The Resilient Mind - Mamba Mentality: Unlocking Greatness - Kobe Bryant

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

Kobe Bryant was an American professional basketball player, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in sports history. A five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Kobe spent 20 legendary seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, earning numerous accolades including an MVP award and 18 All-Star selections.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/Download_JournalDownload Mindset App for free and listen to 5000+ of the World's Greatest Motivational Speakers and Thought Leaders: https://bit.ly/mindsetxTheResilientMind Special thanks to Patrick-Bet David from Valuetainment. Subscribe to Valuetainment for more inspiring interviews: http://bit.ly/ValuetainmentYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to Mamba Mentality, Unlocking Greatness with Kobe Bryant. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. You know, basketball for me was the most important thing. 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. Everything.

Everything. 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. The world becomes your library to help you improve your craft, better your craft. Yes, indeed. So because you know what you want, the world's giving you exactly the information. 100%. 100%. Because you know what you're looking for.

So at 13 years old, I had a kill list. And so, you know, they used to do these rankings. It was Street and Smith basketball rankings. And I was nowhere to be found because I was like 6'4, scrawny, like 160 pounds, soaking wet. So I was like 57 on the list. And so I will look at 56, 55, all the way up to number one, who these players are, what club teams they played for. So when we go on an AAU travel circuit, I got to hunt them down.

Right. 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. So like at 13 years old, I played the longer game because my game wasn't about being better than you at 13. It was to be better than you when, you know, the chips are really on the line. So when you play that 13, I would size you up and see what your strengths and weaknesses are. How do you approach the game?

Are you silly about it? Are you goofy about it? Are you good at it just because you're bigger and stronger than everybody else? Right? Or is there actually thought and skill that you put into it? Right? And when I'd play, I'd play to my weaknesses. I wouldn't play to my strengths.

I'd play to my weaknesses. Because when you're playing summer basketball, there's so many games. So there's not a lot of skill work being done. So when are you going to get better, right? When you're playing in competition situations, you're only playing to your strengths. Why? Because you want to win. Right? So what I would do, I always work on the things during those games that I was weak at.

Left hand, pull up jump shot, post game. So I have a strategy. 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, now you've got a problem. But, you know, the NBA, it was actually easier. because what I found in the NBA is a lot of guys played for financial stability. And when they came to the NBA, they got that financial stability.

So therefore, the passion and the work ethic and the obsessiveness was gone. So I'm looking at that, I'm like, oh my goodness, it's going to be like taking candy from a baby. Now, wonder Mike wins all these fucking championships. This is crazy. You know what I'm saying? And then you had the players that had that had that passion, but weren't willing to commit their entire lives to doing that. It's a choice.

You have other things. You have family. You have all these other things that you have to do. The game can't really be your number one priority. And so I'm just looking at that, like, man, this is going to be fun. In the muse, in the muse, you said, I knew you couldn't do what I was doing because I was obsessed. I'm paraphrasing.

And then you said whether it's friends, relationship, it didn't matter. It was all basketball. If I'm buddies with you from high school, if I'm a cousin of yours, what happened to our relationship? 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? What happens to our relationship? Oh, it suffers. It does suffer. Oh, yeah.

Okay. And you understood that. You were okay with that. Well, yeah. And the people that love you, like friends and family, like they know that about you. Got it. So they let you be you. And when you reconvene, you know, you pick back up where you left off.

But make no mistake about it, everything in between is lost, right? So those long-term relationships, the commitment of time of, you know, taking vaca- like I see a lot of players take vacations with other players that are close friends. And, well, just take vacations just to take vacations or just hang out, just to hang out. Like I'm not, I never did that. Why not, though? Why didn't you do that? Well, because when I retire, I didn't want to have to say, I wish I would have done more. I don't want that.

You know, I don't want that. At the time, I deal with what I've referred to as goat mountain. I went to goat mountain, and I talked to Magic, Michael, Bird, Kim, Elajuan, Jerry West, Oscar Robinson, Bill Russell. So I would talk to them. What did you do? What were your experiences? Michael in particular, he's become my big brother.

