Episode 375： Kobe Bryant Untold Stories with Patrick Bet-David
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Summary
In this episode of Alutainment, host Patrick Bedebeb sits down with five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant to discuss his life, career, and how he became the greatest basketball player of all-time.
Transcript
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30 seconds, one time for the underdog, ignition sequence start, let me see you put em up, reach
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the sky, touch the stars up above, cause it's one time for the underdog, one time for the
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I'm Patrick Bedeb, your host of Alutainment, and today we're sitting down with the five
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time NBA champion, the greatest Laker of all time, some may say, matter of fact, many will
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say, and that's none other than Kobe Black Mamba Bryant.
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So, you know, one of the things most of you guys don't know, we were in the back, Mario
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Mario asked me a question, he says, what do you think about when you think about Kobe?
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And I said, the first thing that comes to my mind is my dad.
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I said, because, you know, he's born August 23rd, 78.
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I'm October 1878, so you're six and a half, seven weeks older than me.
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So, when he came to the Laker, I've been a diehard Laker fan since, you know, 1990 when
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We would sit there and watch the game together.
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And one day, Lakers are playing against the 76ers, and it's game one.
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If you know my dad, you know he's had a lot of heart attacks.
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My dad gets up and my dad says, Patrick, take me to the hospital.
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We went straight to the hospital because he was having heart issues.
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So, that's how much we go back watching you grow up.
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It was amazing doing what you did for one organization for 20 years.
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But, you know, before we get into it, before we get into it and kind of talk about what you're
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working on today and some of the mental toughness stuff here, if I was in high school with you,
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if I was in high school with you, outside of your game, outside of you playing ball,
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who was Kobe Bryant as an individual and personality in high school?
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Much the same that I am now, actually, which is extremely curious.
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Her name is Jane Mastriano, who I'm still very close to.
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And the reason why I felt it was important at the time was not for the writing sake,
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not for storytelling purposes, but there are things in story, inherently in story,
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that can help me be a better basketball player, be a better teammate, a better leader,
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So that's why I got into it, into storytelling, actually.
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And, you know, trivial things weren't going to pull my attention.
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It had to be things weren't going to pull my attention.
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It had to be things that were, I had a purpose.
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I wanted to be one of the best basketball players to ever play.
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And anything else that was outside of that lane, I didn't have time for.
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At what age did that goal become crystal clear?
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And I would see them do these unbelievable things.
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And I'd say, you know, can I get to that level?
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And so that curiosity to see where I could push this thing led me down that path, I think.
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Now, were you always competitive from the day you were born, you were super competitive?
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Uh, competitive with things that I, I participate in.
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So, like, you know, Michael is competitive in all things.
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So, like, he would try to get me to play golf all the time.
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I've written books report about you in, like, elementary school.
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Like, I know you started playing golf when you were in Carolina.
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So, that means if I'm doing the math, you've been playing golf for, like, a hundred fucking years.
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The last thing you're going to do is get me on a golf course and annihilate me.
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I did it one time, and I was hitting, like, 400-yard grounders.
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But then I broke my finger during that year, and then I couldn't play much, and that was it.
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So, the one thing when I see with you, and I think about, like, brain, and I think focus.
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Like, you know how so many different things brain can get distracted on, and I'm going to put focus on this, and focus on this, and focus on this.
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Do you think one of the edge you had over everybody else was the biggest percentage of your focus was on one thing?
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So, you know, basketball for me was the most important thing.
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So, everything I saw, whether it was TV shows, whether it was books I read, people I talked to, everything was done to try to learn how to become a better basketball player.
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And so, when you have that point of view, then literally the world becomes your library to help you to become better at your craft.
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The world becomes your library to help you improve your craft, better your craft.
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So, because you know what you want, the world's giving you exactly the information.
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So, would you, when you, when you size your peers up, how do you size your peers up?
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Like, if you're sizing people, I'm talking, you're 13 years old, you're sizing peers up, what lens are you looking through your peers?
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So, at 13 years old, I had a, I had a kill list.
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And so, you know, they used to do these rankings, it was Street and Smith basketball rankings.
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And I was nowhere to be found, because I was like 6'4", scrawny, like 160 pounds, soaking wet.
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And so, I would look at 56, 55, all the way up to number one, who these players are, what club teams they played for.
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So, when we go on an AAU travel circuit, I got to hunt them down, right?
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And so, that became my mission in high school, is to check off every other person, all those 56 other names, hunt them down, and knock them down.
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You, say, say I'm one of the guys on that list ahead of you, and we play.
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Is it, is your mind, like, are you asking, let me see if this guy's better than me on this side, and this side, and this side, or are you just going and saying, I'm going to kill this guy?
