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AJ McKenzie
  • 2 days ago
Aired in 2004
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Transcript
00:47I'm Pam Ward for SportsCentury.
00:49Like the Japanese steakhouse for which he was named, Kobe Bryant is a product of privilege
00:53and was prepared for one purpose, to please the palate and satisfy the appetite.
00:58Raised in Italy by an extraordinarily close family, he seemed mature beyond his years.
01:03Possessing talent that some compared to that of Michael Jordan, Bryant jumped from high
01:06school to the pros, where he perfected a game and an image that burned brightest in the
01:11NBA galaxy.
01:12Then, as we'll hear in this edition of SportsCentury hosted by Chris Fowler, Bryant fell back to
01:17Worth, and the landing has jolted a nation.
01:21Shane.
01:27I'm not Michael Jordan.
01:28There'll never be another Michael Jordan.
01:29He's the greatest player of all time, and nobody can feel his shoes.
01:34Period.
01:34Anybody who comes into the league with a game that at all emulates Michael Jordan's has
01:40been compared to Jordan.
01:41So when Kobe comes along, and he's got incredible game, and a game that is on the same kind of
01:48level as Michael Jordan, well then the immediate thought is, well maybe this is the next one.
01:52We've got to find the next superstar.
01:55We've got to make this guy the next somebody.
01:57Where in the whole days, they didn't make you, you made yourself.
02:00It's terrible to try to put him in a class with a Michael Jordan when he hadn't played
02:05a game.
02:06Michael Jordan's the greatest player I've ever played, and Kobe Bryant is making his own
02:09reputation, and he's trying to establish his own identity.
02:12There was a media feeding frenzy.
02:14Now people look for the next Kobe Bryant.
02:18I just thought that that was not a thing to do to young Kobe.
02:21Let this young man develop into the extraordinary talent that it appears that he's going to
02:26develop into, and then we'll all enjoy the ride.
02:30Dumped in by Bryant.
02:31Jordan, look at that!
02:33And Michael Jordan!
02:36That is where you do the comparisons with Jordan.
02:39I've guarded Michael Jordan, and I've guarded Kobe also.
02:43Um, really can't tell the difference from them apart.
02:46Everybody knew what Michael Jordan was going to do when he had the basketball.
02:49He just couldn't stop.
02:50It's a different situation with Kobe.
02:52You don't know what he's going to do, because he hit you with so many different ways.
02:55Bryant!
02:56Oh!
02:57He's out!
02:59He's out!
02:59All kinds of post moves, but then he has the athleticism, and then he can shoot from
03:05mostly anywhere on the court.
03:07First came to the lead, he had a boy head.
03:09Everyone was comparing him to Mike.
03:11His tongue came out his mouth.
03:12They blew that up.
03:13Like, hey, he's sticking his tongue out like Mike.
03:17Oh, it's going to be the legs!
03:19Kobe Bryant!
03:19Look at him!
03:20Yes!
03:20Deep down inside, I think he thought he was great, because here you've got a 17-year-old
03:24kid compared to the greatest player in the world.
03:27Toby Bryant is an unbelievably competitive person.
03:30And if there's one area that he reminds me of to some degree, it would be in the competitive
03:36area to Michael Jordan.
03:37If you know the Lakers situation, they called him 23.
03:39That's his nickname.
03:40It was like the second coming of Michael Jordan.
03:42Whether he liked it or not, I don't know, but he didn't shy away from it.
03:48If you think of Michael Jordan, when a lot of people thought he was at his peak, as far
03:51as wisdom and cunning and skills and seeing the game, he was in his early 30s.
03:57And Kobe will be, what, a 15-year veteran by then?
04:00Despite the fact he's played in pain, it's a game!
04:04We're looking at a Michael Jordan-type performance.
04:08If Michael took 500 jump shots, he took 1,000.
04:11If Michael got up and worked out at 8, Kobe was working out at 7.30.
04:15So he was trying to catch up to that and be beyond.
04:18Kobe's probably the only player out there that really believes he can actually have a better
04:22legacy than Michael Jordan.
04:23He speaks to Michael.
04:24He asks advice about how to deal with teammates, how to deal with media, how to deal with life,
04:29how to deal with being famous.
