The School of Greatness - 908 Kobe Bryant on Life, Love and Legacy

Episode Date: January 29, 2020

“If you’re going to have a story, have a big story.” - Joseph CampbellI was heartbroken to hear the news of the fatal helicopter crash that caused the death of legendary Kobe Bryant, along with his oldest daughter Gigi and seven others.Kobe inspired me for years, and I know he inspired so many other people across the world.My heart goes out to his family and the families of those involved with the crash. There are no words to express my sadness. When I interviewed Kobe in 2018, I asked him what love was, and he described love as "a journey that has its ups and its downs...it's a certain persistence to go through the good times and the bad times with someone or something that you truly love."Even though Kobe is not with us, I know that his legacy of love and greatness will continue to inspire and strengthen us for years to come.In this episode, I wanted to revisit our interview together as a memorial of his testament of greatness. Kobe was a champion, and to be a champion, you have to have the champion mentality. He definitely had that figured out.No one has mastered the art of staying focused on your goal and working tirelessly towards it like the legend and icon, Kobe Bryant. Kobe is widely regarded as one of the best basketball players of all time.He won five NBA championships with the Lakers and led the NBA in scoring during two seasons. He was 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 with the Los Angeles Lakers.In 2018, he received an Academy Award for his animated short “Dear Basketball.” He also launched a podcast called The Punies that teaches kids morals and history in a really fun way.Kobe was known for his Mamba Mentality, but it’s his big heart that is truly admirable. He was constantly reinventing himself and continuing to pursue new dreams.I have so much respect for Kobe Bryant. Please join me in revisiting his legacy, his Mamba Mentality, and his wisdom on embracing failure on Episode 908.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)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)Plus much more...If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/908 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes

This is episode number 908 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. Kobe Bryant said, You know things are never perfect, but through love you can continue to persevere. You move through them and then through that storm, a beautiful sun emerges.

This has been a very challenging 24 hours for me. Kobe Bryant just passed and my condolences, thoughts, love, prayers to his family and the families that were involved, the other passengers who passed and their family. I had the honor of sitting down with Kobe about a year ago and talking about love, talking about life, talking about beautiful things. And when I heard the news, I was like most people in shock. I checked to confirm that it was not fake. And then I laid around for almost 24 hours and reflected. And really just heard stories about how much he meant to people. Watched videos.

Thought about my time with him. Reflected on the pain that the family must be going through. And the families of the victims that were involved in this accident. And just really sad, really sad about the whole situation. And I can only imagine, you know, me being sad as someone who barely knew him. I knew him for an hour of time and a few text messages afterwards. I feel sad for the people that knew him very well and can only imagine the pain that they're feeling and the hurt and the confusion. And I just want to send lots of love to everyone involved who truly knew Kobe in an intimate way. And a lot of people have been asking me to

reshare the interview that I did with him. They said it was one of the most powerful interviews that I'd ever seen with him. They said they was one of the most powerful interviews that I'd ever seen with him. They said they never heard him talk about the things he talked about. Again, we talk about love and intimacy and the questions that he has yet to answer for himself. We talked about so many different moments in his career, moments from his childhood,

and so many people afterwards told me that it was one of the most powerful episodes. ESPN cut up multiple clips and shared it all over social media and their website. And I was flattered by this. I just, you know, was a curious person. I loved his work. I loved his, the way he thought, his mentality, his work ethic. And and as a fan i just wanted to do a great interview and i remember getting the opportunity to sit down with him and i wanted to share with you my lessons from what i learned about him and then make sure that i uh we're going to post the full interview as well attached to this but i wanted to share my thoughts of what I experienced and the type of man that I experienced when I got to sit down with him. And it was crazy. I was talking with Tiffany,

who films and edits the podcast, because she went to his office with me. And so I was reflecting with her saying, man, what was it like for you? And we were going back and forth. So here's what happened. Here's the story. And I want you to know how powerful this person was and how humble at the same time he was. Someone on our podcast team had said, hey, Kobe's publicist reached out to me and is looking to do some press to talk about his new podcast, The Punies. And he said, he's only free like three weeks out. He's got a couple of windows that are open of time that are open in a few weeks.