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So, like, at 13 years old, I played the longer game, because my game wasn't about being better than you at 13.
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It was to be better than you when, you know, the chips are really on the line.
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So, when you played at 13, I would size you up and see what your strengths and weaknesses are.
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Are you good at it just because you're bigger and stronger than everybody else?
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Or is there actually thought and skill that you put into it?
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Because when you're playing summer basketball, there's so many games.
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So, there's not a lot of skill work being done.
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When you're playing in competition situations, you're only playing to your strengths.
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So, what I would do, I always work on the things during those games that I was weak at.
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And so, then, fast forward to when I'm 17, and my game is completely well-rounded, and that player at 13, that I saw at 13, is still doing the same shit at 17.
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When you're going into the league, you're going with a lot of guys that were, you know, same age, you know, same class as you were going in.
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Were you sizing those guys at the same exact way as you did in high school?
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But, you know, in the NBA, it was actually easier.
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Because what I found in the NBA is a lot of guys played for financial stability.
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And when they came to the NBA, they got that financial stability.
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So, therefore, the passion and the work ethic and the obsessiveness was gone.
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It's going to be like taking candy from a baby.
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Now, wonder Mike wins all these fucking championships.
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And then you had the players that had that passion but weren't willing to commit their entire lives to doing that.
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You have all these other things that you have to do.
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The game can't really be your number one priority.
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And so, I was just looking at that like, man, this is going to be fun.
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In the muse, in the muse, you said, I knew you couldn't do what I was doing because I was obsessed.
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And then you said, whether it's friends, relationship, it didn't matter.
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If I'm buddies with you from high school, if I'm a cousin of yours, what happened to our relationship?
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How did that gravitate when you went into the league and you're determined to become the greatest or you're determined to become one of the greatest?
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And the people that love you, like friends and family, like they know that about you.
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And when you reconvene, you know, you pick back up where you left off.
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But make no mistake about it, everything in between is lost.
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So, those long-term relationships, the commitment of time of, you know, taking vacations.
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Like, I see a lot of players take vacations with other players that are close friends.
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And, oh, just take vacations just to take vacations or just hang out just to hang out.
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Well, because when I retire, I didn't want to have to say, I wish I would have done more.
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Who were some of the guys that you saw and you watched that weren't just driven by the money?
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Were there some names that you looked at and said, these three guys are as crazy as I am?
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At the time, I deal with what I've referred to as Goat Mountain.
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I went to Goat Mountain and I talked to Magic, Michael, Bird, Kim Olajuwon, Jerry West, Oscar Robinson, Bill Russell.
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He's been my big brother since I first came in the league.
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So, I went to them and started understanding the ins and outs of the game.
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And, you know, how they approach things and their level of detail and obsessiveness.
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Why do you think, and first of all, let me ask how it felt, but I'm curious to know why you think as well.
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How did it feel knowing, like, from the moment you got into the league, the guy at the time is the greatest of all time.
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Everybody wants to be like my Gatorade, all this stuff.
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The level of respect he had for you when he spoke about you was different than everybody else.
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And you're an 18, 19-year-old kid at that time.
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How did that feel when you heard how he spoke about you?
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But, you know, like what I told him, I was like, you didn't say anything I didn't already know.
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So, you know, so, like, I tell you, like, when I was in high school and I used to work out with the 76ers, I used to ask them, you know, what's it like to guard Mike?
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So, the level of fear that he inspired in others was insane.
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And I would tell him, I'd say, when I face him, we're going to go at it.
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And so, when we matched up, I think he understood that.
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And, you know, when I was 18, my first year, he got the best of me a bunch of times.
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And I think he saw that level of respect because I think he was the same way at 18 years old.
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And that common bond is what I think, you know, where our connection was built.
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Yeah, it was great watching you guys going back and forth, whether it was the All-Star game or whether the famous scene where, you know, you're guarding him.
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It's just beautiful watching that take place with the two of you guys.
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That we have nothing to do with, but, you know, yet and still, you know.
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Yeah, you know, it's, as a fan, I'm not in your world.
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I just see it from a fan and I just see it from what experts say.
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But, as a fan, I feel that's exactly how it would be with you and him because the level of respect from both sides is reciprocal.
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Going a little bit past it, you know, you came into the league.
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First year, you get traded for Divac, which we were devastated when we lost Vlade Divac.
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Some of you guys who don't know basketball, you missed that one.
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So, when you show up, I'm like, oh, no more Sedell trees.
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Nothing against these guys, but we wanted some entertainment, you know.
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So, you show up and you play and there was the one game.
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I think you started getting a little bit more playing time.
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I think you did 7.2 points a game because they won't let you play.
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I bet if you take your first three and you played college, you're 25.4.