It's been my big brother since I first came in the league. And what was that process like? So I went to them and started understanding the ends and outs of the game and how they approach things and their level of detail and obsessiveness. And that's what I did. You know, you got to look at the reality of the situation. You know, like for me, it's not, you know, you kind of got to get over yourself. Like, it's not about you, man.

Like, okay, you feel embarrassed. You're not that important. Like, get over yourself. That's where you go. Get over yourself, right? Like, you're worried about how people may perceive you and, like, you're walking around, and it's embarrassing because you shot five airballs. Get over yourself, right?

And then after that, it's okay, well, why did those airballs happen? Got it. High school year before, we play 35 games, max, right? Week in between, spaced out, plenty of time to rest. In the NBA, it's back to back to back, to back, to back, to back, to back, to back. I didn't have the legs. So you look at the shot, every shot was online, every shot was online, but every shot was short. Right?

I got to get stronger. I got to train differently. The weight training program that I'm doing, I got to tailor it for an 82 game season so that when the playoffs come around, my legs are stronger. that ball gets there. So I look at it with rationale and say, okay, well, the reason why I shot air ball is because my legs aren't there. I got, well, next year they'll be there. That was it. Done. Done. You can't teach big hands. Right. You cannot teach that, right? You cannot teach 48 inch, whatever the vertical leap is. And hey, you cannot teach that, right? But he said, nobody in

his history of coaching had your level of work ethic. I mean, you hear so many, William, so many guys tell stories about your work ethic. What was really your work ethic like and for how long did you stay disciplined? Well, I mean, every day. I mean, since, you know, for 20 years. It was an everyday process and trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses. For example, jumping ability. My vertical was a 40. It wasn't a 46 or 45. My hands are big, but they're not massive. So you've got to figure out ways to strengthen them. So your hands are strong enough to be able to palm a ball and do the things that you need to do. Quickness, I was quick, but not insanely quick.

I was fast, but not ridiculously fast. So I had to rely on skill a lot more. I had to rely on angles a lot more. I had to study the game a lot more. But I enjoyed it, though. So from the time I can remember when I started watching the game, I studied the game, and it just never changed. Technical question here.

Let's see how you can answer this. Who would Shaqby, if you had a few? had your work ethic. He'd be the greatest of all time. If Shaq had your work. He'd be the greatest of all time. For sure. He'd be the first to tell you that.

For sure. I mean, this guy was a force. Like, I have never seen. I mean, it was crazy. You know, a guy at that size. Generally, guys at that size are a little timid and they don't want to be tall. They don't want to be big. Man, this dude was, he did not care.

He was mean. He was nasty. He was competitive. He was vindictive. I mean, he was, yeah. I wish he was in a gym. I would have had fucking 12 rings. The fact that you say the work ethic side.

The fact that you say work ethic side. And you say, hey, if he would have worked that hard as I did, do you think if he would have had the same level of commitment to the game as you did, you guys would have fewer feuds between each other? Yeah. Because I listen, I don't deal with. people that don't commit at that level, but then act as if they do.

I don't deal with that. I don't. It's real shit. I mean, listen, so, like, we used to get into stuff all the time because it was like, you know, he would say, okay, Kobe's not throwing me the ball. And, you know, media would take it and run with it and all this stuff.

And I'm like, well, bro, if you were in shape, by the time I run down on a fast break and run back, and then run down, you're still coming down the first time, bro? Like, what the hell do you want me to do? Right? So a lot of our contention came from that, came from that. And even though he was older, you were still confronting him. You didn't care. Oh, I didn't care.

Man, listen. From day one, bro. From day one. I knew for sure Rick Fox, my teammates, they all thought I was absolutely crazy the day, me and Shaq got in the fist fight. After that day, they were like, okay, Kobe, you're certifiable. Fist fight. Oh, yeah.

