The School of Greatness - 691 Kobe Bryant: Mamba Mentality and The Mind of a Champion

Episode Date: September 10, 2018

“REST AT THE END, NOT IN THE MIDDLE.”- KOBE BRYANT He’s won five NBA championships with the Lakers and led the NBA in scoring during two seasons. He’s an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team. He holds the NBA record for the most seasons played with one franchise for an entire career: 20 seasons. In 2018, he received an Academy Award for his animated short “Dear Basketball.” He also just launched a podcast called The Punies that teaches kids morals and history in a really fun way. Kobe’s known for what he calls his Mamba Mentality, but it’s his big heart that is truly admirable. He is constantly reinventing himself and continuing to pursue new dreams. There is so much power in his energy and presence. I know you’re really going to love this one. So get ready to learn all about Mamba Mentality and how to embrace failure on Episode 691. Some Questions I Ask: Who was your greatest teacher? (7:10) What are some other things you do to raise the level of your teammates? (17:00) What’s been your greatest challenge since leaving the game? (20:30) What’s a constant theme in your life? (24:40) Why is storytelling important to you? (25:39) What’s your greatest weakness? (34:35) In This Episode You Will Learn: All about the “Mamba Mentality” (12:20) Why he has a passion of storytelling (26:00) Why you should be excited about failure (27:10) Kobe’s greatest moment in 20 seasons of basketball (36:14) Kobe’s daily routine (39:00)

This is episode number 691 with one of the greatest of all time, Kobe Bryant. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Joseph Campbell said, if you're going to have a story, have a big story or none at all. And boy, oh boy, does Kobe Bryant have a big story. And I'm so pumped and excited that he's on the podcast today

if you don't know who he is you've probably been hiding under a rock for a long time he won five NBA championships with the Lakers he is also an 18-time all-star 15-time member of the all-NBA team and 12-time member of the all-defensive team. He led the NBA in scoring during two seasons and ranks third on the league's all-time regular season scoring and fourth on the all-time postseason scoring list. He holds the NBA record for the most seasons playing with one franchise for an entire career and is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

And he's the first guard in NBA history to play at least 20 seasons. 20 seasons, guys. It is so demanding on your body and your mind to be able to sustain a career at that high of a level for that long. He's also an Academy Award winner for his animated short, Dear Basketball, and he just launched an amazing scripted children's podcast called The Punies, which is an incredible family series that teaches children's morals and history in a really fun way. Make sure to download that podcast right now as well. It's called The Punies, and it's a lot of fun, guys. And what we talk about

today are why you should be excited about failure and the Mamba mentality, this mentality that Kobe has developed and cultivated since a child. And he breaks down all of this information in this episode. Also, his greatest moment in 20 seasons. I was a little shocked about what he said here, but also inspiring as well. His daily routine, getting up at 4 a.m. to exercise in the dark and what that does for his mind and his body. His passion of storytelling and why he started his new podcast, The Punies, and all the other projects that he's been working on, and his passion for storytelling. Also, why you need to replay all of life's events

if you want to improve yourself. That and so much more. Guys, this was one of my favorite interviews that I've done, and I've done almost 700 episodes now. Kobe opened up so much during this. Make sure to share this out with your friends. I want to get this out in a big way because Kobe doesn't do many interviews like this.

Make sure to take a screenshot, tag it on Instagram, tag at Kobe Bryant and at Lewis Howes. Let us know that you're listening or watching. Make sure to download The Punies. This is a powerful interview and I know a lot of you are going to get a lot of value out of this. So make sure to tag your friends, share it with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 691. Without further ado, one of the greatest of all time, Mr. Kobe

Bryant. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We have the incredible, legendary Kobe Bryant, my man. It's good to meet you. Pleasure, man. Congrats on everything. You're an icon, a legend. And the thing I love the most about you is that you really care about other human beings. Your heart is so big, even though you've been known for this focus mentality that is just almost psycho in some ways, but you care deeply about human beings. And I think that's why so many people love you as well. So I want to acknowledge you for your kindness and your generosity towards humanity. My first question for you is I'm curious about who was your greatest teacher growing up?

Because you had an interesting childhood being in Italy for a while, coming back to Philadelphia, I think it was. Who was the greatest teacher for you in those early days? That's funny, I had a lot of them. My parents were great. Growing up, they instilled in me the importance of imagination, of curiosity, and understanding that, okay,

if you want to accomplish something, I'm not just going to sit here and say, yes, you can do whatever you want. Yes, you can. But you have to also put in the work to get there. Right? So they taught me that at a really early age, man. When you grow up as a kid thinking that the world is your oyster, all things are possible if you put in the work to do it.

You know, you grow up having that fundamental belief. Yeah. Who was more influential for you, your father or mother? Both were influential at different points. Yeah. My mom was there on a daily basis. My father was really influential at a really critical time where I had a summer where I played basketball when I was like 10 or 11 years old. And a very prominent summer league in Philadelphia called the Sunny Hill League.

Where my father played, my uncle played, and they were like all-time greats and stuff. And Will Chamberlain played in the league. Earl of the Pomeroy played in the league. Here I come playing, and I don't score one point the entire summer. Really? Not one. How old were you? 11, 10, 11.

And you're playing against other 10, 11-year-olds? Uh-huh. And you didn't score once? Not one. Were you in the game? I was in the game. How did you not score? Because I was terrible. Really? Yeah. At 10, 11 years olds? You didn't score once. Not once. Were you in the game? I was in the game. How did you not score? Because I was terrible.