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It probably would be a 26.5, 26.6 type of a number.
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But your first three seasons, then the one game, it's the last game of the season you play Utah.
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The one where you shoot three air balls at the end.
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And then you hit one and his team doesn't go in, right?
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You know, like, it was, you know, like, for me, it's, maybe it's a little, like, asshole
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He was, like, he was trying to whisper encouraging things.
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I was like, okay, I shot five air balls on national TV in front of millions of people that cost us
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How do you get there, how does somebody get there mentally?
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Would that public humiliation to some people, hearst them, and they don't come back?
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Because, you know, there was a player, Barbosa.
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He was extremely talented for a quick first step, but they said he wouldn't do well when
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How did you get mentally and emotionally so strong where it doesn't bother you?
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Well, you know, you got to look at the reality of the situation.
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You know, like, for me, it's not, you know, you kind of got to get over yourself.
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Like, you're worried about how people may perceive you and, like, you're walking around
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and it's embarrassing because you shot five air balls.
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And then after that, it's okay, well, why did those air balls happen?
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High school, year before, we played 35 games max, right?
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Week in between, spaced out, plenty of time to rest.
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In the NBA, it's back to back to back to back to back to back to back.
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So you look at the shot, every shot was online.
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Every shot was online, but every shot was short, right?
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The weight training program that I'm doing, I got to tailor it for an 82-game season so
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that when the playoffs come around, my legs are stronger and that ball gets there.
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So I look at it with rationale and say, okay, well, the reason why I shot air balls is because
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And then what is your process of improvement with your schedule leaving?
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Because, you know, Phil Jackson gets asked between you and MJ, right?
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So, you know, he constantly gets asked that question.
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But I tell you, he said something about you that to me, it's a level of respect that any
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To me, the level of respect for that is a whole different level.
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You cannot teach 49, 48-inch, whatever the vertical leap is, and you cannot teach that,
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But he said nobody in his history of coaching had your level of work ethic.
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I mean, you hear so many, William, so many guys tell stories about your work ethic.
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What was really your work ethic like and for how long did you stay disciplined?
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I mean, it was an everyday process in trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses.
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My hands are big, but they're not massive, right?
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So, you got to figure out ways to strengthen them so your hands are strong enough to be able
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to palm a ball and do the things that you need to do.
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And quickness, I was quick, but not insanely quick.
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So, like, from the time I was, I can't remember when I started watching the game, I studied
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If Shaq had your work ethic, he'd be the greatest of all time.
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Generally, guys at that size are a little timid, and they don't want to be tall.
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And by the way, I'm not asking this question to create feud between you and him.
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I mean, Shaq sit down all the time when I say, dude, if your lazy ass is in shape.
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I hear you saying all the time, and he takes it.
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I'm asking this question for a different reason.
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I'm asking this question because, look, we've grown as a company extremely fast.
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We went from one office with 66 agents to 10,900 agents in 49 states, and we're the fastest
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And by the way, this message is directed to a lot of you, so hear me out very simply.
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The fact that you say the work ethic side, the fact that you say work ethic side, and
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you say, hey, if he would have worked that hard as I did, do you think if he would have
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had the same level of commitment to the game as you did, you guys would have had fewer feuds
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Because, listen, I don't deal with people that don't commit at that level, but then act as
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I mean, listen, so, like, we used to get into this stuff all the time because it was
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like, you know, he would say, okay, Kobe's not throwing me the ball.
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And, you know, media would take it and run with it and all this sort of stuff.
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And I'm like, well, bro, if you were in shape, by the time I run down on a fast break and
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run back and then run down, you're still coming down the first time, bro.
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So, a lot of our contention came from that, came from that.
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And even though he was older, you were still confronting him.
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I knew for sure Rick Fox, my teammates, they all thought I was absolutely crazy the day
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After that day, they were like, okay, Kobe, you're certifiable.
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Listen, either you want to work my ass or we want to have a night.
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And for Shaq, too, by the way, I know he's told me that that day was a big turning point
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for him because it was like, you know, he's generally used to talking trash and saying what
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he wants and nobody really stepping up and challenging him on that.
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And when he saw me challenge him on that, he was like, this kid's crazy.
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And so that was kind of the beginning of our relationship, I think.
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That's probably not something that's common to him.
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I mean, he's been seven feet tall since he was three years old or something, right?
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It was my first year we were playing and he kept posting up.
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So he kept going to the free throw line and kept missing him.
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So did you have guys you went to outside of the players?
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Like when you're coming to figure out a way to improve your game.
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And I don't know if you know who Billy Bean is.
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If you've seen the movie Moneyball, he's the guy.
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He talked about the fact that the year Moneyball came out, the year prior to that, they paid
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players and looked at on-base percentage as eight stats.
