Transcription
Next week, the Los Angeles Lakers could make history, becoming the first basketball team ever to plow through the playoffs undefeated. One reason for their phenomenal success: the young player named after a Japanese stake, Kobe Bryant. Bryant's talent is so remarkable, some have even compared him to Michael Jordan, and he's only 22 years old.
But that isn't all that makes him unusual. How many other highly paid professional athletes spent the first four years of their career living with their parents? Kobe Bryant did, and makes no apologies. "The only thing that matters to him is his game," show me a trademark. "Uh, the strategies, the competition, the camaraderie, the fans, we just go on and on and on."
I take you to this scene: 20 seconds left to go, you're down by one, you want the ball, you want to take the last shot? "Absolutely. I'm not afraid to fail, and I, I just love it. It's just an adrenaline rush." Everybody in the crowd stands up, and everybody's waiting to see if he's going to make the shot, if he's going to lose the game, or you're going to win the game. He scores with two seconds left. This, this is just unbelievable. Rush. Sorry, I just got lost for a second.
Bryant has the NBA in his DNA. His father is Joe "Jelly Bean" Bryant, an 8-year veteran of the NBA. For young Kobe, there was little doubt he'd follow in his father's footsteps.
"When did you know think maybe that you would like to be a basketball player?" "Since I was really, really young, three, four, five, six." "About three, really?" "Yeah. My mother used to tell me stories, uh, that my father used to play basketball on TV. Uh, I used to put on my, my jersey, you know, I have my shorts on, and when he would play, and I would play too. I have a little hoop, you know, in the living room. I play. Then they take a time out, then I take a time out, you know what I'm saying? Now, had some water, you know, you wipe the sweat off, then they start playing, then I play again. I'm 3 years old, and I would do this for the entire game. Then the game is over, and I take a shower, you know, it feel like I'm part of the game."
Kobe Bryant was a different kind of kid with a different kind of upbringing. He spent most of his childhood in Italy, where his father played after leaving the NBA. The Bryant family spent the next eight seasons there.
"Learned Italian?" "Learned Italian. Started first grade over there in Italian school." "School?" "I was six, uh, my sister was seven, my older sister was eight." "What influence do you think it had on you?" "I think it, it made me more mature, you know. We had to grow up a lot faster. I think it, uh, it brought us closer together as a family, 'cause us moving out there into a whole another world, we didn't speak the language, we didn't know anybody. Uh, we had to bond with one another, uh, more so than anything."
He also continued to bond with basketball, but without the competition found at American playgrounds and schools. His family came back to Philadelphia every summer, and he learned quickly what he was missing.
"So I come back to America in the summertime, I'm playing in the summer league, and I don't score a point the whole summer. I score one point the entire summer. Not one point, not a free throw, not a layup, not a steal, nothing. Zero points the whole summer. And my father came up to me afterwards and gave me a hug and said, 'Son, don't worry about it. We're going to love you if you score zero or 50.' Yeah, you know, and, uh, I just remember thinking, 'Thank you.'"
When Bryant's father retired from the game, the family came back to the United States for good.
"So you come back when you're 14 years old?" "Mhm." "You in first grade? Come back, you're 14?" "I go to Philadelphia. Uh, start my eighth grade, uh, eighth grade year. And, um, it was a difficult adjustment because kids weren't speaking English. Everybody was speaking slang that I didn't understand one word. You know, somebody would say, 'Stop sweating me.' I don't know what they're talking about. You know, and I would have to go home and I would talk to my sisters and say, 'You know what I heard today? Somebody said, "Stop sweating me." What, what does that mean?' You know? Um, but the way I was able to make friends is that we play basketball during lunch and after school, and basketball is a universal language, so I was able to communicate that way."
This kid has got it all. Incredibly, just 3 years later, after a stellar high school career, that's him, number 33. He skipped college and went directly to the NBA. Today, 5 years later, he continues to defy expectations. Unlike a lot of players, he prefers practice to partying. When he isn't practicing, he's working out. When he isn't working out, he's studying game tapes in his room. There's no time left for socializing with his teammates, a sore point, says his head coach at the Lakers, Phil Jackson.
