Kobe is probably an idol for so many players. He was such a great player so you wanted to be like Kobe. He's a legend that never dies.
When people see a legend, they call it a legend. But to be a legend, it's a lot of hard work and patience. You can't play for five or ten years and be a legend. It takes longer than that.
If everyone had a superpower, Kobe would be the Hulk. Kobe could take on a whole team by himself and he's willing to do that. So, Kobe is like I'll go 5-1, I don't care. I'm still going to win. I put in more work than all five of you guys.
The thing is I'm with Nike and I don't want to wear any other player's shoe. No Giannis or LeBron - I'm not going to wear those, and it narrows what you can wear. But with the Kobe's, who cares because Kobe is Kobe. You can wear his shoe because it's Kobe. They look great, the feel great and it represents something.
I had the Kobe jersey. I would do the Kobe walk. I would walk around the house doing the Kobe stare-down face. Anything you can name, I was idolizing him, trying to be like him.
Kobe is Kobe. He is one of the best to ever play this game. Given the opportunity, he can embarrass you.
Huge Kobe fan growing up. My dog's name is Kobe.
At the end of the day, the only person to have a better Kobe sneaker game than me is Kobe himself.
I can't play like Kobe, man. There's only one Kobe.
Even in practice, me and Kobe get into it every day. I do my best to challenge him. He's still going to be Kobe, talking trash.
Kobe was hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in the game. His obsession with Michael was striking. When we played in Chicago that season, I orchestrated a meeting between the two of them, thinking that Michael might help shift Kobe’s attitude toward selfless teamwork. After they shook hands, the first words out of Kobe’s mouth were, ‘You know I can kick your ass one on one.’
Most ferocious was Kobe. Fiercest, most competitive, it was Kobe. D Wade is second after that.
The Kobe craze really annoyed me. Most of the practitioners had no real understanding of the product and were abusing it and exploiting it in terrible and ridiculous ways. Kobe beef should not be used in a hamburger. It's completely pointless.
Me, growing up, I was a Kobe fan, Kobe fanatic, and just getting, just being able to just wear his shoes, it's my favorite shoe to play in.
I wore the number 24 in high school my freshman, sophomore year because of him. I wore Kobe Bryant basketball shoes because of Kobe Bryant. Every time I laced up my basketball shoes, I felt like I had Kobe Bryant with me. I had a little part of him - I had his jumper, his fadeaway.
I grew up - obviously I'm from Philly, where Kobe is from, so we grew up idolizing Kobe. He meant everything to us.