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And the year Moneyball came out, all the scouts started making on-base percentage number one,
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Did you have ways to improve your game by looking at data, looking at conditioning?
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What were some of the factors you looked at on how to improve your game season after season?
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The game itself was, it's a complicated answer.
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So there are very tactical things in terms of footwork and geometry of the court.
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So you're looking at the court and looking at the 45-degree angles that the court is shaped in and how it needs to operate.
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So looking at spots on the floor where you can increase your efficiency, right?
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You can be on the wing, but there's a certain spot on the wing that improves your angle to drive to the basket, right?
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So that sort of stuff, footwork of the opposition, looking at the emotion of the opposition,
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their tendencies, their weaknesses and all that stuff, understanding the momentum of the game,
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how to create momentum shifts, where momentum shifts come from, all this sort of stuff.
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Looking at different industries, looking at conductors, looking at writers, looking at actors
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and how they get into character and then how do they keep themselves in that mental space.
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So looking at different industries, looking at nature itself and learning from that
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and how you can incorporate that into the game, man, it's a lot of studying.
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Do you have a flow of how you go through making a decision?
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If we're talking about a basketball decision where you've got to read a certain coverage
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or something like that, I mean, a lot of that comes from the pre-work, pre-work and understanding
00:26:26.900
what their defensive package is and how to put teammates in certain situations.
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So, for example, if you look at players nowadays that are charged with taking game-winning shots
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or making game-winning decisions, and you look at the play and then you look at it and say,
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okay, well, that shooter was there, the double team came, and, you know,
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the player couldn't do anything but pass the ball, right?
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Well, that's because they didn't do the pre-work, right?
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So when you do the pre-work, you understand, okay, this team in a situation likes to run
00:26:55.980
a double team from this particular angle, all right?
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So I'm going to clear that side out, force the double team to come from a different angle,
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move myself to a space on the floor where it's going to take a long time for the double team
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to come, and now I can circumvent the double team and get to a place on the floor where I can
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So decision, when I say decision, how is a, if you're looking at somebody that you're sizing up
00:27:20.440
or if you're looking at somebody to go into business with or if you're looking at a big investments
00:27:25.260
you got to make, what is the decision-making process there?
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Do you call, is there, first you do your own research, you take this much time, you call an advisor,
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Is it a business that you can help in some form or fashion?
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What are the barriers of entry to that business?
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And then the entrepreneurs themselves, the company itself, right?
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Do they have a culture that you believe is sustainable?
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And in turn, have they created a culture of obsessiveness?
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So I tend to look at those four factors and that's it.
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I don't know if you guys caught that right there.
00:28:11.900
Earlier you said, I'm probably not going to get this right, a 16-year-old, a 13 or 11-year-old?
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So 16 means you're in your fifth, sixth year, sixth year having a baby?
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What was the conversation like with your wife to say, listen, this is the schedule?
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Because look, you know, some entrepreneurs, they're coming home at night and late.
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Oh, my gosh, my wife is upset because I came home at 11.30.
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You know, this life's, you know, I don't know if I can do this.
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You're on the road nine months out of the year.
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So you're doing that on the offseason and you're trying to get that part going and training for doing your camps.
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What is the conversational life like with your wife and kids to say, listen, this is what I'm doing.
00:29:16.640
So, like, the communication with our children is that, you know, Pops is working hard.
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This is the level of attention to detail you need to have in everything you do.
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I mean, it's, you know, and so her attention to detail with that as well are examples for our children.
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And then for my wife, it's, you know, she's as competitive as I am.
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She's just like, listen, man, if you're going to be out here training eight hours a day,
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if you're going to spend nine months out of the year away from your family, you better fucking win the championship.
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And that's the thing that's important is understanding that we have to have so much energy.
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Because for, like, Natalia and Gianna when they were babies, especially Natalia because she was doing prime years.
00:30:19.960
And I go to practice and I'd train and, you know, I'd play the game and, you know, I'd come home and I'd be sore and I'd be tired.
00:30:26.420
And she wants to go swimming and she wants me to take her to the park and she wants to just jump on my back or whatever the case may be.
00:30:33.700
You can't say, you can't say, you can't say, you can't say, I'm too tired, I'm going to lay down.
00:30:41.160
And if this was a game, you'd suck it up and play.
00:30:54.500
Would you guys, would you, would you sit at the, because you, you're obviously very detailed, your show.
00:31:05.500
Like I sit there and say, okay, if I'm, if I'm thinking like Kobe, let's just say Kobe's trying to schedule out his years.
00:31:12.180
Would you sit with her and say, okay, babe, this is the schedule next 12 months.
00:31:19.580
I look at it and say, okay, birthdays, what am I missing?
