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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKENDFebruary 16, 2014Kobe BryantNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions. Q. How has it been coming with your knee and when can we expect you back on the court? KOBE BRYANT: It's coming slowly. It's coming slowly. I'm optimistic coming out of the break that I will have some improvements, once I get back to L.A. and do a couple follow‑ups and then go from there. But it's been a slow process. Q. I think I know the answer to this question, but unusual for you to be here in this capacity, only in street clothes? Do you think you'll be back on this stage again actually playing in an All‑Star Game? KOBE BRYANT: I hope so. I hope so. When you play in an All‑Star Game, that means you're one of the best players in the world. So it's obviously a big goal of mine to be there. But it's tough coming here though, because normally when you come, the competitive juices are already flowing, now it's kind of looking at it from a different perspective, but you also get a chance to soak it all in a little bit more and kind of sit back and watch and observe, which has it its own fun element to it. Q. Two questions. First is about yesterday's Slam Dunk contest. There was a lot of criticism about this now. And second is it's now All‑Star Weekend, but it's also one more big tournament going on right now, Winter Olympic games. Maybe you have been watching some of it. KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, no, I've been following the Sochi games. Every single day I've been watching it, marveling at those athletic accomplishments. I've been watching virtually every single sport. My mission actually yesterday was trying to figure out the rules of curling as I was watch the sport of curling, and I failed miserably, but it was still fun to watch. So as far as the Dunk contest, I grew up with the old‑school rules, when Dominique and Michael were competing and I guess I'm kind of a purist at heart. I would much rather watch that type of Dunk contest format. Q. You have a reputation as something of a difficult teammate. I was wondering ‑‑ KOBE BRYANT: A little bit. Q. ‑‑ if you were concerned that could be a factor in a attracting free agents this summer. KOBE BRYANT: No, not necessarily. I'm a difficult person to deal with. For people who don't have the same kind of competitiveness or commitment to winning, then I become an absolute pain in the neck. Because I'm going to drag you into the gym every single day. If you need to be drug in, that's what I'm going to do. And for players that have that level of commitment, very, very, easy. And we can wind up enhancing the entire group and elevating them to that type of level. But if we don't have that commitment, man, I'll absolutely be very, very tough to get along with. No question about it. Q. What exactly if anything can you do now, and are you still hopeful to play this season? KOBE BRYANT: Well, I just stick to the script. Just try to get better and then go from there. I just try to focus, keep my blinders on and just do what I have to do and not worry too much about what's going on around you, but just stay focused on what my responsibilities are. Q. Are you still hopeful? KOBE BRYANT: I am. I just need to keep my blinders on and just focus on getting better myself and going from there. Q. Obviously you're not getting to play as much ball as you want to this year, you'll probably have some left over energy in the summer, did you ever think they like me in Spain, I might as well go show up and try and play for the U.S. again? KOBE BRYANT: I haven't even thought about that. Probably not. Probably not. But I'll probably play in‑‑ I'll play much more pick‑up ball than I have in the past in the summertime. In the summertime I normally don't, but I'll probably do a lot more of that. Q. First of all, NBA can host a game in Brazil next preseason. I would like you to know if you would like to go and play in Brazil. And also we know you're a soccer fan if you're going to the World Cup and to know that Oscar (Schmidt), it's his birthday today, 56 years. How do you like that? KOBE BRYANT: As far as playing over in Brazil, I'm a huge fan of playing as many games overseas as possible, just because growing up overseas and just seeing the impact that the game has and the sport has and it being now a truly a global game. I think you can inspire so many kids worldwide there through the game of basketball. And of course I'll pop in for the World Cup. I'm such a huge soccer, and so I won't miss it. And Oscar, Oscar is‑‑ I looked up to him since I was a kid. And for today to be his birthday, I think it's a‑‑ we all should kind of take a step back and honor his legacy. And I'm sure there are a lot of scorers that are happy that he didn't get a chance to play the bulk of his career in the NBA. Q. Kobe, over here. KOBE BRYANT: Half the game is like finding where the question's coming from. (Laughter.) Can I get it before they say where they are? Q. Last time the Lakers had this kind of season, it took them three years to get back The Finals. What's your level of optimism that you can get back in the time you have left with the franchise and what's it going to take? KOBE BRYANT: Well, this season seems to kind of‑‑ what we have coming up this offseason with the cap space and what we have ahead of ourselves seems to be right in the Lakers wheelhouse in terms of turning things around pretty quickly. We have had summers like this, they have never really faltered, they have normally made really sound and excellent decisions that put us right back in contention. So I think this offseason is right in their wheelhouse. Q. You've had a history of overcoming all injuries and seeing them as merely road bumps in your career.  Are you concerned‑‑ in light of obviously your injury this year, and then your subsequent injury coming back this soon, are you concerned that your body might be starting to give out on you? KOBE BRYANT: Of course. Absolutely. That's part of the excitement of the challenge, that level of uncertainty: Is this it sort of thing, are my best days behind me sort of thing. And to have those conversations with yourself and not be intimidated by that and not be‑‑ not succumbing to that is part of the challenge. It's really the biggest challenge is saying, well, maybe this is the end, but then again, maybe it's not. And it is my responsibility to do all that I can to make sure that it's not. So that's really become the biggest challenge. Q. Congratulations on a fantastic career. What is the secret of longevity in the NBA for you? And the second part is basketball is growing in India, so are you hoping to visit India and promote the sport in a bigger way? KOBE BRYANT: Well, I'll answer the second one first. Yeah, I would love to come out to India and promote the sport as much as I