Phil Jackson quotes..

[LkrFan]

Deron Williams:

Deron Williams and Kobe Bryant are mutual admirers.

"I have a lot of respect for his game. He's one of the hardest workers I've ever seen," Williams said. "He's just a great compe or... just seeing how he works every day, it's inspiring."

Williams said he had always heard about Bryant's relentlessly compe ive nature, but seeing it as a USA teammate offered a different perspective.

Williams saw a veteran player at the top of his game with an insatiable appe e to stay there. He noted that Bryant arrived a day before the rest of the USA team in Las Vegas to begin his routines in preparation for the games.

"Until you see it up close and personal, you never really know," Williams said. "Any time a guy was scoring on an opposing team, he wanted to guard him. He always wanted the toughest assignment. That's just his nature."

[LkrFan]

Kevin Durant:

Some of the roots of what made Kevin Durant such an efficient scoring machine can be traced back to the summer of 2008 when he was trying to make the roster for Beijing and the team was given a day off in Las Vegas.

We'll let Durant pick up the story from there.

"We had the day off, but they said we could get some shots up if we wanted, so I decided to head over to the gym with [Oklahoma City teammate] Jeff Green.

"Kobe [Bryant] was the only guy on the bus to the gym, and that spoke volumes to me -- he's the best player in the game, yet he's always willing to come work on his game, so that kind of motivated me and Jeff," Durant said. "He went by himself, he got a lot of shots up, and by the time he was done you could see he had gotten better over that hour. Like I said, it was a big inspiration to me and Jeff."

[LkrFan]

Sp*rs Robert Horry:

I tell people all the time I used to play with Kobe Bryant.

Kobe Bryant is probably one of the best basketball player you'll ever see outside of Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon.

The thing that makes Kobe so great, is that he's a hard worker.

And I hope the young kids would watch him and learn that you can't get anywhere unless you put in the work, the time, and the effort. And that's what Kobe does, he brings a lot of the time, and lot of the effort.

People don't know that, but he's always the 1st in the gym, and the last to leave, even though he is the best player in the game right now.

[LkrFan]

USA Basketball:

But these 2008 Olympics have been the most remarkable three weeks of Kobe Bryant’s basketball life. He disdains the marketing “Redeem Team” le, calling it “kind of cheesy” because let’s face it: Those weren’t his international failures over the past eight years. Nike tried so hard to make LeBron James a co-star of these Games but failed miserably. He’s riding shotgun and doesn’t seem terribly thrilled about it. There’s no usurping Bryant in China.

Bryant has won the respect of his teammates, but he doesn’t run in the big cliques on the team. LeBron is the ringleader of the young players, and Kobe goes his own way. He’s won his teammates over with his ferocity, his insatiable need to win, but no one ever gets close to Bryant. He’s a loner, but he learned to lead. When all was breaking loose in the semifinal victory over Argentina, it was Bryant working with Jason Kidd to bring his teammates back from the brink of losing composure.

In the very first play of last summer's Tournament of the Americas, Bryant tipped the ball away from the Venezuela point guard, dived on the court trying to get it, got back up, stole the next pass and started a fastbreak. They've defended like banshees ever since.

"That's the clip Coach Mike Krzyzewski always uses, Kobe diving on the floor," says U.S. scout Tony Ronzone. "You're talking about an MVP player in the NBA who just made a statement to USA basketball... and what that did is it took our defense to another level."

"What you're seeing is something that started last summer in Las Vegas, which is amazing."

[cobbler]

Fixed.

And show me the quote where Phil relented with regard to Kobe's defense?

Learn to read. I said PJ relented that he chose Shaq early on. I said nothing about defense.

[LkrFan]

These posts about Kobe are from his peers. I got more quotes in case HarlemHo wants to keep digging up from the past that no longer applies.

[midnightpulp]

Learn to read. I said PJ relented that he chose Shaq early on. I said nothing about defense.

But that had nothing to do with my specific focus on Jackson's quote about Kobe's defense.

You were trying to imply that the quote is invalidated because Phil relented about choosing Shaq over Kobe, and that I should automatically acknowledge Phil Jackson's praises if I'm going to acknowledge his criticisms.

But his recent praises (to my knowledge) don't say anything about Kobe's defense. He's saying that Kobe has matured a lot, which I actually agree with. I think Kobe is a much better basketball player today, even with his declining athleticism, than he ever was during the 3 peat.

[Medvedenko]

Great thread. Bar raised, indeed.

[ezau]

"There's no doubt about that," he said. "I've done that for eight years with him, but I'm tired of being a sidekick."

Kobe knows that he's been Robin all along.

[ezau]

-Kobe Doin' Work

tee, hee

[namlook]

Add this one to the list.

Phil Jackson 2008 radio interview:

Question: "I understand you agree with Mychal Thompson that Kobe has better basketball skills than Michael Jordan. Do you agree with that?"

Phil: "He does."

..the GOAT coach obviously has a lot of credibility, and a lot to teach us common fans..

Indeed. (See above)

[Koolaid_Man]

Add this one to the list.

Phil Jackson 2008 radio interview:

Question: "I understand you agree with Mychal Thompson that Kobe has better basketball skills than Michael Jordan. Do you agree with that?"

Phil: "He does."



Indeed. (See above)

[Giuseppe]

Eating his own vomit, I might add.