Fist fight. I'm not backing down. Listen, either you want to work my ass or we want to have a night. But, you know, there's a level of respect. And for Shaq, too, by the way. I know he's told me that that day was a big turning point for him because it was like, you know, he's generally used to talking trash and saying what he wants and nobody really stepping up and challenging him on that.

And when he saw me challenge him on that, he was like, this kid's crazy. All right, I can win with that, you know. And so that was kind of the beginning of our relationship, I think. That's probably never happened to him. That's probably not something that's common to him. No. I mean, it's seven feet tall since he was three years old or something, right? This is all coming back to me right now.

It's also a game in Phoenix. My first year we were playing. He kept posting up, but they kept fouling him. So he kept going in the free throw line and kept missing him. And so he threw the ball out to me. I'm not throwing that shit back in there. Right? So I kept shooting him, right? So we get into Tom Mountain.

He's like, hey, hey, hey, I'm open. I'm like, okay. And so we go out and same thing. Hey, hey, hey, I'm open. Okay. Come back in. Hey, dude, you got to throw me the ball. I said, man, fuck that.

Get it off the rebound if I miss, bro. You told them this. First year. 18 years old, man. 18 years old. I must have been out of my damn mind. Did you have ways to improve your game by looking at data, looking at conditioning? What were some of the factors you looked at on how to improve your game season after season?

The game itself was, it's a complicated answer. So there are very tactical things in terms of footwork and geometry of the court. So you're looking at the court and looking at the court. and looking at the 45 degree angles that the court is shaped in and how it needs to operate. That's one component to it. So looking at spots on the floor where you can increase your efficiency, right? 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.

So that sort of stuff. Footwork of the opposition. Looking at the emotion of the opposition, their tendencies, their weaknesses and all that stuff. Understanding the momentum of the game. how to create momentum shifts, where momentum shifts come from, all this sort of stuff. And then studying outside of that, right? Looking at different industries, looking at conductors, looking at writers, looking at actors, and how they get into character, and then how do they keep themselves in that mental space.

So looking at different industries, looking at nature itself, learning from that and how you can incorporate that into the game. Man, it's a lot of studying. What's your process for making a decision? Do you have a flow of how you go through making a decision? Depends on the decision. Depends on the decision. If we're talking about a basketball decision where you've got to read a certain coverage or something like that.

I mean, a lot of that comes from the pre-work and understanding what their defensive packages and how to put teammates in certain situations. So, for example, if you look at players nowadays that are charged with, you know, taking game winning shots or making game winning decisions. And you look at the play and then you look at it and say, okay, well that shooter was there, the double team came and, you know, the player couldn't do anything but pass the ball, right? Well, that's because they didn't do the pre-work, right?

So when you do the pre-work, you understand, okay, this team in a situation likes to run a double team from this particular angle. All right, so I'm gonna clear that side out, force the double team to come from a different angle, move myself to a space on the floor, where it's going to take a long time for the double team to come, and now I can circumvent the double team and get to a place on the floor where I can knock down a shot and get to the basket. So it's all that pre-work. Decision, when I say decision, how is a, if you're looking at somebody that you're sizing up, or if you're looking at somebody to go into business with, or if you're looking at a big investments you got to make,

what is the decision-making process there? Do you call, is there first you do your own research, you take this much time, you call an advisor. Is there a system you follow? It's pretty simple for me. do you understand the business? Is it a business that you can help in some form of fashion? What are the barriers entry to that business? And then the entrepreneurs themselves, the company itself, right?

Do they have a culture that you believe is sustainable? Are these leaders people that you believe in? Are they people that are obsessives? And in turn, have they created a culture of obsessiveness? What was the conversation like with your wife to, say, listen, this is the schedule. Because look, you know, some entrepreneurs, they're coming home at night and late,

oh my gosh, my wife is upset because I came home at 11.30. Oh, my goodness. What a sacrifice I'm making. You know, this life's, you know, I don't know if I can do this. Sure. You're on the road nine months out of the year. Especially play to Olimb, you want two gold medals, so you're doing that on the offseason and you're trying to get

that part going and training for doing your camps. What is the conversational life like with your wife and kids to say, listen, This is what I'm doing. How did that conversation go? Well, with the kids is different. So, like, the communication with our children is that, you know, Pops is working hard. This is the level of attention to detail you need to have in everything you do.