04:30He wanted to take the things that Michael Jordan did that made him successful and apply them
04:35to himself.
04:37Even before he became the youngest player at 19 to start in the All-Star Game, Kobe Bryant
04:42was emulating his role model at the tricky game of public relations.
04:47Kobe had this image, even at 17 or 18, where he projected a maturity that I think belied his
04:54actual age.
04:55You know, he was very well spoken with the media, very eloquent, and even had some verbal
05:01mannerisms that were kind of Jordan-like.
05:03He was way ahead of his time.
05:04I can remember distinctly watching him on the back of the bus, you know, where everybody
05:08else is reading, Sports Illustrated, our sports section of the paper.
05:11He has Time Magazine, but 18 years old.
05:14Me meeting Kobe for the first time outside the House of Blues in L.A., he called me Sir.
05:18Very well-mannered young man.
05:20He understands certain things about the business that could only have come from living the life
05:26that he lived under his father and in his family.
05:29After signing a lucrative five-year contract with Adidas before he even played in his first
05:34NBA game, Bryant was embraced by a media in the hunt for another Jordan.
05:39Please welcome Kobe Bryant!
05:44This is a guy whose popularity is right up there with Jordan's, whose commercial appeal,
05:49whose personality, whose charisma are all right up there on that same plane.
05:54You don't have to cut the lawn ever again, do you?
05:58See, now the good thing about it, I get to give my parents allowance.
06:01Yeah, oh, yeah, give them allowance.
06:05That's it.
06:05You got a new car two years ago!
06:08Now you forgot to take the trash out.
06:09He's the second, I don't know if he's the second greatest NBA player ever, but he is the
06:15second most popular NBA player ever.
06:18All across earth.
06:22Y'all work with me here.
06:23Hey, I can play.
06:25Do you know how?
06:26I'm not bad.
06:27He's tall.
06:28What do you think?
06:30I'm not bad!
06:31Hey, wait a minute!
06:32That's, that's Junior.
06:34That's Junior for my wife and kids.
06:36Hey, if we win, we get to go to McDonald's.
06:38I recognize that guy.
06:40Growing up in the suburbs, not necessarily being viewed as a street kid, he has a crossover
06:45appeal.
06:45He's a GQ cover guy, and yet when he's on the court, he plays like any kid in any inner
06:53city.
06:55Kobe's markability is probably the same as MJ's was back in MJ's earlier years.
07:00Both guys were attractive to the public.
07:04Beating the Lakers to their third straight title in 2002, Bryant was being billed as
07:09the league's most electrifying player.
07:12Just as important, he projected an image that enhanced not only himself, but also the NBA.
07:18This is a guy who had everything.
07:20He had the grace, the style, the agility, the ability, the intelligence, the pleasure
07:25to be around.
07:26So everybody, you know, really took to this guy and fell in love with him.
07:30It's hard not to.
07:31I think it's just a maturation process of understanding how they want you perceived as opposed to how
07:37you really are as a person.
07:40And it's become very vital for me to make sure that the message that's being communicated
07:45out there to consumers is the person that I actually am.
07:49In 2001, Bryant married 19-year-old Vanessa Lane, and not quite two years later, they had
07:55a daughter, Natalia.
07:56Then, in the summer of 2003, Bryant's public image was severely fractured after a 19-year-old
08:03employee of a resort in Edwards, Colorado, visited his room.
08:08Los Angeles Lakers all-star, Kobe Bryant, arrested by Eagle County, Colorado, Sheriff's.
08:14Bryant complied with an arrest warrant, turned himself in Friday, July 4th, and will have
08:19to answer charges of felony sexual assault.
08:22After six days of rumor, innuendo, and media speculation, Bryant attempted to contain the
08:28firestorm by reminding a reporter from the Los Angeles Times of his sterling image.
08:33You guys know me, he said.
08:34You know I would never do something like that.
08:37Six days later, the Eagle County, Colorado, District Attorney claimed otherwise.
08:43The defendant was charged with one count of sexual assault.
08:48Penalties on this Class III felony are that if it's a prison term, it's from four years
08:54to life imprisonment.
08:56This woman is alleging that he forced himself on her and he raped her.
09:01It's the second strongest count they could bring against him.