Are you available? And I said, call them back. Tell them I will be there first thing tomorrow morning. Because if we don't book this right now, three weeks is going to pass and they're going to reschedule and reschedule and it's never going to happen. So I said, do not hang up the phone until you get them to confirm. I will go anywhere, anytime, any place tomorrow morning. You just tell me when and where I will be there. And I said, do not hang up until you get them to confirm. And they get back to us and say, okay, tomorrow morning, his office, which is in Orange County, 7.30 AM, I think is when it was supposed to start. Sometime early, sometime before the work

day, it was like 7.30, 8 AM or something. I said, great, done. Now this was about five or six o'clock at night, the night before. And I'm going to a concert this night to support another guest that we had on, Lindsay Sterling. She had a concert in LA. I said, I'll be there. So I ended up going to her concert. She doesn't come on until late. And I don't get back to about 1230. Now I've got the biggest interview I've ever done in about eight hours. And I haven't prepared yet. I haven't prepared. And I'm kind of nervous, but I'm also like, this is going to prepared yet. I haven't prepared and I'm kind of like nervous, but I'm also like, this is going to be amazing. Like I'm so excited for this. It was almost better that I didn't have a week to prepare in my mind because I think I would have built it

up too much. It would have been maybe a little nervous or not sure. And it was actually perfect. So I, I, Tiffany who's filming comes over, grabs the camera gear around 5 a.m. or something. And I'm like, we got to get there early. We need to make sure we're set up an hour and a half early. Like the publicist said, we only have 20 minutes. We've got to be ready. You need to turn the camera on, the lights on, the mics on. It's got to be ready to go so we can get the most out of this in 20 minutes.

Now, she comes over. We get the camera gear. We hop in my car. And I start playing the first two episodes of his podcast, The Punies, which if you haven't downloaded The Punies, it's amazing. And parents, you've got to have your kids listen to this. And it's really going to continue to further the legacy of what he created because they're really inspiring

cartoon episodic cartoons for kids to overcome doubt and insecurity and fear and all these things that we talk about in the school of greatness so i listened to the first two episodes and i'm just like wow this guy is talented as a storyteller as a director as a writer he is talented he's not just a great basketball player he He's a talented storyteller. And I go, Tiffany, you know, we got about an hour and a half drive. So I go, Tiffany, like find everything you can, any unique fact, any detail about Kobe's life. What do I need to know? Early days, parents, you know, living in Italy. How many languages does he really speak? You know, just tell me everything you can think of. And she's downloading me.

And I'm just taking it all in as I'm driving down there. And we're taking the 405 down to Orange County. And so then we finally get there. It's probably, I don't know, 630, 645 AM. And this is one of the most memorable things that I'll always remember about Kobe. So we get there, we're waiting in the lobby of this building that he's in, his office is in, and we're there for maybe 10, 15 minutes. I call the publicist or the person coordinating as assistant at the time to

let us in. And she lets us in about 10, 15 minutes later. And so we go into the office, there's no one there. There's no one there. There's no one there. She's turning the lights on. It's this nice media business office, right? We go in there and she's like, okay, here's where we normally film. And this location where they normally filmed was not, in my opinion, up to standards of the visuals that I wanted to have to represent this interview. So I said, can we look around the office and see if there's any other space to maybe set up a little mini studio? She said, sure.

So we walk around and we go down this long hall and this long hallway has all these kind of offices to the sides, to each side of the hallway with big windows that you can see inside these kind of like boardroom looking offices. And as I'm walking down, I see that the lights were off in most of them. And I don't think anything of it, but I keep walking down and I see the other end of the office. I'm like, nah, I don't like this over here. Let's walk back. And as we're walking back down this kind of glass hallway of offices,

I take a glimpse over to my left and I see this one office, all the lights are off. And I see just a figure in the back corner looking up, no computer on, no phone on, just sitting at a desk, looking into the ceiling is what it looked like. And I'm like, that's Kobe. I'm like, that's Kobe. He's in the office at 6.45 AM sitting there dreaming. I don't even know what he was doing. He was just looking up and not working, not on any device, just there. Lights off. And I was like, what? And I asked her, I go, is that Kobe? And she's like, yeah. And I go, how long has he been here? I thought no one was here. She goes, oh, he's been here for at least an hour. And I go, what? Are you kidding me? An hour? I'm like, what's he doing? And she's like, you know, he's preparing for the day. He's got a lot to do

today. After you, who was coming in? Little Wayne was coming in to do an interview, to interview him after me. He had a bunch of different meetings and projects he was working on. And I was like, little Wayne's coming in right after me. So his whole production crew was there setting up about an hour later. And it was crazy, right? So I go, wow. So he's been here for at least an hour. She goes, oh yeah, he's always the first one in. And typically the last one to leave. I go, what? And so in that moment, I was just blown away because here's a man who has done it all. At this time, he'd already won an Oscar. He had five NBA championships, Olympic gold medalist. He had 20 years in the league. He'd done it all, made a ton of money. He had nothing else to prove. And 40 years old, first one in the office,

hours before anyone else. He told me afterwards, he's like, oh yeah, I was up at 4 a.m. working out this morning. And I was just like, you are a machine. This is unbelievable. It was just an inspiring moment. He probably had no clue who I was. I'm just some little podcaster. He's got little Wayne coming in after me and big companies coming in for meetings. He probably had no clue who I was, but he was there at least an hour before I got there to prepare, not only for me, but for the whole day. And that really impressed me. And as we got set up, we were setting up, right? So I'm setting up and I can look into Kobe's office essentially. I can't see him, but I can look into his office at the location we're

setting up. And we're setting up for an hour, hour and a half getting ready. And people are starting to come in eventually. We have the whole thing set up. I'm talking back and forth with Tiffany, going over my notes, just making sure I have everything prepared. And I'm wondering, is he going to come out at any time? Is he going to say hi? Is he going to walk to the bathroom? I have no idea, but I'm going to be ready. And someone goes in. It's about 10 minutes before we're about to start. His team's there now. It's like there's energy happening in the place. The lights come on in his place. And I see someone walk in. They have a conversation. The man comes out. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, a conversation, the man comes out, and I'm thinking

to myself, okay, he's going to be out here right on the dot. It's going to start. And then the publicist is saying, you've got 20 minutes because little Wayne is coming up right after you and they need to have their schedule and then everything else. So I'm thinking to myself, I've got to really make a great connection with him as we're putting on the mic, as he's sitting down in order for him to really open up. Because 20 minutes, you guys know, if you listen to my podcast, 20 minutes is not enough time to get in deep with someone, to really connect with someone. You ask three questions and 20 minutes blinks. So I'm saying to myself, what can I do to truly connect with one of the greatest athletes in the world of all time? So that he and I can create an interview that impacts humanity.

Every time I sit down with someone like this, I'm like, we need to create powerful moments that can change lives, that can save lives, that can impact people, that can truly benefit and add so much value to people's lives that they remember. They take action in their life and they become better. And I remember him walking out and just walking right up to me. And he knew what was happening. He knew we were about to get started. He knew there's a chair that was right there. Tiffany's saying hello. He goes right up to Tiffany and shakes her hand and says, how are you? Looks her in the eyes. He's super present, caring, thoughtful, says the same thing to me. We connect.

And as I'm putting the mic on, I just say, Kobe, before we get started, I want to acknowledge you for how kind you've been to so many Olympic athletes. I play with the USA men's national handball team. And a lot of my friends who are Olympians say that you were always so nice to them, to all the USA athlete members and other sports that are much smaller than basketball. You're always so nice to people. You always went to watch other sports and supported the other athletes. You took photos with people whenever they asked. were engaged with people and i just wanted to say i really acknowledge you for for showing up for other athletes and for inspiring so many of us i really appreciate it he goes my man you play handball and i go yeah he goes man when i was growing up in italy that's all i love to play

we played handball all the time and i used to watch the game and those guys are so amazing. The athletes are incredible. I'm like, I know that's why I love the sport. And so we, we jive on handball and his love for it in Europe playing growing up. And I was like, wow, I had no idea he was a fan of handball. And then his publicist is asking me, you know, who are some of the other people that you've interviewed as we're in this conversation as well? And I was like, you know, I've had Novak Djokovic and I start to say a few other names and he goes, no way, Novak, he's my brother. I love Novak. He's such a great competitor and his mindset and, you know, he's such a great champion and he's like a brother to me. And I'm thinking to myself, wow, this guy is really engaged. He's really connected.

He really cares to have a conversation. It's not just, okay, let me sit down. Let's get through this. Tell me your questions. On to the next. Like promote my thing. He was truly one of the creative connection. And that's the thing that was powerful for me.

And I remember just sitting down and he made me feel so comfortable. The whole time he made me feel so comfortable. He never made me feel nervous. He never made me feel insecure. He never made me feel scared or worried about what I was going to say. And I remember sitting down, right? The last thing I asked him beforehand, I said, you know, your publicist told me, you know, a list of things, what not to ask you. And my whole intention is to put you in the best light, but is there anything else off limits or that I shouldn't ask you? And he looks me dead in the eyes and he says, ask me anything you want. And I was just like, wow, this guy, you know, I'm sure he's been asked a lot of different things and maybe some things bug him or some things annoy him because they were like, don't ask

about his parents and don't ask about a relationship and don't ask about this. And so I mentioned it, you know, I'm not going to talk about these things. And he just looks at me and says, ask me anything you want. And I thought that was really cool that he was willing to go anywhere. And at that moment, I remember thinking to myself, this is going to be a great interview. And all I got to do now is convince the publicist and the whole team watching us and surrounding us that I need more than 20 minutes because 20 minutes isn't enough. You're going to hear this interview. The interview goes, I think, about 40 to 45 minutes. And I do something towards the end

that without asking the publicist, because they're kind of standing there with their hands up with like cutting it off and they'll walk in and literally like say, okay, we're done if you go past the limit. And I start to say certain things and he gets so engaged and so into it. I'm just like, I can't end this right now. And I'm looking at the clock. I'm like, there's no way I'm ending this. And he's so engaged and he opens up about love and intimacy and relationships and his relationship with his daughter and so many other beautiful things that I was just like, okay, we're moving this on. They didn't put their hand up. They didn't cut me off. And they start to whisper at each other. And I do something and that moment when they start to come in, they're about

to walk in and I say something that allows it, in my opinion, to get some of the best parts of an interview I've ever had in these last six or seven minutes of this interview. He said things I never heard him say. And so many people emailed me and ES is, you know, ESPN picked this up and NBC.com and Olympics.com and Sports Illustrated. They all picked these things up at the end because they never heard Kobe say these things. At the end, he was so gracious, so giving, so caring. He started following me on Instagram. He messaged me a few times and I was just like, wow, this is a guy who's connected to the biggest stars in the world. And I remember even saying like, wow, this is, you know, I wish I would have got this on film, but he was like, thank you for this interview. It was really special for me. It was one of my favorites. And I was like, dang it, I should have got that footage, you know? But the moments

were powerful and we packed up. It was just me and Tiffany and a couple of cameras and a couple of lights and the production company for little Wayne. It was like this massive, like 30 person production company with all this gear setting up an interview and, uh, you know, all these black cars outside with little Wayne security. And I was just like, just little old school of greatness, you know, popping in, setting up and packing up real quick and popping out. And, you know, they were probably there for a few hours setting up and doing everything. And I was just like, man, I'm just really grateful. And I remember the whole drive back, me and Tiffany were like little kids.

We were like, I don't know a time where I've ever been that excited. And Tiffany as well. Tiffany is a big NBA fan. She played basketball. She worked, did video for the WNBA a little bit, and we were just like, that was amazing. We just interviewed Kobe. It wasn't just doing the interview.

It was just everything about it. It was the moments that he shared with us. It was the things that he said that you'll hear pauses where he doesn't answer for like five, six, seven seconds because he's thinking about these questions. And I just thought there was something about it was so magical. And people always ask me, you know, I've done over 900 episodes. They'll say, you know, what was your favorite episode? And I'm always like, it's really hard to say like your top three out of 900 episodes, hundreds of interviews. And I'm always like, it's really hard to say like your top three out of 900 episodes,

hundreds of interviews. And I'm always like, Kobe, he's in the top. Kobe has been in the top for the last year, year and three months since this episode came out. So I'm just great. You know, it's sad because I was actually supposed to interview him again. He had a book that came out a couple of months ago and I was scheduling another interview with him, but something that came up and I had, I had a trip already planned during the

time where he was available. Cause he told me, he's like, I'm looking forward to the time just to like do this again. And I said, if there's ever anything I can do to promote you, he's like, yeah, I've got a book coming out. Like I would love to come back on. And I really wish I would have had that time. Uh, and I wish I would, you know, looking back, canceled that trip and done whatever I could to made that time happen. I thought I would get more chances and, um, uh, highly, unfortunately, uh, that did not happen. And I'm just sad for his family.

I'm just sad for his family. I'm sad for his friends. I'm sad for the families that were involved. And I just know he would have created some incredible stories, some incredible magic with all the talents that he has and the hard work and the commitment he has. So I want to share this interview with you. And I just re-watched it on YouTube on the video and was just like smiling. You know, I was sad.

I was smiling. I was laughing. There's moments where we're laughing about different things. And I was just like, man, he's so smart. He's so talented. And here are some brief thoughts that I had about him. He really relied on the fundamentals. You know, you'll hear him talk in this episode about the fundamentals.

And he talks about simple math, having simple math in the work that you do towards your dreams and being obsessed with the thing you love. And the stories about how he said when people are resting, that's when he would go to the gym to work. And when people are resting, that's when he would go to the gym to work. He talked about transitioning from a great talent to becoming a great leader as well and impacting the people around him, his team around him, and talking about how he changed behavior to make people better, how he changed people's behavior. And at the end, you'll hear some powerful stuff about what he wanted to create, his mission to tell great stories.

And he's definitely told all of us an amazing story. If you don't know who Kobe is, again, he's an incredible athlete, five-time NBA champion, to Lakers, 20 seasons, 18-time All-Star. He's just a machine. All-Star. He's just a machine. A machine, won an Oscar, Olympian, medalist, and just really sad about everything that happened. In this full interview, we talk about his greatest moments in 20 seasons of basketball. And the moment he talked about, he said, I'm not proud of, he said, this might be a superficial moment. That was my greatest moment, but it was a powerful story. We talked about the mamba mentality and how he strengthened his physical and mental abilities, his definition of

love, and what he hoped his legacy would be. His workout training routine with his daughter and why that was so important to him. Why he had a passion for storytelling and how it impacts everyone throughout history. That and so much more. I hope you enjoy this. If you did, please let me know. Share it with a friend, lewishouse.com slash 908. Or you can watch the full video on YouTube as well if you want to watch that.

It's really cool to watch his mannerisms and his responses on video. It's just really special for me. So I hope you enjoy this. This is the Kobe Bryant interview and life lessons. 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, OK, 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. So they taught me that at a really early age, man. And 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 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 in a very prominent summer league in Philadelphia called the Sunny Hill League. My father played, my uncle played, and they were like all-time greats and stuff. Wilt Chamberlain played in the league.

Earl of 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. 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 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 pod 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, 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. So that's when I sat down and said, okay, this is going to take some thought. 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. After that, creating your own shot. And then you focus. So I started creating a menu of things. When I came back the next summer, I was a little bit better. A menu being like, I've got my jump shot from 15. I've got my fadeaway.

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, I was a little better.

The summer I came back, the next summer I was a little better. I scored. You know, it wasn't much, but I scored. Missed 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 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 then 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, average still? I was good. I was good. About the end of my, 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 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 or 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 put a math on that it's not it's not going it's not going to get it done i'm gonna get it done right so if you're obsessively training two three hours every single day over a year over two years you're gonna accelerate you make quantum leaps man just doing a summer camp for two weeks you you see a difference i remember playing basketball 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 say, when I say your kids are going to become great basketball players, they're like, really? Yeah, it's not. It's math. That's it. 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 gonna show up so early to the court to warm up and practice 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 did you do it? And he he said this is what he said you said so 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 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? 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 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 at the time, I first showed I was a sophomore. One of the things I would do is, while everybody would be at the cafeteria, we're eating and doing all sorts of stuff, I'd just go back to the gym. I'd just go back to the gym. I'd just go back to the gym. 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. And so that was my way of showing them, yeah, I may be from the suburbs, but you're not going to outwork me. Wow. And I'm mentally going to be much tougher. Did someone teach you that? Was that just a thing that you decided, like, I'm going to get in people's minds?

It's just figuring out ways to be better and to win the game. And it started out as a defense mechanism because, you know, they were the ones talking trash to me. And kid from Italy, blah, blah, blah, and all this other stuff. And 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, you know, I never was physically gifted to an extreme level. I was always really good, but I was never like 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 and um 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. 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 gotta 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 a rest. Right? Back-to-back games. Back-to-back games.

Right? Monday, Tuesday. You play Monday and you play again Tuesday. Guys aren't going to listen. Right? You know, 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 5 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. 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. And they're like, lesson learned. Lesson learned. 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. 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 and 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 got to meet that same energy or I 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 you can? And what do you think people can do in general with the 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.

One of my favorite ones, Pal hates it every time I tell this story. He hates it. He hates it. But we lost to the Celtics in 08. And it was a physical series. I mean, they beat the crap out of us.

Yeah. And so we go into the Olympic year that year. We wound up playing in Spain for the gold medal match and we beat them. Uh-huh. And so now we come back

to start training camp and Powell shows up the first day of training camp. I had 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, Pau, listen. He said, you're an asshole. I said, listen, Pau. 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. That is brilliant.

Let's win this thing. And that was it for him. And he probably stepped up at a whole nother level. Powell was a phenomenon to begin with. And then for him was just stepping up to a level of physicality. Yeah. That we needed him to get to, which he did. And we went on to win back-to-back championships. My man. Yeah, 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 I mean Phil he wouldn't just coach the team or coach the game

But he'd read everything about every single player. We learn about your history how you grew up How you were raised where we were were you raised? You know, 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, right? 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 the ball 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 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. Which 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 a smart dude, man. So I pulled it back. Wow. Yeah.

I want to take a quick break to thank our sponsor, ZipRecruiter. Now, I have been building businesses for the last decade. And one of the most challenging things for me in growing a business is hiring, having the right people on your team, having 18 people and having quality people who really believe in your vision and mission. But it's really challenging and sometimes it takes a long time and it's never easy to find the right person. And Cafe Altura's COO, Dylan Miskiewicz, experienced how challenging hiring can be also after unsuccessfully searching for a director of coffee for his organic coffee company. But then he switched to ZipRecruiter and saw an immediate difference as opposed to just trying to do it on his own. And you can too by signing up for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash greatness.

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Try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash greatness. That's ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash greatness that's ZipRecruiter.com slash greatness again Z-I-P-R-E-C-R-U-I-T-E-R.com slash greatness ZipRecruiter the smartest way to hire also a 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 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.

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 do you think what's been the greatest challenge you've had since leaving the game i think it's you know i mean you won an 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. The energy is there. What I do now, you don't.

Like, I don't see how people are affected by deer 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 shoot 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 when 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've 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 because identity you mean or well it's it's starting from scratch, right? Because when you play for 20 years, I played 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 to 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. What was the vision for you afterwards then? Was it to do what you're doing now? Did you have other ideas or what is, 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 your source of your income is here. I said, okay, that's a challenge. What can I do? remember going for didn't you launch a fund or something

I did I did and so I started 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 then that's where it started for me and 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 when I called Mike Rapoli, who Mike Rapoli was an entrepreneur who built Vitamin Water and Pirate's Booty and some other companies and started learning from

them. And then from that came the opportunity to invest in Body Armor. Yeah. Yeah, which we're drinking now. It's good. 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? Yeah, that's funny. Movies, there are plenty, but there's a quote from one of my English teachers at Lower Merion named Mr. Fisk. He had a great quote that said, rest at the end, not in the middle. And that's something I always live by. I'm not going to rest, I'm going to keep on pushing now. There are a lot of answers that I don't have, even questions that I don't have, but I'm just going to keep. But I'm just going to keep going. I'm just going

to keep going. And I'll figure these things out as you 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. 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 i don't think anybody has that answer you know like when i sat down uh to write deer 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 in that an exact 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 is the right place. 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, 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 gonna do anything i'm just gonna 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? Yeah. But the hardest thing is to face that stuff. That's a really, really tough challenge. You mean facing, you mean look yourself in the mirror and say, okay, this is how I showed up or this is what happened. And 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 life first loss years, right? And so I asked I said, have you watched a Notre Dame game? No, well, why not? 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. What's the chances you see them again in the final?

He goes, well, you'll probably see them 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 got to deal with it. Face it.

Got to deal with it. Face it. Learn from it. Wow. It must have been cringing for her to just be like, oh, replaying 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 was scoring 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. 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.

No way. Yeah, so it started with me when Phil Jackson's his 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? Yeah, so about my fourth year in the league. 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, you have to call down to the front desk and have to bring up the TV

with the whole, you know, the rolly thing and the VHS and the cassette tape you pop it in. And I thought we were 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 to the end of the game. Not like the TV feed. We're watching the in-arena feed, the layup line, the timeouts. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, rewinding, 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 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 energy between players, our team and the other team, right? Look at the tactics, look at the overall strategy and they'll 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. I can see bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Cause 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, yeah, you got to go.

And I know Tom Brady is obsessive over game time 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 obsessive. 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 try 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 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, right? And it's like, okay, Kobe, they're doing this, that, and the other to you. Maybe we should do this, that, and the other. You're like, okay, yeah, awesome, great, let's do it. Yeah, yeah. What about doing this, that, and the other to you. Maybe we should do this. And they'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 as 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 your whining. I don't want to hear it.

No excuses. Don't tell me how rough the water is, just bring the boat in. You know, I don't 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 right and it was hard for me to understand that because nothing nothing bothered me anything personally that because nothing bothered me. Anything personal, you know, 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. 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 09 things started changing for me i started really making a conscious effort to better

understand and that doesn't mean i mean you have compassion and empathy so you go soft on them it's more like you you put 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 never, 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 7. That's what I'm most proud of. Why? Because it was the hardest. You're playing with Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett. All-stars. Ray Allen. And it was myself, Powell, and 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 they beat the crap out of us to that game. So we're sitting in a locker room 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? They're kicking our butt again, right? So I sit around I just started laughing I started laughing and then I remember Derrick Fisher looked at me like And Lamar looked at me goes what, what is funny? I said, dude, they beat the crap out of us. They just beat the crap out. 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 got to do. Yeah. Go home, win two, we're NBA champions. All we got to do is win two games in a right. That's all we got to do. Yeah. Go home, win two. We're NBA champions. All we got to do is win 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 and 4am working out and you just turned 40, right? Which congratulations, by the way. 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? It was awesome. You enjoyed everything. Oh, man, I'm eating. What? 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