Really? Yeah. At 10, 11 years old, you were that terrible? Awful. I mean, you know, and I had these big knee pads on because I was growing really fast. I had socks all the way up here, and I had like the high top.

Skinny, yeah. Like skinny as hell. And I scored not a free throw, not a nothing, not a lucky shot, not a breakaway layup, zero points. And I remember crying about it and being upset about it. And my father just gave me a hug and said, listen, whether you score zero or score 60, I'm going to love you no matter what. Wow. That is the most important thing that you can say to a child.

Because from there, I was like, OK, that gives me all the confidence in the world to fail. I have the security there. But to hell with that, I'm like, okay, that gives me all the confidence in the world to fail. I have the security there. But to hell with that, I'm scoring 60. Let's go. Right, right. And from there, I just went to work. I just stayed with it. I kept practicing, kept practicing, kept practicing.

Is that when you think the mentality of hard work started to come in for you at that age when you failed so miserably, I guess, that summer? I think that's when the idea of understanding a long-term view became important because I wasn't going to catch these kids in a week. I wasn't going to catch them in a year, right? So that's when I sat down and said, okay, this is going to take some thought, right? What do I want to work on first?

All right, shooting. All right, let's knock this out. Let's focus on this. Half a year, six months, do nothing but shoot, right? After that, all right, creating your own shot. And you focus so you start i started creating a menu of things when i came back the next summer i was a little bit better right and then you're being like i've got my jump shot from 15 i've got yeah i got my jump shot from 15 i got my three-point shot like just open shots not miss open shots right and be able to shoot it with speed because those kids are

so much more athletic yeah And then the next summer I came back, it was a little better. And the summer I came back, the next summer, it was a little better. I scored. It wasn't much,

but I scored. And this is 12, 13. 12, 13. And then 14 came around, back half of 13, 14 years old. And then I was just killing everyone. And it happened in two years.

And I wasn't expecting it to happen in two years, but it did because what I had to do was work on the basics and the fundamentals, but they relied on an athleticism and their natural ability. And because I stick to the fundamentals, it just caught up to them. And then my body, you know, my knees stopped hurting. I grew into my frame and. And then your athleticism, once you have the fundamentals, the hard work, the mindset,

your athleticism, once you have the fundamentals, the hard work, the mindset, and you tack on the athleticism, it's game over. Then it was game over. Wow. So from 13, you're good average still? I was good. I was good. And then about the end of my third, right when I was turning 14, I became the best player in the state. At 14? At 14. So from 12 to 14, you went from scoring zero to being the best in the state of all ages. Yep. But it's simple. If you do the math on this, right? If you're thinking about how often kids are playing.

I'll tell this to my daughter and my daughter's team as well that I coach. It's a simple thing of math. If you want to be a great player, if you play every single day, two, three hours, every single day over the course of a year, how much better are you getting? Most kids will play maybe an hour and a half, two days a week. Right.

Do the math on that. It's not going to get it done. It's not going to get it done. Right? So if you're obsessively training two, three hours every single day over a year, over two years,

you're going to accelerate. You make quantum leaps, man. Just doing a summer camp for two weeks, you see a difference. I remember playing basketball growing up. You see it. You get a lot better. You come back more confident

playing on the playground with guys who used to beat you. Yeah. And I tell the parents on my team, I said, when I say your kids are going to become great basketball players, they're like, really?

I'm like, yeah, it's not. It's math. That's it. Show up every single day. Show up every single day. Show up every single day. Do the work. But you have this mamba mentality. Your book's coming out soon.

And how did you develop this? There's a beautiful story that I love from Jay Williams. I don't know if you remember Jason Williams. Where he did an interview a while back, and he talked about how when he played you, I think, the first time, or one of the first times he played against you, he was like, I'm going to show up so early to the court to warm up and practice, like, before anyone. And he shows up at the court. I don't know if it was in LA or where I was, and you were the only one there, already shooting free throws, already doing your fundamentals. He goes, I'm going to stay here until Kobe leaves. And then he was like, gosh, an hour and a half, two hours later. I got to go. I'm tired. And Kobe's still shooting free throws, scoring, like just going

over the fundamentals. And he goes, and then we played that game and you were lights out. And he came up to you afterwards and said like, dude, why were you in there for so long? And how'd you do it? And he said, this is what he said, you said, he said, I knew you were watching and I wanted to show you that I was willing to outwork you. Right. Something along those lines. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you remember this. I remember it. You remember, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I thought that was so powerful that you have this mindset, but how did you develop that? And I don't know if that's what you call the Mamba mindset, but how did you develop that? And when did it start? It started in middle school and high school. Because a lot of the kids that I was playing against were inner city kids. And so

you're looking at me as if, okay, this kid's soft, right? He's from the suburbs of Philadelphia. His father played in the NBA, played professionally. He's got it easy. Got it easy, born on second base, you know, all this other stuff, right? And so they felt like they could try to be physical or try to intimidate me and do all this other stuff, which they couldn't, right? But now I'm saying, okay, well, you're trying to attack me. How am I going to attack you?

How can I mentally figure out ways to break you down? How can I show you that, no, I have the edge, right? And so that's when it first started for me is figuring out how to get the upper hand on an opponent that way. And what would you do to mentally break people down then? Well, I mean, we used to have an All-American camp that I used to go to.