09:04The first would be if he used a weapon in the commission of the crime.
09:10I'm innocent.
09:15You know what?
09:17The guy, the kid before, that's not Junior from my wife and kids.
09:23That's the guy from Are We There?
09:25That's it.
09:27I'm going to force her to do...
09:57...madultery.
09:58...adultery.
10:00i think that made it much more real to people that this is serious now there's going to be
10:05a trial and it knocked people on their butts i think the fans the organization teammates coaches
10:14this just hit them like a rock we were led to believe that he was a very polished mature
10:25confident young man we were led to believe that he was different from anyone else in the nba
10:30he coveted that he nurtured it i am not going to make those same mistakes i am not that guy
10:36i'm not the guy who's going to cheat on my wife here's a man who now is admitting his mistake
10:41of
10:41adultery who now finds his entire life his well-being now in the hands of a judge prosecutors
10:53da's lawyers and ultimately a jury of 12 people it's totally out of his control kobe's always
11:00used to being in control i had heard a lot about this youngster who at the time was 13 years
11:07old
11:07i invited him to scrimmage against our varsity after five minutes of play against my varsity i
11:13turned to my assistant coaches and i said this kid's a pro kobe learned so much from his father
11:18on the court just just little things that only his dad as a professional basketball player could
11:23have taught him like pinching you in the ribs to get a rebounder or elbowing you in the right spot
11:28or holding your jersey as lower marion's jv coach joe bryant concentrated on his son's every move on
11:36the varsity his father would yell something out in italian and he would kind of glance over his
11:40father nod his head and then do something nasty on the floor oh just nasty ah kobe bryant is for
11:49real
11:49the first year here they were 4 and 20 something like that but he started he was the first freshman
11:54starter here at lower marion high school in maybe two three decades john lucas who at the time was
11:59coaching the sixers started coming to a lot of our games kobe got invited by john to scrimmage
12:05at saint joe's university with some of the current sixers he and stackhouse played one-on-one mcdice
12:11he played with all our guys and kobe was always at any workouts kobe showed up he beat everybody
12:17i said the guy's a pro averaging 31 points and 12 rebounds bryant took lower marion into the state
12:25playoffs only to get knocked out in the semi-finalists the taste of defeat was bitter
12:30we were in the locker room whole team was crying he said i hate this feeling he said you know
12:36me next
12:36time we uh stop playing basketball is because there's no games left bryant started his senior
12:42season with two goals one was to win the state championship the other was less public and
12:48considerably more ambitious the first day of practice kobe was reaching and grabbing and
12:55clutching a lot on defense kobe's first reaction when i was getting on him about reaching was i'm
13:01getting ready to play pro defense he's the best player in the country they know he's going to go
13:06pro everybody wanted to go and see kobe play everybody
13:14all the top schools in the country would just come in every day the coaches would come with a new
13:19basketball letter from another team kobe would get them at the end of school and we'd all sort of sit
13:23out in this corridor hanging out kobe would just give out letters to whoever unopened letters
13:28after leading the aces to the 1996 state championship bryant added a new dimension
13:34to his celebrity by taking tv and recording star brandy to his prom meanwhile colleges knocked on his
13:41door but bryant was looking to live his dream sooner rather than later he really believed at the
13:47time even at like 18 19 years old if i enter the nba right now i will be one of
13:51the 10 best players in the
13:52league jordan and barkley were getting older at the time and it was one of his dreams to step onto
13:57the court and square off against players of that caliber widely acclaimed as the finest prep player
14:03in the nation kobe bryant could play basketball at any college in the country i don't think there's
14:08no rush to get into the pros i think that's his dream i mean who can what's rushing your dream
14:12he
14:12made a call to me to ask me should i go i think about going to nba and i i
14:18just said damn what did
14:19your father say he said father said go for it i said well then you need to go for it
14:30no i have decided to skip college and to my town to the nba
14:36nice glasses you you go scuba diving yeah you're a swimmer
14:45acting like he's michael jordan already for the next week 98 of the calls going on sports radio and
14:51on the tv reports where this is the dumbest thing we've ever heard why is this kid doing that i
14:55can't
14:56believe he's giving up a chance for an education it's an opportunity of a lifetime i feel it's time
15:00for me to go out in season while i'm still young at that point in time high school kids have
15:04really