& Bryant was magnanimous and granted grace in allowing Jackson to come back without brow beating him, or, giving him a red ass with a "I told you so you." He let Jackson come back, be with his girlfriend, pick up where he left off. Same thing with Buss:::Kobe ran him to ground, held him to accounts for Parker, et al. Yes, Kobe made him walk over the proverbial hot coals, do some penance, but, it was for Buss'/Lakers, our own good, and Bryant knew it.

I............we, we, we, we don't need Media to lead us by the nose to it. 15 & 16 are a direct result of Bryant's influence, his rabid insistence that the Lakers live up to their promise, their heritage. Bryant's ranting & raving in the public square is no different than Magic's behavior a quarter century prior when he struck the template by high tech lynching Westhead & running Nixon off, dragging Jabbar, Buss and the Lakers kicking & screaming into the light from a past of misery & denial.

Kobe Bryant

[Koolaid_Man]

leme add a few more here:

Dime: Kobe is the one guy people never seem to be able to completely figure out. What was your experience like with him?

Coach K: With Kobe, it wasn’t just in Beijing. I remember the very first day, he came early and (assistant coach) Johnny Dawkins went to go work him out just before eight in the morning. We had a coaches meeting at 10:30 and Johnny never showed. Then our coaches meeting is over and it’s noon, we break the meeting and I finally see Johnny. I ask him, “What happened?” And he said, “Coach he just worked out for four hours and he could’ve worked out for four more hours. He didn’t take breaks. I haven’t seen anything like it.”

[Koolaid_Man]

and another:

Dime: How different is it working with the best pro basketball players in the world as opposed to some of the best players in college basketball?

Coach K: About four years ago, I was almost the coach of the Lakers. I was really close to taking that job. So a part of me was quite excited about the opportunity to coach Kobe again. I’ve known him since he was about 18 years old. We recruited him to Duke University, and now I was getting the chance to finally do so. During one of our meetings before we really got into the flow in Beijing, he stopped me and said, “Coach.” Then he gave one of those long Kobe stares and said, “I want to guard the best player on the perimeter of every team we play.” He stopped. And then said, “And I will destroy them.”

[Koolaid_Man]

and another:

Dime: Was he that serious on the practice court, too?

Coach K: Our first practice together, Kobe went through the entire time without taking a shot. This was a guy who had just scored 50 points about 10 times during the season, and he didn’t take a single shot when everyone played together. I think that he just wanted to prove to everyone that he would do whatever he needed to for the team.

Dime: Could you get a feel for just how much this meant to Kobe?

Coach K : Kobe comes to his uniform, it’s laying out on a chair. Before he touches the jersey with his name, number and “USA” on it, he just stands there. As he’s standing there he starts crying. You wouldn’t ever think of him crying. The guy who’s helping with the equipment asked Kobe, “What’s wrong?” He said, “You don’t understand. I’ve always dreamed of playing for my country. I’ve always dreamed of putting a ‘USA’ uniform on.” You look at these guys like superstars, but they’re people just like yourself. You can’t accept that when they’re scoring 50 points. But they have dreams, they work hard.

[LkrFan]

Good stuff Kool. LeHype cried twice. Once when him and DWhistle won Bronze and another when Kobe won them Gold.

[Koolaid_Man]

Good stuff Kool. LeHype cried twice. Once when him and DWhistle won Bronze and another when Kobe won them Gold.

say man..check this out...Kobe shuts down, the Mavs, battles Artest in the post, and completely skull s both Wade and Lebron on the defensive end in this vid...it's ing brutal man...but I gotta keep bringing these Laker Nation goods...I know these Ho's gonna hate me for this one...save this one playa...

TBH this is pretty embarassing for Wade and Bron...Kobe manhandled them s:

[ElNono]

"Me sucky sucky. Me so horny. Me love you long time"
- Giuseppe

[Giuseppe]

You got skunked, by the Suns, sonny.

ha, ha.

[midnightpulp]

leme add a few more here:

Dime: Kobe is the one guy people never seem to be able to completely figure out. What was your experience like with him?

Coach K: With Kobe, it wasn’t just in Beijing. I remember the very first day, he came early and (assistant coach) Johnny Dawkins went to go work him out just before eight in the morning. We had a coaches meeting at 10:30 and Johnny never showed. Then our coaches meeting is over and it’s noon, we break the meeting and I finally see Johnny. I ask him, “What happened?” And he said, “Coach he just worked out for four hours and he could’ve worked out for four more hours. He didn’t take breaks. I haven’t seen anything like it.”

Maybe if he didn't overwork himself so much, he would've had enough strength to find the rim against Angola and not shoot 30%.

Oh, and let's get back to "points is where it's at." Both Lebron and Wade outscored Kobe for the tournament, and curbstombed his pathetic 46% shooting with respective marks of 75% and 67%. Yet Kobe was the best player on team?

Let's see if your small brained dumb ass can be logically consistent. Considering your "points is where it's at" philosophy, do you concede that Lebron and Wade both played better than Kobe in the Olympics?

[ElNono]

You got skunked, by the Suns

That we have...

[namlook]

Funny how this thread died after it got worked over.

[024]

damn, kobe's career would have taken the tmac/vince carter/allen iverson route if he was never gifted gasol. strange how one collusion trade can change someone's legacy so dramatically.

[ezau]

You got skunked, by the Suns, sonny.

ha, ha.

You got skunked by the Viets. You love them long time