And, you know, at the time, when I first showed up, I was a sophomore. One of the things I would do is, everybody would be at the cafeteria, you know, eating and doing all sorts of stuff. I'd just go back to the gym. I'd just go back to the gym. They'd be resting. They'd be resting. And they'd see me leave.

But now you're in a tough position because you're like, okay, I want to be like, I'm following the kid to go work out. But I know he's working, he's up early, and he's doing all this other stuff. So that was my way of showing them Yeah, maybe from the suburbs, but you're not gonna outwork me Wow, and I'm mentally gonna Be much tougher that was that just a thing that you decided like I'm gonna get in people's minds This is figuring out ways to to be better and to win the game. And it started out as a defense mechanism because they were the ones talking trash to me and kid from Italy, blah, blah, blah, and all this other stuff.

It was like, okay, I can't let them. I got to defend myself here, right? And then it became, okay, pretty witty. I can say some pretty witty things. Yeah. And in Italian. And in Italian. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's interesting. I never was physically gifted to an extreme level. I was always really good, but I was never the fastest or biggest or strongest. But I remember my edge was, I'm not going to go party and I'm not going to drink alcohol. Right. So I've never been drunk still because I was like, I need every edge when guys were out partying late at night who were better than me and drinking and showing up hungover, I was like, I'm going to be more focused and have clearer vision. But I wasn't waking up at 4 a.m. like you.

That's interesting because when I played, one of the things I had to learn is how to get the best out of my teammates. Yeah. And most people think it's a simple thing, passing the ball. But that's not how you make guys better. You have to really affect their behavior. How do you do that? I would tell guys, you got back-to-backs. I don't care if we're in Miami. I don't care if we're in the great city of Chicago. You can't go out. We got to get rest. Back-to-back games. Back-to-back games. Monday, Tuesday. You play

Monday and play again Tuesday. Guys aren't going to listen. right? You're going to, you know. Right. A few times, all right, we'll all go out. We'll go out together. Really? I'll drink with you. But the next morning, I'm banging on your door at five in the morning. Let's go. They're not getting it.

Where are we going? I hung out with you. Now you come hang out with me. Wow. This is what we do. All right, let's go. And we're at the gym. We're working out, right?

We hit the bus. We go to practice. We play that night. And they're dead. And they're dead. They're like, lesson learned. right? We hit the bus, we go to practice, we play that night. And they're dead. And they're dead. They're like, lesson learned. Really? Lesson learned.

Should we take them out once? Listen, if you're going to do that, do that. But don't let that compromise what we're here to do. Right. This is why we're here. This is why you're here in the first place. Yeah. Right?

And if we're going to win a championship, we have to have that championship mentality. That's it. Work ethic. That's it. So you got to show them, no, Kobe can do that and still has the energy to get up and do this. So either I've got to meet that same energy or I've got to keep my butt in my room. Go to bed early, yeah. Wow.

What are some other things you did to rise the level of your teammates? What are some other ways that you can? And what do you think people can do in general with a business team or any sports team? I think you have to listen, pay attention to what your colleagues or teammates are saying. And what are certain things that drive them, certain things that motivate them, that trigger them. I think you have to you have to listen pay attention to what your colleagues or teammates are saying and What are certain things that drive them certain things that motivate them that trigger them? One of my favorite ones pal hates it every time I tell this to me but we lost to the Celtics in 08 and

It was a physical series. I mean they beat the crap out of yeah and so we go into the Olympic year that year we wanted to play in Spain for the gold medal match and We beat them. And so now we come back to start training camp. And pal shows up first day of training camp. I have my gold medal hanging in his locker. Oh, no. And he, I mean, like the one thing that he truly, truly loves is his country.

Of course. That is like everything to him. So it just drove him crazy. I said, pal, listen. He said, you're an asshole. I said, listen, pal. You lost to the Celtics. You lost to us in a gold medal match. Let's not make this three in a row this year.

Wow. Let's win this thing. And that was it for him. And he probably stepped up at a whole other level. Pal was a phenomenon to begin with. And then for him was just stepping up to a level of physicality that we needed him to get to, which he did. And we went on to win back to back championships.

My man. Yeah. How important is understanding human psychology and human behavior to work with a team, as opposed to just relying on your gifts and talents? It's probably the most important thing. You know, when you're in this culture in our society, you can do some phenomenal things individually,

but they'll never reach their full potential unless you do them collectively. And you have to figure out how to do that. And, you know, Phil Jackson was great at that. Phil, he wouldn't just coach the team or coach the game, but he'd read everything about every single player. He'd learn about your history, how you grew up, how you were raised, where were you raised.

He'll read every interview. He'll learn about you and gives him a better understanding of what's motivating you or what your insecurities are. And then it just helps him communicate with you better or even push a button here if he needs to. When did you learn that it was important to understand who your teammates are, what their likes or dislikes are? Was that in high school for you or more? No, I learned it from Phil. There was a stretch in 03 where Shaq was out with an injury and Phil called me up to his office and said, okay, we need you to really turn on the afterburners

and start scoring more if we have to win. So I did, and I wound up scoring, I think it was nine straight games with 40-plus points. Nine straight? Nine straight games. And then Shaq comes back second to last game of that. And then Phil calls me up to his office and says, Kobe, okay, I need you to dial it back.

I'm like, why? Like, we're winning. I don't understand. He says, because our goal is to win a championship. And we can get through the Western Conference with you playing this way. But in the East, you know, we can dominate them inside with Shaq in the post.