15:04not been a part of the process of identifying nba players we don't want them in the nba people don't
15:12want to babysit the 18 and 19 year old kids you got a lot of guys thinking that they're ready
15:16for the
15:16nba he ended up having to coach him so hey when they really should go to college if you really
15:24have
15:24the talent the college game will only enhance what you have my first thought was really that
15:30you like to see someone like kobe get a couple of years of seasoning in college so that he doesn't
15:35have to spend as much time on the bench and he would grow a bit this is a kid who's
15:40smart he's lived
15:41abroad he's very comfortable with himself if this kid doesn't go to college who does with the 13th pick
15:48in the 1996 nba draft the charlotte hornets select kobe bryant from lower marion high school
15:58in pennsylvania but even before bryant was picked by the hornets in the first round the lakers were
16:05interested in the high school phenom just got a chance to just do some drill work with him
16:09and then uh jerry west says uh kooky let's go down to the low post and work him out there
16:14so i started
16:14guarding kobe and all of a sudden he's hitting me with all these elbows as he's turning
16:18we knew man that he was going to be a good player west called me right afterwards he said chick
16:22i got a guy i gotta have and i said who was and he told me his name i said
16:26i never heard of him
16:27he said he's just coming out of high school i said you got to be crazy the thing that most
16:31impressed
16:32me about him was his ability to articulate the reasons why he wanted to play in the league you get
16:37a chance to spend some interview time with him behind closed doors and all the questions we hit him
16:42with he answered them appropriately wasn't shy very candid about a lot
16:48he acquired bryant in a trade for their starting center vlade divas
16:52he knew that he could be a great player at this level but if your mental toughness that's going to
16:57keep you in the league and if you keep yourself healthy that'll make you a superstar armed with
17:02sensational ability a blistering work ethic and a social sophistication beyond his 18 years kobe
17:08bryant hit the city of angels where young stars often vault to the top or burn out in mid-flight
17:21the lakers have always been looked at as one of the elite teams going back from the
17:25little chamberlain and jerry west days and the showtime years with uh magic johnson and worthy
17:31and those guys the first time i met him he was thrilled to death you know because he he remember
17:35us
17:35back in the day playing you know to put that like a uniform on it seemed like that was probably
17:39the
17:39most exciting day of his life physically when he got here he was he was good or better than anyone
17:44he
17:44played against and they had great size great ball handling ability great speed and quickness after we
17:50finished practice he wanted to go are they playing at venice beach uh you know kobe just finished an
17:54nba practice you don't need to go play here he wanted to go to high schools and play wanted to
17:58go to
17:59ucla and play his whole mentality was still play play play play i heard the ball bouncing in the
18:05form and the lights were on and i walked past and i look in there and it's kobe you know
18:10he's in there
18:11in the dark shooting accustomed to being alone after a childhood in which he moved many times
18:16bryant suffered the pangs of an emotional solitude defined by age or lack of it i didn't have anything
18:23in common with these guys i mean there's nothing to talk about i was more focused on on the game
18:28of
18:28basketball the difficult part about young kids jumping into this world because it's really a
18:32man's world the nba and obviously you might be able to play it athletically but it's a mental thing
18:38and it's a social aspect that you have to deal with he just seemed to be a loner uh he
18:42wasn't
18:43one of those guys that wanted to hang out all the time too young to go to bars and all
18:47that stuff if
18:47you didn't speak to kobe first he may not speak and at first i was kind of taken aback by
18:51that and
18:52almost offended wasn't really to shy away from his teammates he's just used to being alone he got along
18:57with everybody but at the same time i don't think he really wanted to attach himself to somebody one
19:03of the players told me um that they were told not to touch him he was not to be hazed
19:09and not to be
19:09pushed and it came from the top and that caused some animosity he's got endorsement contracts coming
19:15in already he's got an adidas deal he's already being put in commercials and so you know there's a
19:21natural jealousy there this guy who's not even established yet already has all this commercial
19:25attention and so yeah there's there's some whispers behind his back and they're giving him some
19:30gentle ribbing and and shaq has dubbed him showboat showboat played a good game for his first game
19:36i really look forward to going have you autographed showboat right i've been watching you a long time
19:43he kind of liked that name you know i don't think he understood that
