, you know, a cheetah.

They get hit buckets, they can react. But it's the special nature of players that have that mindfulness, that have that attacking mode, that relentless mode. That mode where they go ice cold last few minutes.

I think that makes a difference between the great ones and the greatest ones. Kobe Bryant: Yeah, it's funny. To me, the mentality is a really simple one in the sense that the confidence comes from preparation. So when the game's on the line, I'm not asking myself to do something that I haven't done thousands of times before.

So when I'm prepared, I know what I'm capable of doing. I know what I'm comfortable doing and I know what I'm not comfortable doing. And so in those moments, if it looks like I'm ice cold or not nervous, it's because I've done it thousands of times before.

So it's one more time. Interviewer: So that leads me to talk about a lot of this Kobe tour this year in Asia is we reiterate the mamba mentality. Can you talk a little bit about what the mamba mentality is because that's something that's been developing over I don't want to say 20 years.

It's been developing for 35 years since you were a little kid. Kobe Bryant: Overall, the idea is a very simple one. The mama mentality simply means trying to be the best version of yourself.

That's what the mentality means. It means every day you're trying to become better. It's a constant quest.

It's an infinite quest. Starting at the age of two when I first started playing the game On and on, I always ask questions. I always try to get better every single day, learn more.

Interviewer: You were asking questions at two? Kobe Bryant: Oh, dude, I was asking questions all the time. You'd be surprised. Some people, like my kids at two, could do a lot of things.

At two, I could dribble the basketball. I could shoot a basketball on a Nerf hoop at the house. And I would go to practice with my father.

I would observe my father. I'd sit and watch games with him. Interviewer: Was he your first coach?

Kobe Bryant: Yeah, man, I guess you could say that. A lot of things I learned by just being around the game. So by the age of six, I was already strategizing versus other six-year-olds.

The age of six, I figured out six-year-olds couldn't dribble with their left hand. And so I said, OK. Interviewer: A lot of 12-year-olds can't dribble with their left hand.

Kobe Bryant: Well, yeah, would imagine six. So when I was playing these six-year-old kids, I would make them dribble with their left, because I knew they couldn't. And so they'd dribble off their foot.

I'd pick it up, lay it up. Do it again, dribble off foot, pick it up, lay it up. So at six years old, I had 63 points.

And I remember my day. Interviewer: So your six-year-old self could beat your 38-year-old self because you only scored 60 in the last game. Kobe Bryant: Yeah. But yeah, listen, I just constantly looked for things to learn from and very observant.

Interviewer: OK, so when we talk about the mama mentality, you have your exhibition today starting in Shanghai, right? Also, We've been talking about this whole tour with young kids that are five, 10, 15, 20. We just did a Kobe Academy right now.

We talk about being passionate, being obsessive, being relentless, being resilient, and being fearless. These are the five pillars of the mamba mentality. So we'll kind of break that down today.

The first one is to be passionate. What is that? Is there a moment where you can define your passion for the game, or is it just something accumulated over time? Kobe Bryant: Well, I mean, you know, the passion came from the love for the game.

You know, I loved everything about it. Like the smell of the ball. Interviewer: You love the smell of the ball?

Kobe Bryant: Yes, the ball. You know, the smell of like brand new sneakers and like the sound the ball makes when it hits the ground. Sneakers in the gym? Yeah, the ball going through the net.

Like all those things I love. And so the passion comes from that because once you have that love, you just want to be a part of this thing all the time. Interviewer: When you talk about this love, when does it develop?

Did you like it when you were five? Or is it something that kind of gradually. Kobe Bryant: I was born and I was born to play basketball.

I played a lot of different sports, but nothing brought me the sense of peace and of escape that the game of basketball did. Interviewer: Is it an escape when you get on the court? Is that your zen time, your solitude time, even though it's a teamwork game?

Kobe Bryant: Yeah, when I need that escape, it's there for me. When I need a friend, it's there for me. When I need to vent, and don't dunk, and the mama comes out.

It's there. So yeah, the game is absolutely everything for me. Interviewer: When we talk about trying to get kids to be passionate, I don't think every kid, I don't think your situation's the norm. Not every kid knows they're passionate too.

We're five, right? How do kids find that passion then? Well, I think as parents, we try Because you embraced it right away too. Yeah, Kobe Bryant: I think as parents, we try to put them in different things.

Try to expose them to as many things as possible and then see if there's one thing that connects with them. Because if it does, you don't have to tell them to do it. Whether it's writing or painting or drawing.

If they have that passion, You don't have to tell them. They'll go off and do it because it's just fun. They'd rather do that than anything else.

But as parents, it's our job to just expose them to as many things as possible and see which one they gravitate to the most. Interviewer: It's interesting because you talk about kids, right? Originally we were talking about you.

Now you're talking about your kids and their passions. Do you kind of feel that passion for them and say, hey, let's go play some basketball? Volleyball or let's go swimming.

Kobe Bryant: Yeah, we expose them to all kinds of, I mean, they play a lot of different sports. They do a lot of things creatively, you know, in writing and things like that and designing. And you just sit back and you just watch which one they move to.

And then it's our responsibility as parents to try to set them up for success as much as we possibly can. Interviewer: Do you want them to play basketball? Kobe Bryant: I want them to find whatever it is that they're passionate about.