But if you continue to do this, we'll lose Shaq. We'll lose him. His motivation, his excitement. What triggers him, right? So I need you to pull back so we can pull Shaq forward for June. Wow. And I just looked at him like, he's a smart dude. Wow, he's really smart.

He's one smart dude, man. So I pulled it back. Wow. Yeah. What do you think has been the greatest challenge you've had since leaving the game? I think it's... you know, you won an Oscar, you're launching podcasts and shows, and you got a book coming out. Yeah. It's different though. Like, you know, we were just talking about it here in the office the other day. When you play the game, you hit a game winning shot, you miss a shot,

the reaction's there. You can see how people are responding to it, right? You can feel it. The energy is there. What I do now, you don't. Like I don't see how people are affected by dear basketball or creating the punies and you put it out there. Like I wish I could see a car ride of a family

the first time their daughter hears Lily's Lemonade and what she's doing, you know, she's singing along to it. That's not there, right? So that's the challenge. That's the one thing that I miss is being able to feed off of the energy. The instant feedback that you get from missing or scoring a shot, winning or losing a game. It's like either way you're getting a result, right? Yes, yes, yes. That's the one thing. And I went to, because I spent a lot of time with mentors as well up at Pixar and Disney Studios.

They've been absolutely wonderful animation, Disney animation. And I talked to them about Frozen and Moana and how our kids love them. And they're always like, oh, that's awesome.

And they want to hear it because they don't ever get a chance to truly see it. Like, they're not sitting in a movie theater like... No, no. And they don't have time to go to Disneyland and walk around the park and see how many families are enjoying the content

that they've created because they're busy making the next creating. Yes. Yes. So that that's the one thing. What do you think the biggest challenge is for most athletes after they retire? I think it's the fear of starting anew. And that was certainly present for me as well really yeah like identity you mean or well it's starting from scratch right because when you when you play for 20 years i play for 20 years you reach a certain level you're like okay wait a minute i have to start again at the base of a mountain and try to climb the top of this mountain first of all what mountain am i climbing i don't even know like what the hell am I going to be doing? It's very scary. It's very scary.

Even for you? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And the thing that helped me actually was hurting my Achilles. Because that forced me to sit there and say, okay, the day could be today that your career is over. At any time, when you were playing, you mean, yeah. Now what do you do? You have these ideas about doing something

with your life after basketball. But what if today is the day that you, that's it. Now what do you do? So I had all this time sitting there with my Achilles injury and contemplating and thinking. And I said, I better get to work.

Wow. That was that. Big announcement. We've got a movie coming out. That was that. Big announcement. We've got a movie coming out. That's right. We have been working on a movie for the last couple of years. It's called Chasing Greatness. And you can go to greatness.com right now to opt in to be notified when we're launching this online.

We're also doing a live premiere in Los Angeles, Hollywood. If you want to come and watch this live, then come check it out. All you need to do, again, is go to greatness.com, be notified of the live premiere, and also when we're releasing this entire movie and documentary online. So check it out right now at greatness.com. What was the vision for you afterwards then? Was it to do what you're doing now? Did you have other ideas? Or what's the vision for you afterwards then? Was it to do what you're doing now? Did you have other ideas?

Or what's the vision? I struggled with it at first. Because the first question I asked, which is the wrong question, is what's the biggest industry I can get into? Was it more money thinking? Yes, money thinking. Saying, okay, athletes are saying you can't make more revenue when you retire. This is the source of your income is here. I said, okay, that's a challenge.

What can I do? And I remember just going for it. Didn't you launch a fund or something? I did. I did. And so I went for a ride. And I said, okay, stop thinking of it that way. You're thinking of it the wrong way.

Why did you start playing basketball? Because I loved it. All right, what do you love to do? Oh, I love to tell stories. All right, let's do that. And? Oh, I love to tell stories. All right, let's do that. And then that's where it started for me. And then on top of that, it became things like, you know, you start learning more about the financial industry and about players going broke once they retire and saying, okay, how can I minimize the chances of that happening? What are things that I can do to invest my money smartly?

Also help control some of that outcome to a certain extent. And that's what I called Mike Rapoli. Mike Rapoli was an entrepreneur who built Vitamin Water and Pirate's Booty and some other companies and started learning from him. And then from that came the opportunity to invest in body armor. Yeah. Yeah. Which we're drinking now. It's delicious. But all that came from the injury. Really having to self-assess, face that really dark room of what comes next. Storytelling is something you're really passionate about.

What's a story over your life that's been a constant theme that you go back to? Is there something you heard as a kid that really resonates with you, or a book, or a movie that just feels like this? Is me it's funny movies. There are plenty but there's a quote from one of my English teachers I love Marion named mr. Fisk And a great quote that said rest at the end not in the middle And that's something I always live by

Not gonna rest. I'm gonna keep on pushing now a There are a lot of answers that I don't have. Even questions that I don't have. But I'm just gonna keep going. Just gonna keep going, and I'll figure these things out as we go, right? And you just continue to build that way. So I try to live by that all the time. Rest at the end.

Rest at the end. What's the question that eats you alive the most that you haven't answered yet? The question that eats me alive that I haven't answered yet. Oh, that you're still looking for the answer. I'm still looking for the answer. How to tell a good story. I don't think anybody has that answer.

You know, like when I sat down to write Dear Basketball, I was like, okay, what do I want to say? You have certain acts and how you can structure certain things, right? The ebbs and flows of story. Certain formulas that have been there since the beginning of time. But it's such an exact science, isn't it?