19:47some guys say that you're kind of represent him trying to be one-on-one and trying to do everything
19:51on
19:51his own kobe was a little bit different because he had the game that no one on the laker team
19:56had
19:56he played the game with a real flair and sometimes there was a little too much mustard on the hot
20:02dog
20:04he would make a big play guys wouldn't be applauding no one would come and greet him there was no
20:10congratulations the feeling was hey eddie jones was still the starter how how are you hating on a
20:19backup you're supposed to be a mentor you think you're great you think you're going to step on us
20:27to be great we'll watch but we're not going to support you there's a pecking order in the nba and
20:32kobe
20:32was just trying to do what he did in high school and not understanding that you have four other players
20:37and get it done when i first came into the league i was uh on bs2 that's why him and
20:45jones never saw
20:46championships we're trying to prove myself as an individual basketball player i'm not really
20:52thinking about uh my teammates or trying to lead them because i you know that wasn't my role it was
20:58obvious that he was going to be a superstar but first couple of years he made more turnovers uh than
21:04he
21:04did assists uh he was a little bit too aggressive to shoot the basketball
21:10he viewed himself as a player who could come in and make an immediate impact and that's not going to
21:17happen i could not stand kobe bryant daryl harris wouldn't allow him to make fancy moves in practice
21:25if he'd made a spectacular move dale wouldn't even count the basket and he never got playing time
21:30it was killing him because in his mind he's doing everything that he's supposed to do
21:35to get to that point in his career where he can shine that was part of kobe's frustration as well
21:41you know being the youngest guy and you know almost feeling like his desire was greater than everyone's
21:47that desire would have its moment in game five of the 1997 western conference semi-finals against utah
21:54with the game tied and seconds left the passionate rookie held the world in his hands
22:05nobody else wanted to take that shot kobe was the only one to step up and say i want to
22:11take this shot
22:17the lakers at that particular time was looking for a go-to player and going back to high school
22:22his ball has been placed in his hands to do one thing and that's to make something happen
22:34after the game you know he was very disappointed in himself but the one thing i can remember is
22:39looking at this kid saying he's gonna come back next year he's gonna be even better in 1999 bryant
22:44became a starter averaging 20 points in the regular season but his offense was not enough to keep the
22:51lakers from being swept by the spurs in the playoffs enter a new coach whose insights and powers of
22:57persuasion guided the bulls to a dynasty round ball guru bill jackson this is a team that is talented
23:05it's young it's on the verge i just had a chance to meet kobe bryant he's dedicated he's competitive
23:11he reminds me a lot of michael jordan and uh there's not too many players that have ever done that
23:15in this
23:15game jackson was unbelievably demanding of kobe this is a guy who's so tough and so strong that
23:24i can really go after him and he can handle it if you're lust to score and you have this
23:29ego problem
23:30that's you're getting in the way of the game then you're gonna have trouble there's too many players
23:34that you disrespect if you did it phil's known as the master of mind games kobe looked at phil when
23:41that became an issue and said just coach just tell me what to do you don't have to manipulate me
23:47you
23:48don't have to motivate me i'm in first gear ready to go in game seven of the 2000 western conference
23:56finals against the trailblazers bryant posted 25 points 11 rebounds and seven assists but it wasn't
24:04stats that defined his maturity it was poise in crunch time you look at the dynamics of that play
24:17and kobe was trying to crash through the defense like he always had before beat five guys and dunk it
24:23in
24:23everybody's face but the difference was that he had learned that that's not the way to win it after
24:29eliminating the blazers the lakers held a 2-1 lead over indiana in the nba finals having sat out game
24:36three with a sprained ankle bryant played in game four and took over after shaquille o'neal fouled
24:43out with two and a half minutes left in overtime kobe's looking over at the big fellow on the bench
24:48saying don't worry about the thing man i got it kobe just literally takes the whole game and just
24:55puts it on his shoulder how good is this kid that was the performance that up until that time really
25:01you'd only seen a player like michael jordan do people in the stands in indiana talk about who is
25:05that guy wearing number eight is that a 23 and all of a sudden he changed jerseys
25:14and now no one's asking the question is he the next michael jordan the question's been answered he's
25:21it he's next the 2000 nba finals served to help heal uh the relationship between kobe and his teammates