So it's setting the example. Same thing with my wife. My wife's a stay-at-home wife. It's the hardest job, man. So she works really hard at that. I mean, it's, you know, and so her attention to detail with that as well are examples. for our children. And then for my wife, it's, you know, she's as competitive as I am. So she's just like, listen, man, if you're going to be out here training eight hours a day,

if you're going to spend nine months out of a year away from your family, you better fucking win the championship. What are we doing this for? What are we doing? What are we doing? I love that. You know, but it's a balancing act. And that's the thing that's important is understanding that we have to have so much energy. because for like Natalia and Gianna when they were babies, especially Natalia because they were doing prime years, and I go to practice and I'd train and I'd play the game and I'd come home and I'd be sore and I'd be tired.

And she wants to go swimming, she wants me to take her to the park, she wants to just jump on my back or whatever the case may be, you can't say, I'm too tired, I'm going to lay down. That's not fair. She don't know what the hell's going on, right? Right? And if this was a game, you'd suck it up and play. I'd play games with the flu. I play games with 102 degree fever, man.

You can't do that for you can't. That's so powerful, man. You got to be on, man. What's the least amount of sleep you play the game on? No sleep. 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? No sleep. You play the game with zero sleep.

Zero sleep. Zero sleep. It was like, you know, kids, you know, Natalia had a certain, you know, health situation, what have you, and you're staying up all night, and then you got to go out and perform because fans don't know, you know, teammates don't know, nor do they care, nor should they, that you've been up all night, you've got to perform, right? And so you just got to go to work, man. That's respect.

That's it. And I think one of the things for some, if you follow basketball or not, that you and Mike had in common is that it wasn't, hey, I'm gonna take eight games off this year to try to stay healthy, the mindset I'm known, you know, like that to you is comical. I like to do that. The hell is that, man.

I don't know what that is, that's crazy. Seriously, it's crazy. Like, you know, you got a lot of people playing their hard-arm money to come watch you perform. Perform, perform. It's your job to be in shape. It's your job to be strong enough to perform at that level every single night.

And as a competitor, I'm not ducking shit. It's not, oh my God, my back hurts, I'm sore. We got to play Vince Carter and Toronto Raptors tonight. We actually had this happen. We had a game against Toronto in 2000. And Vince was tearing the league up. My back was jacked. But like the perception of that, like what?

Kobe's missing a game against Toronto and Vince Carter because my back was really spasming. But people would be like, What? Oh, he's duck and Vince. Excuse me? No, I don't think so. So I would be in a layup line like, okay, there's a lot of days where, you know, you can rest and recover. Today ain't one of them.

You're back can bother you any other day. That shit ain't bothering me today. He's going to have to see me today. Amen. Yeah. What did that look like, the relation between you and Phil? No. At first, it was rocky, but I didn't understand it was rocky.

And let me elaborate. I was extremely naive. And with Phil and his genius, his responsibility was to get the team to a place to win titles. It wasn't to appease one player. It wasn't to look out for this player. It was to get the collective hold to win a championship. So he would do whatever it took to make sure that that happened.

He would see the friction between myself and Shaquil and say, okay, how can I use that? All right. I know Kobe has a passion of place. 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. Shaq is more emotional. If something's going on, he won't. So therefore, I got to figure out how to create a wedge between myself and code because then that brings me closer to Shaquil.

Then that helps me better manage Shaq. So that was his ability to manage the team, which was absolutely brilliant. I used to tell him all the time, I said, Phil, look, I know what you're doing, bro. Like, don't insult my intelligence. I know you're being a dick to me on purpose. Like, just like, tell me. No, no. Okay, you're going to stick, stay with it. All right, cool. All right. How's your relationship till today? I mean, you guys want five. It's like a father figure. Really? Yeah, it feels like a father figure, man. I bought into the meditation. I bought into the deeper connection that exists within the game. 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. And that comes from being in that meditative state that he would teach him preach from day one. You're playing against the Golden State Warriors.