"And last year, I said to him, you know, some of the players came to me and said, you know, 'You don't even want to go down and have, you know, a bite to eat with them or go to a movie with them?' And, you know, 'If you want to be a leader of these guys, you got to accommodate what they like and find a common niche.' But, you know, the time I spend with my teammates doesn't have to come in, you know, at nighttime or going out to a, to a bar, going out to a club or something like that. It doesn't have to come there. Uh, there are other places where they can come. It's just not me. So why should you do it? No, you know, it's not me. Clubs or that's not my personality. It's never been, and, uh, you know, it never will be."
He's had a hard time fitting in on the court, too, and the coach is all over Kobe. Since the start of his career, Kobe Bryant has been accused of not being a team player. When he takes control of a game away from the Lakers' other superstar, Shaquille O'Neal, and plays too aggressively, the Lakers sometimes lose games they should have won. This season, Bryant could feel the chill on the court.
"You just felt like something was amiss between you and your teammates? Something wasn't right?" "Something wasn't right. I mean, I go to practice and I feel a little uncomfortable. What, what's this about? This wasn't there before. Something must be, something must be going on around here." "And what was it about?" "Uh, well, it was about me. It's about them thinking I was out for myself and I was being selfish. And, um, which was totally not the case."
Nonetheless, in April, Kobe Bryant began playing the Lakers' brand of offense. Bryant, who's got 25 points, flings the pass inside to Shaq. Count it for two and a foul. The Lakers have become almost unbeatable.
"Does your game match the Laker offense?" "No, absolutely not. Absolutely not." "Seriously? Can you be happy?" "Can you be happy playing this offense?" "Completely. Totally happy." "Now?" "Mm." "But happy enough to win?" "Yeah. And that makes it all work, and that's good enough for me."
It may be hard for him to complain. He has a $71 million contract with the Lakers, plus millions more for advertising endorsements. Madison Avenue loves his winning personality and even found a way to put his fluent ATT to all this. It has made him one of the highest-paid 22-year-olds in the world. Recently, he bought a new toy.
"Oh, he's going for it." "Ever since I was a, a little kid. And, uh, it's kind of an opportunity to kind of splurge. It's a Ferrari Modena." "This is how he commutes to the Laker training facility in L.A." "Hey, you know what feels like having it in there?" "Feels like you're strapped onto a rocket." "You know, it's..." "How many times has a man pulled you over?" "It's funny. When I first came out here, and, uh, I got a couple, couple tickets. Right? Cops spot me over, proceed to give me a ticket. And, uh, my mother gets pulled over, and the cop goes in and says, 'Oh, you're Kobe's mom, huh?' 'Oh, yeah, yeah.' 'All right, don't worry about it. Just go ahead, go ahead.' And I'm getting tickets, you know what I mean? I'm like, 'Make sense to you? Get a ticket?' And she doesn't?" "No, just let her go." "Yeah, go ahead."
Kobe Bryant lived with his parents until last year, about the time he became engaged to Vanessa Lane. They met two years ago when she was only 17.
"You started introducing yourself and, and you know, I, she turned, I tapped on her shoulder, she turns around, and I say, 'Excuse me, what's your name?' Said, 'Vanessa.' You know, my eyes got real big, and it's just like there was no one before her. I mean, why would you have thought there'd been 15 before Vanessa?" "No, was it the fact that you've been waiting for the right one, or she's just it?" "She's just the one."
They got married just a few weeks ago, as the playoffs were starting. Now, he and the Lakers are both playing their best basketball of the season and seemed destined for another NBA Championship. If so, it will be a championship fueled not just by strategy or by star power, but also by a 22-year-old's single-minded love of the game.
"I'm very, very fortunate to be in this position." "You're playing the sport you love?" "I love it. Absolutely love it."