25:34and and it led to some early belief that everything was fine but throughout kobe and shaq's tenure together
25:44los angeles the old ghost have a tendency to revisit and with shaq and kobe there wasn't that
25:54shaquille and kobe are very different personalities shaquille is very playful and kobe is a more serious
26:01person while shaq is the older one and the bigger one kobe is by far the most mature and reserved
26:10that's the way they approach basketball in a lot of ways shaq would look at kobe and say
26:16lighten up and kobe would look at shaq and say get serious there was a team meeting
26:23and shaquille o'neal spent a lot of time saying we cannot win with kobe bryant of course kobe's
26:30sitting right there and he took him kobe was very young and impulsive and shaq just felt that he
26:38didn't really understand the importance of team play the importance that shaq played with the team
26:43these hard feelings built up over time during a two-on-two pickup game shaq slapped kobe
26:49it was obvious that this was something that would never be forgotten it was a hard moment such
26:55episodes not all of them with o'neal have tended to drive bryant to achieve ever higher levels of play
27:01after winning an nba championship he hardly took a breath before stealing himself for the next season
27:07i remember him saying he took two weeks off and went right back to training for the next year
27:12and that's amazing supposed to sit back and let people pat you on your back he was right back in
27:17the gym everybody on the team sort of had a bigger ego because they were champs they all believe that
27:23their way is the right way therein lies the adjustment handling the success of a championship
27:27and putting the egos aside once again with the understanding that it's a team concept i felt like
27:33it was really my job to make sure the team was moving in the right direction and to really become
27:40more of a vocal leader shaq comes in he's out of shape he's gonna kind of cruise through the regular
27:47season and kobe comes in he's been shooting jump shots every day every hour every minute kobe said okay
27:53i can either reward myself for all the things i've done or i can give it to this guy who
28:00who can't get
28:01up and down the court who they're going to foul at the end of the game so tell me what
28:05i'm doing wrong
28:05here sometimes i wish he was a little bit more diplomatic kobe's gonna be kobe that's the one
28:09thing i've learned i respect about him he's very opinionated he's very honest things finally hit their
28:16low point between kobe and shaq in january of 2001 espn magazine does a story on kobe in which he
28:23basically says he doesn't want to have to contain his game anymore that he wants to turn his game up
28:28not down and that was really when things completely blew up between kobe and shaq when everything went
28:35through me the outcome was good with a big dog named me then the house won't get guarded period people
28:41wanted me to just kind of level off my play and i improve and just do the same thing i
28:45did last year
28:46and i'm not going to do that and i'll work too hard and i improve as a basketball player every
28:50day
28:50and i want to show that i improve shaq told me i'm too big to ride in the back seat
28:54of anybody else's
28:55car kobe called other teams and said you know is there any way that a trade could be arranged
29:01phil jackson just stepped back he still allowed kobe to be himself and he allowed shaq to be himself
29:08and when they did clash and bump heads he let them figure it out for themselves you almost get the
29:14impression that the two guys just can't stand to be in the same room together and it's just not
29:18that way it's almost like a family situation like a big brother younger brother situation where
29:24they're good days they're bad days we had our moments where it was hard to play with one another
29:29but we never disliked one another it wasn't so much that kobe had to develop a relationship with
29:34shaq as he had to develop a relationship with that entire team kobe had always kept to himself i can
29:40remember time and time again him getting a new cd either before or after practice he was sitting
29:44in his car just listening to the cd all the way through spent hours and hours just listening to
29:49music in his car a couple of times he would have his earphones on and no music just to hear
29:53what
29:54people were saying guys on our team questioned whether or not you know kobe really wanted to be
29:58a part of our group and wanted to do uh what was best for not only him before our team
30:03he plunged into
30:05very very dark mood he told me that the thing that was really tough it was just very difficult to
30:11have worked so hard to be as good as he could be and to be misperceived by so many people
30:19as such a
30:20selfish arrogant internally focused person in the spring of 2001 brian hampered by a sore left ankle
30:29began to slowly surface from his grim-minded self-determination started to open up more
30:34to my teammates i felt like i had to trust him and vice versa you could see kobe interacting with
30:40more