00:31:22.040
Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas, you know, Easter, like all that fun stuff.
00:31:28.380
I look at the schedule and see what I'm there for, what I'm not there for.
00:31:31.940
Christmas, is it a road game or a home game this year?
00:31:40.620
Like I'd play a game and to not miss my daughter's birthday, I'd fly back, be there for her birthday and then fly back with the team.
00:31:47.900
You know, just to make sure I don't miss anything.
00:31:52.660
What's the least amount of sleep you play the game on?
00:31:57.560
Is there a story where it's like, you know, no one knows about where you went and played a game and it was so insane for whatever reasons?
00:32:09.020
It's like, you know, kids, you know, Natalia had a certain, you know, health situation or what have you and you're staying up all night and then you got to go out and perform.
00:32:20.820
Because fans don't know, teammates don't know, nor do they care, nor should they, that you've been up all night.
00:32:34.820
And I think one of the things for some of you follow basketball or not that you and Mike had in common is that it wasn't, hey, I'm going to take eight games off this year to try to stay healthy.
00:32:45.880
The mindset I'm going, you know, like that to you is comical, right, to do that.
00:32:54.360
Like, you know, you got a lot of people playing their hard-earned money to come watch you perform.
00:33:02.260
It's your job to be strong enough to perform at that level every single night.
00:33:13.040
We got to play Vince Carter and Toronto Raptors tonight.
00:33:16.680
We had a game against Toronto in 2000, and Vince was tearing the league up.
00:33:31.340
Kobe's missing a game against Toronto and Vince Carter because, you know, my back was really spasming.
00:33:44.120
So I would be in the layup line like, okay, there's a lot of days where, you know, you can rest and recover.
00:33:52.640
Any other day, that shit ain't bothering me today.
00:33:55.340
We're going to, he's going to have to see me today.
00:34:03.300
You thought for sure, you know, he was going to be one of the, in a whole different league when he came in.
00:34:08.000
And obviously he would, he just, I don't know what his vertical leap is, 46, 47, it's out of this world what he does.
00:34:15.100
Insanity is, I mean, insanity is why they call him that.
00:34:19.960
You have a very strong personality, extremely strong personality.
00:34:24.300
And then you got a team with Shaq, and then you got a team with Phil Jackson, and you guys are all working together.
00:34:31.060
How was it taking coaching from an alpha and you're an alpha?
00:34:36.800
And was there a progression of you finally understanding him or him understanding you?
00:34:41.220
And what did that look like, the relation between you and Phil?
00:34:43.720
At first it was rocky, but I didn't understand it was rocky.
00:34:49.180
I was extremely naive, and with Phil and his genius, his responsibility was to get the team to a place to win titles.
00:35:03.680
It was to get the collective hold to win a championship.
00:35:06.740
So he would do whatever it took to make sure that that happened.
00:35:10.480
He would see the friction between myself and Shaquille and say, okay, how can I use that?
00:35:15.260
All right, I know Kobe has a passion to play, so come hell or high water, doesn't matter what's going on in his personal life, doesn't matter what's happening here with the team, he's going to show up and perform no matter what.
00:35:30.720
So therefore, I got to figure out how to create a wedge between myself and Kobe because then that brings me closer to Shaquille.
00:35:40.040
So that was his ability to manage the team, which was absolutely brilliant.
00:35:44.740
I used to tell him all the time, I said, Phil, look, I know what you're doing, bro.
00:36:02.860
So when you were hearing all the experts saying what they were saying, commentators saying what they were saying about Phil, how were you taking that when they were saying what they were saying about him when he was at the Knicks?
00:36:17.360
I told Phil, I said, Phil, you know, this is all just karma for writing literally three books about me.
00:36:31.480
But I was upset because people don't understand him.
00:36:42.740
And how he sees the game, how he sees the spirituality of the game.
00:36:48.920
And worse than that, they're intimidated by that.
00:36:51.520
And even worse, they try to discredit that because they do not have the level of passion and obsessiveness to get to that level.
00:37:01.540
So they figure the best thing to do is to tear that level down.
00:37:15.680
Obviously, he had a lot of interesting rituals.
00:37:18.560
You would hear about all the stuff that he would do.
00:37:20.660
What is the weirdest thing he did with you in practice that you're like, what the hell are we doing here?
00:37:29.660
And we walk out there and, you know, the Tai Chi master is standing center court and tells us to take our shoes off.
00:37:40.240
And I'm pissed because I'm ready to, like, play basketball.
00:37:43.880
He's standing up there and says everybody closes their eyes and stuff.
00:37:47.060
And he does stuff like monk gazing at moon and talks about the fingertips and barely touching and the spirituality of all that.
00:37:54.520
And I'm peeking around like, is everybody doing this shit?
00:38:04.340
He's, like, you know, he's doing this whole, like, doing all this stuff, you know.
00:38:19.180
I bought into the deeper connection that exists within the game.
00:38:23.100
And so when you watch our teams or you watch any of Phil's teams or Chicago teams, game six against Utah, you watch our games, you know, game seven against Boston, we were never rattled ever because we're always in the moment, always in the present, always extremely calm, always looking at the reality of the situation and not letting our emotions cloud our execution.
00:38:46.300
And that comes from being in that meditative state that he would teach and preach from day one.
00:38:57.580
Would he take you back and say you had a terrible game and it was, you know, the season prior?
00:39:05.980
Would he take you back and say, we're going to watch this game?
00:39:11.500
It was absolutely embarrassing for you to kind of see what things you did to improve.
00:39:18.200
It was more about fundamentals and improving the game.
00:39:26.740
He would allow you to find your truth and then go after it.
00:39:30.240
And he was there to simply guide you along that journey, which I actually learned from him and that's how I parent and that's how I coach my daughter's team now.
00:39:39.960
So that's why I say he's a father figure because I've learned so much from him as a coach that I take as a father, as a husband, and as a coach myself.
00:39:51.300
Was he a one-on, better one-on-one or one-on-few?
00:39:57.020
Like, if I'm having a team meeting and I'm talking to guys to rally them or calm them down or it's okay, strategy, or was he very good one-on-one, just you and him, closed doors?
00:40:07.420
Great conversationalists, but hated confrontation.
00:40:17.700
Had a lot to do with how he grew up and his, you know, his brother, his siblings, and father, and so forth and so on.
00:40:26.240
So that's why a lot of his challenges were indirect.
00:40:38.680
He said one time you guys had a meeting and he sat you down on Shaq down and he says, listen, I know you guys think you're alpha.
00:40:47.960
No, it was more like, you know, he would say it in film sessions.
00:41:04.680
I'm sure it would be a little terrifying for him.
00:41:10.660
I mean, Phil, you know, he's got like one good hip on like the best day of his life.
00:41:14.860
It's like if some shit goes down, he's doing nothing to break that up.
00:41:25.360
But what he would do is he would do things indirect.
00:41:33.040
It was about stirring up the waters and creating a storm that eventually would lead this broken ship to the shore it was trying to get to in the first place.
00:41:42.420
So was he constantly instigating and stirring in his own way?
00:41:46.960
So, like, if you've ever seen the movie Moana, if anybody has kids here, I'm sure you've seen Moana.
00:41:53.780
When she goes out and all of a sudden there's a storm and she loses her mind, thinks everything is lost, and all of a sudden she wakes up and she's right where she was supposed to be, that's Phil.
00:42:10.360
I've got a list of questions that I'm not going to get to, but I do want to ask a couple of these.
00:42:14.280
Is you're playing against the Golden State Warriors.
00:42:22.140
You guys are close to getting into the playoffs.
00:42:29.760
And then all of a sudden, boom, Achilles happens.
00:42:33.300
A friend of mine, Nima, he is here just to listen to.
00:42:40.200
And he told me, he says, Patrick, I don't think you understand.
00:42:42.780
He says, when I tore my Achilles in high school, he says, four friends of mine dragged me to my hospital.
00:42:49.020
I was crying from there straight to the hospital.
00:42:51.360
He says, I have no clue how the hell this guy did it.
00:42:55.660
He went and hit the free throws and then you walked off the stage.
00:43:01.860
How the hell do you tolerate that kind of pain?
00:43:10.480
You know, I tell this example, and I think this is the best way to explain it.
00:43:26.640
Soccer, basketball, volleyball, whatever it is.
00:43:29.140
Doctor tells you to go home, sit up on the couch, rest your hammy.
00:43:39.920
All of a sudden, a fire breaks out in the home.
00:43:52.820
I'm willing to bet that you're going to forget about your hamstring.
00:44:06.760
And the reason is because the lives of your family are more important than the injury of your hamstring.
00:44:16.600
And so when the game is more important than the injury itself, you don't feel that damn injury.
00:44:27.560
You guys had a shot that, you know, to go into the—
00:44:29.760
You guys were a team that no one wanted to face, even though there was conflict.
00:44:33.180
You know, maybe if you would have gone round one, who knows?
00:44:34.880
Maybe Dwight would have gone together, you know?
00:44:38.360
It's just—you were the kind of team that, look, it's just a pain in about to face these guys.
00:44:42.540
We're just hoping you don't make the playoffs, right?
00:44:44.360
I'm sure a lot of people were very happy that you guys didn't make the playoffs that year.
00:44:49.880
And then one of the reporters comes up to you, and he says to you,
00:44:54.780
Kobe, are you convinced that they told you it's probably torn Achilles?
00:45:03.980
Then one of the reporters says, but if anyone is going to get through this, it's probably you, right?
00:45:10.420
You put your head down, and you say, oh, man, shit, right?
00:45:14.580
Did you say, oh, man, shit, because everybody's expecting me to be invincible, man?
00:45:23.900
Is that kind of what you were thinking, or was it like, the world's expecting me to come back in the next month because I'm Kobe?
00:45:29.800
Like, what were you thinking at that moment with all that pressure?
00:45:32.180
I was thinking, like, I don't know if I can do this.
00:45:50.720
I'm not dealing with anything that's muscular or things that I can control.
00:45:58.500
And then thinking about what that process of recovery is going to look like.
00:46:09.180
You don't know if you want to do it or you don't know if you are going to be able to
00:46:21.080
But, like, when I went in the trainer's room, my kids are in there.
00:46:25.160
And, you know, they're looking at you and stuff.
00:46:42.820
It's not going to be responsible for me stepping away for the game that I love.
00:46:51.080
And that's when the decision was made that, you know what?
00:47:02.200
I notice a lot of times you go and you talk about, like, even the example you use right
00:47:06.320
If your hamstrings are this, you're down, your wife's upstairs, your kids, you ain't going
00:47:09.620
So, did you have a lot of these scenarios where you use your wife and your kids to use as
00:47:16.080
Was that a mental conversation you had that nobody could hear?
00:47:24.440
If you want your kids to do whatever it is they want to accomplish in life, you've got
00:47:37.000
And you're obviously doing that, man, at a whole different level.
00:47:40.260
Let's do alter ego and then I want to kind of go into the story side and how you went
00:47:55.320
You know, sometimes we are so worried about what other people think about us.
00:48:02.240
You know, it's like, oh my gosh, what if they think I'm crazy?
00:48:04.360
What if they think I'm over obsessive or competitive?
00:48:08.780
This is just not healthy for you to be thinking this way, right?
00:48:11.800
How did you get your mindset into this alter ego to be comfortable being black mama?
00:48:18.600
It's a good separation for me, you know, emotionally to be able to put myself in a place where at practice
00:48:25.060
or when I'm training or doing games, I switch my mind to something else.
00:48:32.560
For me, it's the equivalent of Maximus, Desmus, Meridius, and Gladiator picking up the dirt,
00:48:49.480
When you're in that cage, you are that character.
00:48:52.420
And then when you leave there, it's something completely different.
00:48:54.400
But when I'm in that cage, bro, don't fucking touch me.
00:49:02.080
There used to be certain games, like, for, like, certain key games.
00:49:09.120
This kind of makes me seem very psychotic, but whatever.
00:49:13.080
I used to play the Halloween theme song over and over and over in my headphones.
00:49:25.280
And it was important that it was Michael Myers because the mask itself was void of emotion.
00:49:39.040
And I would listen to that song over and over and over.
00:49:41.680
That's when you know you better run because that's what a lot of people did.
00:49:50.220
So, Kobe, you've probably made, in this 50-minute conversation, I don't know, 12 metaphors.
00:49:58.200
So, typically people that make metaphors, they're storytellers.
00:50:03.560
And from day one, you're talking about you were very curious, right?
00:50:07.620
So, when you finish the last game you had, and I'll never forget, we were having a training,
00:50:24.300
I'm getting the last four minutes, which is the best freaking four minutes.
00:50:26.860
And I see a shot saying, go for 50, and then you're just going.
00:50:37.600
Guys, nobody has ever had a 60-point game to retire with.
00:50:52.280
My sisters in the room, Kobe, I got tears coming down and watching you.
00:50:56.500
When this happens, because 20 years I've been following this guy, and I relate to you because
00:51:01.020
in the insurance world, I take a lot of your similarity.
00:51:05.960
I'm looking at the world here, and it's just like seeing this guy, he's so freaking determined
00:51:10.540
I came and gave everything I had, and I'm going to give it to the last freaking second.
00:51:15.440
But then you leave, and you're like, no, it's good.
00:51:25.200
Kobe, and you're going, and you're going to your storytelling and all this stuff.
00:51:28.480
How did that disconnect and going into that go?
00:51:35.420
Anybody calls you, you're helping out, no problem.
00:51:37.300
But how did that adjustment go from there to all of a sudden, man, I got to go tell stories.
00:51:44.100
So, you know, it started for me again in high school when I started learning about storytelling,
00:51:48.200
writing, how to structure a story, how to put together, how to thread together a narrative
00:51:53.680
that has a bigger message, how to create compelling characters, how to take some of the emotions
00:51:58.340
from my own journey and instill them into characters that inspire or teach the next generation.
