Kobe Bryant Quotes

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

You have to be true to who you are.

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.

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

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

I have my own identity ... The whole Michael thing does drive me nuts sometimes because people won't leave it alone. He's bald, I have hair. He's almost 40, I'm 22. Seriously though, I wish people would let it be and let me just be Kobe.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American, we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we’ve progressed as a society? Well, if we’ve progressed as a society, then you don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself.

Friends come and go but banners hang forever.

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

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

You have to be able to separate business from the love of the game. There were a lot of decisions made business-wise that I wasn't happy with, and I took a lot of blame over the years. But you have to be able to separate that from the love you have for the game.

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

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

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

I grew up in front of these people, and now they are seeing me as an 'older' young man.

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.

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.

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

I don’t want to say I’ll be back at the top of my game because everybody’s gonna think I’m crazy and it’s the old player not letting go sort of thing, but that’s what it’s gonna be.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

I'm just so excited. We all are. We've been waiting for this [the gold medal] for years now and it's finally here. This meant so much. It just felt so good.

What does perfection look like to me? Championship rings

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.

I'm chasing perfection.

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

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.

Because we're old as sh*t. What do you want?

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.

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.

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

I didn't expect this award [the 2008 MVP] would come to me. I'm surprised. I've played pretty well in other seasons. Our team hasn't been as good. Things just fell into place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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