30:40guys on the bus on the plane you could tell that he made an effort to just be more responsive
30:45around
30:45guys suddenly they see the personality that he wouldn't let them see before and he sees that these
30:52guys aren't out to get me maybe i need to lighten up and maybe they need to get a little
30:58serious
30:59maybe we can meet halfway this offensive phil jackson designed the first and many times the
31:09last option will be shaquille o'neal and i think kobe's accepted that and understood just how important
31:15that is for the success of this team both of them came to realize that they needed each other shaq
31:21finally said well if we're going to have a championship team i'd like to have kobe bryan
31:25on my club and kobe recognized that if we were going to have a good championship team that shaq had
31:31to be there one particular meeting you know he stood up and said um you know he
31:35shaq left a year after this i heard about everybody on his team and he said i love shaq like
31:41a big brother
31:42and and always have and you know i just want to go out and play and have fun and win
31:45i told kobe
31:46he was my idol he's playing no i'm serious he's playing phenomenal i think he's the best player
31:53in the league by far you know we're very good friends actually we enjoy playing together
31:58to the point where sometimes phil has to get on us because we're playing too much together
32:04now our friendship has grown tremendously with bryant and o'neal playing together the lakers
32:10dominated the 2001 playoffs winning a record 15 of 16 games on their way to a second straight nba
32:17title they use their competitiveness to bring everybody else together to uh to fight for that
32:22one common goal which is winning a championship back-to-back titles for the los angeles lakers
32:37and once again just growth and maturity he's definitely a different ball player a better
32:42basketball player what i found out is that the game of basketball has really been a great teacher
32:47of life unending challenges teamwork doing things together
32:56his goal is to drive himself to be the greatest basketball player in the history of the game
33:03anytime he has a challenge he wants to conquer it and he doesn't let anybody know that he wants to
33:09he doesn't work out most of the time with the lakers he works out at different gyms just so nobody
33:13is
33:14aware of that kobe is a guy that if you ask him he'll talk to you about certain things but
33:19almost gives you the impression that um you know he's going to take care of his and his space and
33:24and you take care of yours and when it's time for us to come together no we will i got
33:29kobe to go out
33:29in miami he was engaged he was talking he was cool and then he went south it's one o'clock
33:34i go i know
33:35i know it's good man he was like no one o'clock i go back i got trained in the
33:39morning come on dog i
33:40told you one o'clock basketball is his kid's life that's all he ever wanted to do i asked him
33:44like
33:44i think it was what was the greatest christmas present you ever got and he went back he said
33:48i remember i got my first leather official nba basketball and how for years he slept with that
33:54basketball in 1999 after a very disappointing season i asked him what he was going to do in the
34:00off season he said basketball there is nothing else three years later i posed the question has your
34:09life changed he said very much i'm a married man now i'm just learning what it means to be a
34:16husband
34:16and someday i'll learn what it means to be a father and i'm very much focused on basketball
34:24but i see the bigger picture at a secret ceremony in dana point california in april of 2001 bryant
34:32and vanessa lane were married kobe's a classic control freak we were going to report that he had
34:40gotten married he'd successfully hidden it from everybody and he was extremely upset um because
34:49situation kind of under control i asked him i said why are you getting married so young he said i
34:55do
34:55everything young i went pro young i'm gonna have my children young we're retired 28 years old then go
35:00to italy and play in my own squad when someone dies they go live for the day tomorrow's not promised
35:05this is the only person that does it but what was publicly perceived as wedded bliss belied a serious
35:12division within the bryant family his parents didn't approve of the marriage she was young
35:17she's hispanic he was raised so differently so independently and and headstrong and i think that
35:23was just a butting of heads it was his parents saying you're not gonna do this and him saying i'm
35:27an
35:27adult and i am i'm responsible and i mean that's the way they raised me so when it comes time
35:33to me
35:33moving out on my own and take responsibilities on my own that's exactly what i'm going to do i'm not
35:39going
35:39to you're not going to tell me what to do here or try to run this part of my life
35:43here kobe knew
35:45he was growing and he knew he had to grow and you can't do that with your mom and dad
35:50and your sisters
35:51you know being that cohesive unit where everything revolves around them you have to make that next