So challenging, yeah. Right? And so that one question is really interesting. Why do you want to tell a great story? I think stories is what moves the world. Whether it's an inspirational story, or it's an informational one, nothing in this world moves without story.

Be it from the political world, sports world, nothing that we have moves without story. And so I think that is the root of everything. And if we're going to try to make the world a better place, story's the right place to be. I agree. But most people don't understand. Like my last year, people would come up to me and say,

okay, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going to be a storyteller. Really? And they go, what are you talking about? All right, man. So what's going to happen when you retire is you're going to go through like a week of depression. Then the second week is going to be like denial and all that. I'm like, dude, going to happen when you retire is you're going to go through a week of depression. Then the second week is going to be denial and all that.

I'm like, dude, seriously, I'm good. So after a while, I just got sick of it, and I just said, I don't know. I'll go play golf or something. Right, you just tell them a lie. I'm not going to do anything. I'll mess with real estate. Whatever. I'm not going to do anything.

I'm just going to sit around. What does losing feel like to you? It's exciting. Why is it exciting? Because it means you have different ways to get better. There are certain things that you can figure out that you can take advantage of, right? Certain weaknesses that were exposed

that you need to shore up. So it was exciting. I mean, it sucks to lose. Right. But at the same time, there are answers there if you just look at them because you get the information from losing more than

from winning probably yeah yeah I mean the answers are there when you win too you just have to look at them yeah right so it's a constant process it's exciting when you win

it's exciting when you lose because the process should be exactly the same whether you win or you lose is you go back and you look and you find things that you could have done better

you find things that you've done well that worked. You figure out how did they work, why did they work, how can you make them work again. But the hardest thing is to face that stuff. That's a really, really tough challenge. You mean face it, you mean look yourself in the mirror and say,

okay, this is how I showed up or this is what happened. I'll give you an example. So Katie Lou Samuelson is one of the best college basketball players in the country. She plays at UConn. She's going to be a senior. Right now? Right now. She's from Huntington Beach out here by us. And so she comes down and she works with some of my girls on the team and she helps coach. And they just had a really tough season last year where they lost to Notre Dame in the final. That's right. Really tough. First loss in like years, right? Yeah. And so I asked her, I said, have you watched the notre

dame game she was like no so well why not i said i don't want to watch that i said i know you don't but you're going to play notre dame this year yeah yeah there's a chance you see him again in the final one probably see me again i said well you can't show up and play them without knowing why you lost that one right so you know, the mistakes that you made in that game, you have to do the hard stuff and watch that game and study that game to not make those mistakes over and over again, just because you weren't brave enough to face it.

So she came down to the office. I brought her down to the office and we sat down, we watched that game together, right? And you gotta, you gotta deal with it. Face it. Gotta deal with it. Face it. Got to deal with it. Face it, learn from it. Wow, that must have been cringing for her

to just be like, oh, are you playing like we could have won all these things? That's exactly it, isn't it? If I just did that one thing, if I didn't get that foul, if I scored that layup.

That's exactly right. You look at it and say, oh, there's the mismatch. Oh, there's the gap. You know, and all those little things and it sucks. But you don't want to have that feeling again, do you, right?

So you got to really study it, face it. Not to say you'll win the next time, but at least you'll give yourself a better chance. Yeah. What was your routine and ritual like after every game? Would you watch almost every game over or certain games? All of them. Every game you'd watch? Every game.

The whole game? The whole game? The whole game. No way. Yeah, so it started with me when Phil Jackson's first year here with the Lakers. One of the assistant coaches, his name was Tex Winter, and I call him Yoda. I mean, he was like 82 when he got here. Wow. He was responsible for teaching me the triangle offense.

How old were you then? I was 21. So three years, four years in the league? was 21 so three years four years in the league yeah so my about my fourth year okay and so i go up to his room and this is when there were no ipads or anything like that right so when you're on the road yeah you have to call down to the front desk and have to bring up the tv right the whole you know the rolly thing in the vhs and the cassette tape you pop it in and i thought we're going to watch what we call touches so watch all your touches when you have the ball all the decisions you make good ones and bad no we're

watching the start of the game oh my to the end of the game not like the tv feed watching the in arena feed the layup line the timeouts oh my gosh yeah, stopping, fast forward, rewinding, slow motion. Every little thing. Every game of that season. With the 82-year-old Yoda. Oh my gosh. Who is as brutally honest as you can get. What did that teach you that season?

It taught me to look at detail. Look at things at their smallest. Look at things that they're smallest. Look at body language. Look at the energy between players, our team and the other team. Look at the tactics. Look at the overall strategy and look at how tactically things are manifesting themselves. And because I watched so much film, then it gave me the ability to see game in real time as if I was watching film. Wow. Where I can see, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.

Because a lot of times the game starts moving really fast. But if you train yourself to watch hours and hours of film, the game's not moving that fast anymore. You can really recognize who's doing what and why. Then you can position guys in the right places in real time. Seeing it before it happens. Yes. Yeah. You know, in football, we'd watch it once a week, game film,

but not after every game. It was only one game a week. You got like three a week sometimes. Yeah, you got to go. I know Tom Brady is obsessive over game film as well. I mean, watching his show that came out, Tom vs. Time, was all about him just in there studying. Even months after the game, he's studying to prepare, right?