can. Like I said earlier, I'm such as‑‑ basketball has been my passion. I learned so much about life through the game of basketball that I want to be able to share that with as many people as possible. And what was your first question? Q. The secret of your longevity in basketball. KOBE BRYANT: Longevity, it's really just I enjoy what I do. I love what I do. That's the secret. When you love your job, you love, you have a passion for it, you just want to continue to do it and do it and find new ways to do it. And when you have that passion and whatever challenge is thrown in front of you, the passion supersedes that. And it just becomes more and more fun every year. And that's really the secret. Q. You tweeted last night saying that you might participate in the Three‑Point contest. Is that true? KOBE BRYANT: Next year? The Three‑Point contest? Q. Yeah. KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, I wouldn't mind being in one. I wouldn't mind being in one. Marco won with shooting five air balls. If‑‑ I might not win, but I won't shoot five air balls in the Three‑Point contest, I don't think. But we'll see. Q. Not that I'm suggesting anything, but do you have a retirement plan in say two, three, five years? Do you know if you're going to announce a final season or something like that? And, secondly, with so many injuries we have seen in the league in the past couple years, do you think the new commissioner should think about perhaps loosening the grip a little bit and allowing players to rest more? KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, I mean, it has been a slew of injuries here in the last couple years. I don't know. I think we'll have to kind of look and as a whole, as a league, and maybe re‑evaluate things that we can do. Whether it's rest periods in between or maybe it's just different forms of recovery, whatever the case may be. You think there's something to that. That needs to be figured out. As far as my retirement plans, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not ‑‑ you know, personality, my personality is‑‑ I don't really want the rocking chair before the game. It would drive me crazy. But I'll probably just pop up and just vanish. (Laughter.) Q. For someone who has followed your career from day one like I have, what can we expect from you when you come back next year? At what level will you play? Are you going to be able to drop 40 just like that? And also can you tell us about the state of Laker Nation and the panic and stuff now for next year. What's your take on that? How confident are you on the front office to get the job done as usual? KOBE BRYANT: Well, I have all the confidence in the world that they can get the job done. I'm not concerned about it at all. They have the flexibility to be able to do it and they have the room to be able to do it, and I'm sure they will make the right decisions from top to bottom. As far as myself, I don't know. That's the challenge of it. I don't know. I think I can. But everything I read from players is that they all think they can go out there and score 40 or 50. But it's not the mind that wears down, it's the body. So my job is to try to keep my body as fresh as possible, keep it as strong as possible so it can be right there with my mind in terms of how I can execute things. So that's part of the challenge. So we'll see. Q. We heard LeBron James, Mount Rushmore last week. Give us your Mount Rushmore. KOBE BRYANT: Mount Rushmore. You got to understand I'm an Italian kid, so I don't even know how many presidents are on Mount Rushmore. Q. Four. KOBE BRYANT: Four. Okay. So let's go. I would say Magic, Bird, Michael, and Russell. That's impossible to do four, though, man. Come on. That's crazy. That's tough. Absolutely tough. Q. I'm thinking with David Stern's signing off and you having been in the league for a long time, I would be curious to know what you feel has changed the most about the league between the time you first arrived and now. KOBE BRYANT: The global impact it's had. So when he first came on in '84, I was six. In Italy. And I could see the development, the growth of the game, because it reached me in Italy. Games all of a sudden started becoming televised and you started having product that was accessible to you. You started having videos that were accessible to you. So you start seeing the global growth of the game. And then to come to the league in '96 and really watch it explode, the product of the '92 Olympics, you have Yao Ming coming in, obviously there was Vlade Divac, before him Dirk Nowitzki and all these other great players that came in, Pau and Ginobili, just the global impact that he's had with his leadership I think is a lasting legacy. Q. What is your day‑to‑day involvement with the current roster? And then what type of obligation do you feel to be helping them out, get better just this season, not even looking ahead? KOBE BRYANT: Just try to keep their competitive spirits up and make sure that they're competing hard every single time. And when you get in these type of situations, it almost becomes okay to go out there and give it your best effort and lose games. And I want to make sure that they don't fall into that mindset, they continue to fight hard and they expect to win every single night they go out there on the floor and they compete hard every single time. So that's been what I've been trying to do. Q. Is it working? KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, they play hard, man. That game against Oklahoma was a tough one. They played their hearts out, man. And they left everything out on the floor. And unfortunately the results haven't been coming and the losses this season just seem to come in bunches. But they're definitely playing really, really hard. Q. What do you think about your new shoes? KOBE BRYANT: The shoes? I love them. Obviously, I mean, it's‑‑ I feel like we have done a really good job in capturing the high‑top and making it play like a low, keeping the shoe light and the ability to change directions comfortably and so on and so forth. I'm really pleased with it. Q. You mentioned you had all the confidence in the world obviously in the front office and their ability to rebuild this summer. Do you expect to have maybe more input in front office decisions than you maybe have had in seasons past? KOBE BRYANT: No. (Laughter.) No. No. I don't. In all honesty, I don't want it. That's what they do. I'm not a general manager. I don't know about scouting players and doing things of that nature. So I'll let them do their job. They have obviously done a phenomenal job at it for years, so I'm not going to jump in the way. All I ask is if something is going to go down, just let me know about it beforehand so I don't hear about it on a ticker or something. But that's about it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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