35:57step and it was just a natural progression you know all these great things were happening
36:01winning championships and starting my own family with my wife but you just
36:06want your parents there with you that was the first time that i can remember playing basketball
36:12where it just wasn't even fun for me the family rift was mended in the spring of 2003 after kobe's
36:19father joe stated publicly that he wanted to meet his granddaughter all seemed right with the bryants again
36:25but a far greater threat to family unity with far darker implications for bryant awaited down the road
36:32just weeks away possessed of such great talent kobe bryant seems to have little feeling for the past
36:39in the 2001 finals against the 76ers he exhibited not a wisp of nostalgia at his homecoming
36:46he just didn't want the distraction of owning up to the pressures of playing in his hometown so he just
36:52kind of brushed those questions off what about going back to philadelphia your old home i don't really
36:58care i just want to go down there and play and you know try to do what it takes to
37:01win the ball game
37:02kobe anytime he talks about playing on the road he loves the hostility he feeds off it and i don't
37:07think it affected him in the finals that much but it certainly affected him in that all-star game
37:12eight months after defeating the sixers in the finals bryant went home again to philadelphia for the
37:172002 all-star game although he scored booed him they booed him philadelphia will boo anybody
37:26for 31 points and was named mvp there was no love lost in philly
37:35it was so disheartening and so disappointing yet he stood up there he acknowledged it and he handled it
37:43with such class and such dignity i find it unbelievable that the fans are booing you here
37:48does that hurt your feelings sir my feelings are hurting man i mean i'm just out there trying to
37:54play and have a good time and uh my feelings are hurt being from philadelphia he's an articulate guy
37:59he didn't have that kind of urban i didn't i didn't know street sound to him he sounded like a
38:07guy who was
38:08raised in a philly suburb going to a private prep school there's this sort of um ethos out there
38:14where basketball players are accepted or rejected at the street level kobe's not seen as hard enough
38:21kobe won't wear his hair in braids kobe doesn't hang out you know so kobe equals soft i didn't grow
38:27up in the streets but uh i played with a certain attitude a certain aggression uh the competitive
38:33spirit and tenacity now we've got a fight reggie miller and kobe bryant are going at each other
38:37at midcourt the benches have emptied and this is a major brawl he's going to have to make a stand
38:44because when you're really good people don't like you he's just draw a line in the sand and say i'm
38:50not backing down anymore in 2003 bryant suffered through a season of discontent as the lakers quest
38:58for a fourth straight title ended with a loss to the spurs in the second round of the playoffs
39:03then with the suddenness of a kansas tornado the player who would be king of the nba
39:08descended into a nightmarish whirlwind we have a lot at stake i have a lot at stake and that's not
39:13just a game of basketball has nothing to do with endorsements nothing at all you know it's about us
39:24this was maybe the first time in his seven eight years in the public spotlight that we just saw
39:30the guy it was the most human the most humble the most uh fragile we've ever seen kobe bryant
39:39and it was striking this was a guy who was very private and wanted to maintain that privacy and
39:45now with these charges you know everything's being uncovered and unturned and a lot of things that i'm
39:49sure that kobe probably uh didn't think would ever be looked at are going to be looked at
39:54kobe bryant was being held up as kind of this paragon of virtue almost and so there's an uncertainty
40:01there that just captures everyone's attention and makes them think that you know the worst might be
40:06possible of even one of the best people they thought they knew on many levels there's tremendous
40:11disappointment people like kobe bryant so it's very disturbing very disappointing very upsetting to
40:17them that's why everybody wants in on this that's why it has everyone's attention if he's acquitted
40:22he lives with what he would consider i think he would consider a stigma of you're just like everyone
40:28else he was portrayed as the different nba player well now he's not he's the same that's going to kill
40:35him
40:38when kobe bryant was charged with felony sexual assault a los angeles
40:42times columnist called it one of the most jaw-dropping days in that city's sports history
40:47as for the nba the reaction has been measured bryant will be allowed to play while his legal
40:52fate is being determined but since colorado law requires that such cases be tried within six
40:57months of a not guilty plea it's possible that bryant will be sitting in a courtroom while his
41:02teammates seek to regain their former glory without him i'm pam ward for sports century
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