It's just like he's obsessed. That's one of the keys, you think? It's like if you're not watching film, whether it be as a speaker on stage or a performer, a musician, if you're not watching yourself back. You've got to learn, man. I mean, Beyonce is the same thing. Really?

After a performance, she's immediately on her laptop re-watching the performance. No way. Yes, seeing how to do things better. What could we have done differently? It's an obsessiveness that comes along with it. You want things to be as perfect as they can be. Understanding that nothing is ever perfect.

But the challenge is trying to get them as perfect as they can be. And what can you do? It's in your control. So control what you can. I can watch film all day long. It's going to help me. Get better. Yes.

Yes. Now, did you have your teammates also follow on this obsessiveness that you had as well? Or did you just encourage them? Or what was the? No, you can't push somebody to do that, right? But what you can do is alter behavior and also change the vernacular of how they speak about the game. So on team buses, team planes, in a locker room, after practice, I would look at the film.

I'd pull Powell, Lamar, D. Fish, pull them aside and say, let's look at this. We probably should have done this, that, and the other. So you'll show them the game from a little bit here and there. Yeah, and then you speak to them in executional terms. It's never, come on, guys, we can do better. Come on, guys, we can do better. That's rah-rah stuff.

A leader must give very tactical things that we can do, adjustments. Okay, the defense is doing this, that, and the other. That means we should probably do this, this, this, that, and the other. By midway through the season, through that behavior, you start seeing them communicating the same way back to you. And it's like, okay, Colb, they're doing this, that, and the other to you. Maybe we should do this, that, and the other. You that behavior, you start seeing them communicating the same way back to you. Right? And it's like, okay, Colb, they're doing this, that, and the other to you. Maybe we should do this.

And you're like, okay, yeah. Awesome. Great. Let's do it. Yeah, yeah. What about season 16, 17, 18? Are you still watching every game filmed as obsessively as the first 10 years? Not now, no.

Well, when I was playing. When you were playing. Yeah. So when I was playing, what I would do is study the film, but study our younger players and see what areas do they need to develop in and how can I help them develop. That was the big challenge is you move from being the single dominant player to understanding, okay, I have to help these other guys. How do I lift everyone else up? It's tough. You were so dominant your whole career, one of the greatest of all time.

Was there a weakness that you had? Or did you, because obviously you were always trying to master your weaknesses so they became strengths. But did you, at the end or towards the end, did you ever feel like, gosh, I still haven't mastered this one part of the game? The challenge for me was always compassion and empathy. Because you're like, guys, let's go. Get results. Shut up. Don't complain, right? I don't want to hear you whining. I don't want to hear it. for me was always compassion and empathy because you're like guys let's go get results shut up don't complain right i want to hear your whining i don't want to hear it don't tell me excuses don't tell me how rough the water is just bring the boat in you know like i don't i don't want to hear it

and it's uh it's understanding like okay these guys have lives right outside of they have other things have other things happening to them that may be affecting the way that they're practicing or the way that they're performing. And it was hard for me to understand that because nothing bothered me. Anything personal, anything like that never fazed me when I played. You compartmentalized it. Very well. So I couldn't understand how my teammates couldn't do that either.

So I had to really work on that aspect of it. That's hard. Yeah, it is. So did you feel like you never really had the compassion you wish you would have had? Like until the last maybe couple years? Yeah. So I think about 2009, things started changing for me. I started really making a conscious effort to better understand.

And that doesn't mean you have compassion and empathy, so you go soft on them. It's more like you put yourself to the side, and you put yourself in their shoes and understand what they're feeling. And then you have to make certain decisions of, okay, what buttons do I need to push for this player to get them to the next level? So it's not sit around and it's all happy-go-lucky type of thing. Your leader, your job is to get the best out of them, even if they may not like it at that time. Yeah. Wow. What are you most proud of from your 20 seasons? Honestly, it may sound a little shallow, but I got to say beating the Celtics in game seven.

That's what I'm most proud of. Why? Because it was the hardest. You were playing with Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and it was myself, Powell, and the players that other teams didn't want.

And how do we figure out as a group what to do? And the reason why I love that series so much is that we went down three games to two against Boston. And now you got two games coming home. I remember sitting in the locker room and they beat the crap out of us to that game. So we're sitting in the locker room and it's really, really quiet. I'm sitting there looking around and we just lost the Celtics in 08. So this is like revenge, right? And they're

kicking our butt again, right? So I sit around and I just started laughing. I started laughing. And then I remember Derrick Fisher looked at me like, and Lamar looked at me and goes, what is funny? I said, dude, they beat the crap out of us. They just beat the crap out of us. I said, I'm missing the part where that's funny. I said, man, listen, if we start this season, and they say all you have to do is win two games at home,

and you're an NBA champ, would you take that? Yeah. They're like, right. That's all we have to do is win two games at home and you're nba champ would you take that yeah and like right yeah that's all we got to do yeah go home win two we're nba champions all you gotta do is win two get two games in a row that's it we'll take care of the first game and i promise you they're not winning game seven on our home floor it's not happening so we all just laughed about it and then we went out and we figured it out. But that game seven was, we're down 15 points in the fourth quarter. Right? And that's when you have to collectively look at each other and say, you know, the spirit of your team must be good. Because at that moment is when teams fracture.

If the energy amongst each other isn't there, that trust isn't there, you're done. And we were able to collectively dig deep together and say, all right, we're going to figure this thing out. Wow. And I wasn't playing well, I wasn't shooting the ball well at all. And so my teammates picked you up and they delivered.

Yes. Wow. I saw on Instagram that you're up at like 4 a.m. lifting by yourself in the dark. And again, you've had one of the most incredible careers, arguably of all time, made all the money in the world, got a freaking Oscar now. You've got all these other things happening, and yet you're still waking up, or at least you're in the gym at 4 a.m. working out, and you just turned 40, right? Congratulations, congratulations, by the way. Thank you. I hope I look as good as you.

Why still wake up that early and train at this level in your life right now? There's several factors for that. Like, when I first retired, let myself go a little bit. Really? You got a little chubby life? Oh, yeah. It was awesome. You enjoyed everything. Oh, man, I'm eating.

What? It is well, man. Bring it to me. Let's go. Steak? Oh, let's go. Right? Milks In and out. Bring it to me. Let's go. Steak? Oh, let's go. Right? Milkshakes?

Let's do it. Let's do it. And then the challenge was, okay, can I get back in shape? And it's really hard because there's no end goal. There's no game. There's no season. There's no. So how do you motivate yourself to do it?

How do you? And so for me, it was like, okay, I have to aim for something. So I said, I want to aim for size. I want to aim for bulk. Right? So that's a tangible thing. I'm going to aim for something. So I said, I want to aim for size. I want to aim for bulk, right? So that's a tangible thing. I'm going to go for that, right? But then also it's, you know, my children. Because like, you know, your kids can't see how hard you work.

You go to the office, I come in the studio, they don't really see the effort, right? So how can we teach our children what it means to work hard? Well, you do it through training. So when I get up in the morning, my daughter goes with me. 4 a.m.? 4 a.m. My 15-year-old goes with me. She goes with me before school, and it becomes a daddy-daughter thing.

That's cool. She just got her permit, so she drives in the morning. It becomes a cool thing, right? But through that process, she understands the value of hard work and things taking time. And the same thing with my 12-year-old. She practices every day. And so it's through those behaviors is where I find the motivation to do it. And what brings you the most joy right now? Being with my family.

Really? That is, man, that is the most fun. It's just, you know, it's hanging out with them all summer, being able to do things that I ordinarily couldn't do. Yeah. Because of training, because of season and stuff like that.

So being around them and watching Bianca grow up, because there are a lot of things that I miss with Natalia and Gianna because I was playing. So being there every day with them is so much fun, man. So it brings me the most joy. That's amazing. And what does love feel like for you? What does love feel like? What does love feel like for you? What does love feel like?

Happiness is such a thing I would describe love as happiness. I think I'd describe it as a beautiful journey. It has its ups and downs. Whether it's in marriage, whether it's in the career, things are never perfect. But through love, you continue to persevere and you move through them. You move through them.

And then through that storm, beautiful sun emerges. Yeah. And inevitably another storm comes. And guess what? You ride that one out too. So I think love is a certain determination and persistence to go through the good times and the bad times with the someone or something

that you truly love. You've got a new podcast out right now called The Punies, which I started listening to. I've listened to the first two episodes. It's incredible. They're like 13 to 15-minute episodic storytelling cartoons, I guess, for kids. And the thing I love about it the most is it's funny. It's entertaining. it's entertaining, there's original music, there's all these different characters. You're teaching history

like in a fun way, which I like the last one where it's like we talk about history so we don't repeat it in our own lives. And then you teach lessons about overcoming failure for kids and insecurities and challenges we're facing. And I think it's beautiful. Can you talk about the punies and the podcast and what it's all about? Yeah. So the punies came to me from, you know, we have our family tradition where we watch the Sandlot every 4th of July. God, it's the greatest movie, man. In the summer? Oh my gosh. It's the best thing. S'mores, baby. Give me s'mores. So like that's our family ritual. Oh my gosh. Every 4th of July. Sandlot. Sandlot, right? Every Fourth of July. Sandlot.

Sandlot, right? And so after watching the Sandlot movie, I was like, we need a new sports movie like this, right? So I started kind of concepting ideas and stuff. But nothing I truly loved. And then over Thanksgiving, our other ritual was to watch Charlie Brown. Uh-huh. Right? In the pumpkin patch, right?

So we watched that. And then I go, well, wait a minute. Let's just put those together. Put those together, right? And I already had written some stories, individual stories for Puny Pete and Bebe. Two of the characters. Two of the characters and the punies. And I said, well, let's combine those.

And then from that, that's when the punies started coming to fruition, and I started thinking about the characters and, you know, why does this show need to exist? And what are some of the deeper messages that can be there that consciously you may not observe, but you can sense and feel. And that's when I started constructing the show. And are you part of the whole process? Are you helping write the script? Are you helping put it all together? So we have a great young producer here who actually started here three years ago while he was still at SC and has since grown into a position. Greatest film school. And so he and I worked together hand in hand on outlining every single episode. So we outlined each episode, the story beats, and then we found a great writer named John Holler. He's a great writer. And so we gave him the outline and he just made it a thousand times better.

And then I just, I directed each episode and- You oversee it all, you edit, you- Yeah, I directed it. So the other challenge was finding great actors. Voice acting is a different skill. Yes, it's a challenging art form. You really have to be able to communicate a lot just through your voice.

An essence, an energy with your voice, yeah. And so the trick was finding actors that have not lost that childlike quality, right? They can still imagine themselves being children,

being at the park and playing, right? And once we found them, they really brought the characters to life and now here we are with The Punies, man. It's amazing.