right so how do you motivate yourself to do how do you and so for me it was like okay i have to 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 go for that right 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 Nathalie 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? 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 or whether it's in a 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. And inevitably another storm comes. And guess what that storm, beautiful sun emerges. Then 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. 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 the 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 in 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 fourth of july god it's the greatest movie man in the summer oh my god it's the best thing baby dude come on give me s'mores so like that's our family ritual oh my every fourth of july sandlot sandlot right and so after watching the sandlot when 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 fory Pete and BB as I said characters with the characters and the punies and I said well let's combine those this list 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 where 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, yeah, yeah. Greatest film school, yeah, yeah. 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. You oversee it all? Yeah, I directed it. So you oversee it all you at you yeah yeah yeah I directed it so yeah the other challenge was finding great actors voice acting is a different skill yes it's a it's a challenging art form yeah you really have to be able to communicate a lot just in your essence and energy with your voice yeah and so the trick was finding

actors that have not lost that childlike quality. They can still imagine themselves being children, being at the park and playing. 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 listen 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, Kobe Bryant. That would be amazing. Because that's what's going to give you great feedback. Oh gosh, that would be amazing. Seeing how'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 you have someone else filming it, right? But make sure you put it on GoPro and just press record.

Yes. It's about 15 minutes long. Take your kids to school. Take them to the park, too. Like we made them on Saturdays. Like every Saturday is a new episode because Saturday is 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, you know, 15, 16 minutes, right? Because that's normally the drive. Yeah. 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. Yes. 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 or 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. 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. But it's also your mindset Bible, right? Yeah. You 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 preorder 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. And that is the Kobe Bryant interview. I hope you enjoyed this.

I've just been reflecting a lot in this last day. All day, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, talking about it with friends, reflecting on it. Our whole team meeting today was about an hour and a half talking about how impactful his life was to us and what we learned from him, the lessons. He's not a perfect human being, but he continued to grow and learn.

He looked like he was really making a lot of progress in his personal life and his mentality about happiness and love and family and everything. And it's just a beautiful reminder for me that there are a lot of things that I get frustrated with too quickly, get triggered by too easily, a lot of things I get angry with that I don't need to. My girlfriend, Jeanette, she's always saying, you know, baby, you stress too much. All we have is this moment. She says this over and over to me. She's like, baby, you stress too much.

It's good to think about the future and dreams and goals and plan, but all we have is this moment. goals and plan, but all we have is this moment. And sometimes, um, it's really unfortunate that things like this happen to hit us even harder and remind us. And I'm just grateful, grateful for my life. I'm grateful for the people in my life, for my health. I'm grateful for Kobe and how he impacted the world with what he did. I'm grateful for the time he spent with me, the impact he made on my life personally. And there are so many lessons that he taught me through his example, through his symbol, and through that time of meeting him again, just being there, him being there an hour before me when no one was there to prepare and visualize and dream. I just thought it was, I still can't, I've never seen anything like that

from someone at his level that didn't need to be there. Usually people just walk in last minute and it's kind of like, okay, let's get through this. He truly cared. And again, if you enjoyed this, spread the message, lewishouse.com slash 908, the Kobe Bryant interview. Feel free to tag me on Instagram or Twitter or social media. I'm seeing a lot of people sharing this out right now. People are finding it, discovering it, sharing it, cutting up clips from the YouTube video and posting it everywhere. So feel free to share it out. If you know someone who is a fan of his, a friend of his,

that maybe didn't hear this perspective of him yet, please share this with them. And let this be a reminder of the inspiration that he was and the inspiration he is for so many people. I know he truly inspired the world globally. Some great quotes he shared again in this interview. He said, you know, things are never perfect, but through love, you continue to persevere. You move through them, and then through that storm, a beautiful sun emerges. Kobe Bryant. Thank you for everything. I love you all so very much.

And go out there and do something great. Thank you.