Like whatever they feel like their purpose is, then that's what I want them to do. Interviewer: Do they love basketball then? Kobe Bryant: So my youngest one, She does.

She wants to play. She wants me to teach her how to play this summer. And our eldest is really into volleyball.

But we'll see. Passions tend to change. Interviewer: So you're going to get into volleyball now? Kobe Bryant: Well, yeah. My sister was a great volleyball player.

So we have a teacher and a family. Interviewer: Is there one moment where you can say it defined your passion for basketball? Is there a story or moment when you said, yeah, that was it.

That was when I felt really passionate. Kobe Bryant: No, it doesn't. It never leaves. It never leaves. The game is just a part of me.

So it never leaves. Even now that I'm retired, everything I've learned from the game of basketball, I've carried it over into life. Basketball has helped me be a better person, a better friend, a better father.

How so? Well, because there's life lessons that are within the game, like communication, like unselfishness, like attention to detail. Empathy and compassion, like all those things are in the game. And as an athlete, if we are aware of those things, it helps us become better human beings.

Interviewer: And you can apply that toward your post-basketball days, retirement, into your business world, future ventures. Kobe Bryant: Sure. I mean, I was applying that even while I was playing, just in life outside of the game. Even more so now, you know, in building a business and all these things, you know, the kind of culture you want to have.

You know, all those things are directly learned from the game of basketball. Interviewer: Next up is the next pillar, be obsessive. Obsessive. That's, I think, I think a lot of people equate that with you.

You know, Kobe is obsessive in a lot of things. We've been doing this for what? Eight years now, Asia tour.

You know, I've been with you for a long way. The one moment that stands out of, we've done, I don't know how many, we've done, what, 800 events. The one time was 4 a. M.

We went out to practice at 4 a. M. And that was your idea, to do it. And then, you know, all these Nike people are like, no, let's not do that.

And then you're like, let's do it at 4 a. M. So you got security, you got brand marketing, sports marketing, going, no, no, let's not do it. You're like, let's do it.

Because that's your sustenance. Kobe Bryant: I mean, to me, it just makes complete sense. Interviewer: Not to us. I'm sleeping at 4 a. M.

You're working out, so talk about that. Kobe Bryant: Okay, so if your job is to try to be the best basketball player you can be, to do that, you have to practice, you have to train. You want to train as much as you can, as often as you can.

So if you get up at 10 in the morning, train at 11, 12, say 12, train at 12, train for two hours, 12 to two, You have to let your body recover. So you eat, recover, whatever. You get back out, you train, start training again at six.

Train from six to eight. And now you go home, you shower, you eat dinner, you go to bed, you wake up, you do it again. Those are two sessions.

Now imagine you wake up at three, you train at four. You go four to six, come home, breakfast, relax, so, blah. Now you're back at it again, nine to 11.

You relax, and now all of a sudden you're back at it again, two to four. And now you're back at it again. Seven to nine, look how much more training I have done by simply starting at four.

And so now you do that, and as the years go on, the separation that you have with your competitors and your peers just grows larger and larger and larger. And by your five or six, it doesn't matter what kind of work they do in the summer, they're never gonna catch up. Because they're five years behind.

So it makes sense to get up and start your day early because you can get more work in. Interviewer: Is that genetic? Or is that something you ingrained and trained yourself? Who taught you that?

Kobe Bryant: For me, it was just common sense. If I start earlier, I can train more hours. And I know the other guys aren't doing it because I know what their training schedule is.

So I know if I do this consistently over time, the gap's just going to widen and widen and widen. And they won't be able to get that back. So to me, it was just common sense.

I'm thinking, how can I get an advantage? Oh, start earlier. Let's do that. When did you start doing that?

Man, in high school. High school. My first class in high school was seven at 7.45. I used to get to the gym around 5 AM.

And I'd play before school. And then school would start. Interviewer: Who's playing with you at 5 AM?

Kobe Bryant: My coach. My coach would show up and we'd do all these basketball drills. So just you and your coach? Just me and my coach.

And sometimes it would just be me and the janitor who's still there today. And then I'd play at lunchtime. That guy should get a medal.

I hooked him up with a few things. But I played during lunch, and then practice after, and then go home, do my schoolwork, and then watch a bunch of game film, and games on TV, and study film. Interviewer: Was that the only thing you've been obsessed about basketball?

Kobe Bryant: Well, until recently, yeah. Until recently, yeah, basketball dominated my entire life for more than 30 years. Interviewer: When I brought it up, Is it genetic, or you just learned it?

I mean, how did that idea even come up? Because that's obviously a pillar of mama mentality, the obsessiveness. This is just, like you said, I'm gonna get up at four, everybody's gonna get up at six.

If everybody's gonna get up at four, I'm gonna get up at two. How do you develop that, or where do you learn that from? Kobe Bryant: Well, I think it's just a matter of what's important to you.

And what's important to you for whatever reason, I felt like I didn't feel good about myself if I wasn't doing everything I could to be the best version of myself. If I felt like I left anything on the table, it would eat away at me. I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror.

So the reason why I can retire now and be completely comfortable about it, because I know that I've done everything I could to be the best basketball player I could be. And so that's where it comes from for me. You can't leave any stone unturned.