I want you guys to go download it right now. Subscribe. It's the punies on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and anywhere podcasts are at. I'm telling you guys, there's a lot of parents listening to this show. Download this, listen to it in your car, and do me a favor. Take a video of your kids in the car and send it to me. Tag me on Instagram. Tag Kobe on Instagram.

Yes, please. That would be amazing. Because that's what's going to give you great feedback. Oh, gosh, that would be amazing. Seeing how kids react. So put your phone, again, don't film and drive. Do it when, have someone else filming it, right? But make sure, or put it on a GoPro and just press record.

Yes. It's about 15 minutes long. Take your kids to school. It is like this. Take them to the park, too. We made them on Saturdays. Every Saturday is a new episode because Saturdays, normally the day, us parents drive our kids to different sporting events. To the pool, to the games, the park. Yes. That's why every episode has to be between 12 to 15, 16 minutes, right? Because that's

normally the drive. Sometimes it may be longer. And in that case, you can play multiple episodes. That's something you can listen to on your way to an event. It's like mini Frozen and Moana episodes, right? It's like little with original music and all that stuff. It's really cool. Go download it. Again, take a video and tag Kobe on Instagram. Are you on Instagram a lot yourself?

I am on Instagram, yeah. Tag him. Especially Lily's Lemonade. Listen to Lily's Lemonade. And I would love to see kids out there trying to do the Lily's Lemonade song. Love it. Hopefully we'll get a bunch of video clips for you. And your book is out in October. It's called Mamba Mindset. Do you want to talk briefly about that? Well, the Mentality book is really about process and craft. I've broken the book up into two sections.

And process is really about the process of preparing through injury, recovery, studying of the game. And then the craft is the actual performance and the tactics. And so a lot of things that I learned through the game were through photos. You can look at a photo and see like a player making a move, look at the angle of his feet, look how he's using his hands on defense. And I can really break down things to the smallest detail through that. And that's what you'll see in this book. I mean, it's really a basketball Bible. Yeah. Mamba mentality.

But it's also your mindset Bible, right? Yeah, yeah. You'll see how I break things down, like how I'm looking at things to the smallest of detail. Yeah. And that's the best way to understand how to have that kind of mentality, is to ask questions, then find answers.

And then that leads to more questions, and you find more answers. And that's what the book is. I love it. Make sure you guys get the book. You can pre-order it right now. Download The Punies. Follow you on social media. The final question is, what's your definition of greatness? I think the definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you. I think that's what greatness is or should be. It's not something that lives and dies with one person. It's how can you inspire a person to then in turn inspire another person that then inspires another person. And that's how

you create something that I think lasts forever. And I think that's our challenge as people is to figure out how our story can impact others and motivate them in a way to create their own greatness. Well, I want to acknowledge you again, man, for the inspiration. You're just a symbol of truth and inspiration to so many people. Thanks, man. And I just appreciate you as a human. So thanks, man. Appreciate it. There you have it, my friends, Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest of all time, the Mamba mentality, talking about NBA championships, winning Oscars, the power of storytelling,

and so much more. I was blown away by this. His willingness to share, his willingness to reveal, his openheartedness, his generosity. And I hope you appreciated his sincerity and his wisdom as much as I did, as this was a real treat and honor to be able to have that time with Kobe

and really just to pick his brain and tap into his heart. I think there's so much power in his energy and his presence. And we can all learn some incredible things from the way he's overcome challenges, the way he's continued to pursue dreams after this massive career he's had and continue to reinvent

himself. So if you enjoyed this, please share it with your friends. lewishouse.com slash 691. Again, tag at Kobe Bryant over on Instagram. Let him know that you enjoyed this. Post it on Twitter. Tag him there. Facebook.

All those places. Want to make sure that he sees all of you who are enjoying this information and definitely check out The Punies. Again, The Punies is a powerful family series that teaches children morals and history in a really fun and positive way. So make sure to check that out. I enjoyed listening to the first few episodes and I think you will as well. Play it to your kids while you're driving in the car to school or to sports practice or out to dinner and see the reaction. Again, take a video of you playing it with your kids in the car or when you're going out somewhere and get the reaction and tag Kobe as well. Send it to me and I'll send it to him if you want to. I'd love

to give him that feedback that he's looking for on this show and his creation as well. You can check out the full show notes, the full video interview over at lewishouse.com slash 691. And one of the things I enjoyed the most about this was storytelling and the stories that Kobe told and talked about during this and how he mentioned that storytelling was something that he wanted to get better at. It's one of his visions and dreams moving forward. And as Joseph Campbell said at the beginning, if you're going to have a story, have a big story or none at all. We all have a life to live. We all have an opportunity to leave an impact, to leave a story behind and to tell a story while we're here.

And I wanna ask you, are you sharing a positive, impactful story or are you sharing one of negativity, of drama, of anger and resentment right now? Ask yourself, am I sharing something meaningful in the world? Am I showing up every day and pursuing the things that I love, that I enjoy, am I sharing something meaningful in the world? Am I showing up every day and pursuing the things that I love, that I enjoy, that I believe in? Or am I complaining,

making excuses, and being a victim of my own story? You have an opportunity to change the script at any moment, to change your mentality, to change your actions, to change your goals, to change your relationships, to change your actions, to change your goals, to change your relationships, to change your health. But it's your decision to make. It's your story to write. What's the story that you're going to be writing moving forward? I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Again, share it with your friends. Let's spread this message far and wide. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. Bye.