00:52:04.840
Therefore, they can avoid some of the pitfalls and landmines that I had to go through.
00:52:10.020
That's something I'm extremely passionate about.
00:52:13.060
So it wasn't a matter of, man, I got to, you know, I got to put this aside.
00:52:23.740
And everybody kept saying, man, like, my wife asked me one time, we were filling out a form
00:52:29.940
for school, and it said, all right, father, occupation.
00:52:45.040
You want me to write storyteller on your kid's form?
00:52:58.260
But during that year, everybody kept coming up to me and saying, okay, you're going to
00:53:04.360
You're going to go into a state of depression when you retire.
00:53:07.200
And those are all normal and all this other stuff.
00:53:16.940
And so after a while, I just started listening.
00:53:30.420
And, you know, and then my competitiveness inside was like, no, I'm going to do something
00:53:36.180
in the next 20 years that is better than these last 20.
00:53:51.240
What's your current work schedule look like today?
00:53:54.380
It's different because I personally am not writing every word of the novels.
00:54:07.200
What I have to do now is make sure that the people that we bring in, these obsessives that
00:54:12.320
we bring in, are challenging themselves to do the best job that they think they can do.
00:54:18.520
That's what I'm there for, is for them to constantly look in the mirror and self-assess and challenge
00:54:26.120
If we have a project and you're saying, okay, I can do that, that's not the project we want.
00:54:33.880
The projects that say, I don't know if I can animate that.
00:54:43.020
Those are the things we want because through that curiosity, you'll reach a level that you
00:54:50.460
And so running the studio, that's what I'm doing.
00:55:01.720
Like, you know, my experience is people watch movies in many different ways.
00:55:07.120
When you're watching movies, how are you watching a movie?
00:55:10.020
I watch them multiple times and I wear different hats every time.
00:55:13.680
So the first time I watch it, I watch it just as a fan for pure entertainment value.
00:55:17.540
Then I watch it from the director's lens and see why he made some of the decisions or she
00:55:21.840
made some of the decisions that she made for the film.
00:55:32.760
And then you can challenge yourself by really understanding the director's point of view if
00:55:36.600
you watch a film without music and without sound.
00:55:38.960
Then you can actually see the film for what it is.
00:55:45.680
I mean, obviously, Academy Awards that you won, the gentleman you hired for the sound,
00:55:53.980
And John Williams is like the goat in his world.
00:56:01.460
Any song right now that you can remember from a film, he's done.
00:56:30.340
So, when you say recruiting and putting your team together with your projects today,
00:56:36.940
Like, you know, if you're putting a basketball team together, you need a GM, president, you
00:56:41.260
know, trainers, all this stuff, assistant, good coach.
00:56:44.300
What do you need right now when you're putting it together?
00:56:45.720
Like, for example, right now, building out an animation house, right?
00:56:49.500
So, you got to start with the head of the snake.
00:56:51.680
You got to look at the person that better understands the type of animation that you want to create.
00:56:57.120
And they have to be obsessives, have to have a knowledge base, a historical knowledge base.
00:57:06.220
Because I love people that understand the history of their industry, ins and outs of it all.
00:57:11.660
And then you bring that person into the picture.
00:57:14.980
And then you allow them to do what you brought them in to do.
00:57:21.280
I'm not going to hire you to tell you how to do your job.
00:57:23.900
So, recruiting, obviously, in the league, you were known as a great recruiter.
00:57:30.560
So, if you're sitting down with me, I'm somebody you really want, you really want me on the team.
00:57:49.060
What are we going to see with Kobe next 20 years?
00:57:52.100
What other projects have you got in mind that you're working on right now?
00:57:54.200
The biggest challenge for us is looking at the entertainment industry and how to diversify it.
00:58:00.380
Particularly in animation, but also in writing.
00:58:03.220
In young YA novels, middle grade novels, how to create more diverse characters, how do we have better representation, how do we create better opportunities, not just ethnicity, but also gender diversity.
00:58:19.940
So, my mission is to make sure women have opportunities that they haven't been afforded.
00:58:27.340
That is my, I mean, I'm the father of four girls.
00:58:32.400
So, that is my next obsession, is how do we lead that charge from the front?
00:58:38.540
How do we take an animation industry that lacks in diversity, substantially lacks in diversity?
00:58:46.200
How do we take some of those old animation techniques and teach a whole new generation of animators to come in and create films that inspire the world?
00:58:58.000
I think everybody knows crystal clear Kobe's going to get whatever Kobe wants.
00:59:10.680
And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.
00:59:15.040
Give us a five-star, write a review if you haven't already.
00:59:18.220
And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
00:59:26.140
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