Score is 107, 109. You guys are close to getting into the playoffs. You know exactly what happens in the game. You go up. You're about to take your shot and then all of a sudden, boom. Achilles happens, right? Friend of mine, Nima, he is here just to listen to. He played ball.

And he told me, he says, Patrick, I don't think you understand. He says, when I tore my Achilles in high school, he says, four friends of mine dragged me to my husband. I was crying from there straight to the hospital. I have no clue how the hell this guy did it. He went and hit the free throws and then you walked off the stage. Yeah. And then you got the surgery got.

Yeah. How the hell do you tolerate that kind of pain? You know, I tell this example, and I think this is the best way to explain it. You know, you have a hamstring injury, you pull your hamstring really, really badly. You can barely walk. let alone play anything soccer basketball volleyball whatever it is can't do anything doctor tells you go home sit up on the couch rest your hammy right stay off of it don't get up no sudden movements you're at home all of a sudden a fire breaks out in the home right your kids are upstairs you know

wife is wherever she may be you know this shit's going down right i'm willing to to bet that you're going to forget about your hamstring, you're going to sprint upstairs, you're going to grab your kids, you'll make sure your wife's good, you're getting out of that house, right? Hamstring be damned. You're not going to fill your hamstring, right? And the reason is because the lives of your family are more important than the injury of your hamstring.

And so when the game is more important than the injury itself, you don't feel that damn injury. Not at that time. Yeah. So you go to the locker room. You guys had a shot that, you know, to go into the, you guys were a team that no one wanted to face, even though there was conflict. You know, maybe if you would have gone round one, who knows, maybe Dwight would have gone together, you know.

Who knows what was going to happen? You were the kind of team that, look, it's just a pain in about to face these guys. We're just hoping you don't make the playoffs, right? I'm sure a lot of people were very happy that you guys didn't make the playoffs that year. But you're going to the locker room. And then one of the reporters comes up to you, And he says to you, Kobe, are you convinced that they told you it's probably torn Achilles? They're going to do an MRI.

Are you pretty convinced? That's what it is. And your answer is, yeah. Then one of the reporters says, but if anyone is going to get through this, it's probably you, right? You put your head down and you say, oh, man, shit, right? And you have tears in your eyes. Did you say, oh, man, shit, because everybody's expecting me to be invincible, man. Like, freaking let me just play the damn game.

I'm a human being. Is that kind of what you were thinking or was it like the world's expect me to come back in the next month because I'm Kobe? Like what were you thinking at that moment with all that pressure? I was thinking like I don't know if I can do this. The Achilles were like the kiss of death. Yes. Athletes.

Like I don't, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know. There's so many factors. There's the surgery that has to take place. The surgery has to go well. Right. And then just it's a tendon. I'm not dealing with anything that's muscular or things that I have.

can control. I can't control a tendon. You know what I'm saying? So like I don't know. And then thinking about what that process of recovery is going to look like. It's a long one. Do I want to do that shit? I don't know. I don't know if I want to do it. I don't know. So that was the hardest part. You don't know if you want to do it or you don't know if you are going to be able to come back from it. Both. I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I want to do it. Got it. It's a long, long process. But like when I went in the trainers room, my kids are in there and they're looking at you and stuff. And I'm looking at them. And I'm like, you know, it's all right. Dad's going to be all right. It'll be fine. It'll be all right. It'll be all right. It'll be all right.

As a parent, you've got to set the example. You got to set the example. This is another obstacle. This obstacle cannot define me. It's not going to cripple me. It's not going to be responsible for me stepping away for the game that I love. I'm going to step away on my. own terms and that's when the decision was made that you know what I'm doing it doing it you're a freaking beast yeah thank you for tuning in continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes