Transcription
[Music] You've had so many great people. Yeah, I did. I, I, my problem was, I, I didn't get enough of them early in their career. The only two Hall of Fame players that I got near the beginning of their career were Moses and Kobe, and I didn't get enough time with Kobe, you know. And Kobe came to a good team.
[Music] A lot of times those picks like that, that everybody wants guys that they want, you get them because you had a bad name. And the team he came to had 153 games the year before. And now we're bringing in Shaq and, uh, and Kobe and Horry. His first year, well, he, you know, I mean, he didn't tie it out to do mistakes. And he died in the game, you know, when he's in the game. Um, and I don't, I don't know. You know, all I know is I don't know any bad thing about me. So, yeah, I mean, like badly, it's just like they're funny stories. Like Shaq, say, look over and during timeout, he's over practicing moves without the ball, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. So what's Shaq doing? Looking off, you know.
So with Kobe, he had to play behind [Music] an All-Star guard, Eddie Jones. Uh, and then he was too small at that time, and his body. When like LeBron came in with a 30-year-old body that, you know, hadn't changed that much, it just got stronger. Kobe developed physically [Music] a good bit in the first year and certainly the second year. And but he couldn't play forward that first year. And so it was limited to how much he could play. Plus, he didn't get a training camp. He broke his hand playing around the sandbox game the week before training camp. Didn't get one session of training camp or game and didn't get in a game until December. And it was for real. And it was in Madison Square Garden. He got in a few minutes, didn't score. And it wasn't Dale's fault that he got up to a bad start. He got his first basket, I think, the second game. And his first three-ball, the third game, fourth game. But anyway, that first year was a learning year for him. He had to learn that it wasn't all about Kobe. Um, his move, when we first got him, would catch the ball and put it on the floor. And just like they do now, like, you know. Well, that was the way we play. Uh, we were ball player movement. And we were focused, you know, playing around, uh, Shaquille, uh, when he was healthy. Now, he missed 31 games that year with a growing goal. But I have Eldon Campbell, who was a good player that could play for him. And he didn't average 28 and 12, but he averaged 18 and eight. And that was good. And we were happy with that. But, um, we just had, uh, and we won 56 games by the end of the year. The last quarter of the year, he had developed enough. And we didn't have a practice quarter. We had to move around. We ran the place for two hours. And that would hammer out. And it was girls' volleyball or whoever it was took me all our court or the faculty, you know, because we're granted college course. And, um, by the end of that season, though, the last, uh, word of the season, averaged 10 points again. And all know, which is, you know, he was seventh man, uh, by the end of the year. And, um, then of course, we made the playoffs the next year. Um, we still didn't start him. Um, I still had Eddie, and we had Fox and Laurie and Nick Hansel and, uh, right. We, you know, we won 56 games. And Jack missed one before for that season. We won, we won 56 the first year with 161. The second year was Kobe. Well, 62 was the most games that were won. That was by Utah and other Bulls. So with the 61 wins, he only got to start one game, even though he was voted on the All-Star game by the voters who got their ballots at McDonald's. And that year, at least, I changed. They changed that now. But he was the popular choice of the young people that win McDonald's, you get a toy and vote for Kobe. And, um, so anyway, we went to the Final Four then that year and got beat by Utah. But Kobe averaged 15 a game off the bench. He was runner-up Sixth Man of the Year, uh, on a 61-win team. Then the next year, he was started. And, you know, thereafter. But in the meantime, he got bigger, stronger, better. And I told him the first week I was in, now Kobe, they're going to be a lot of people who want to see you play. They're going to, you know, the owner probably.
[Music] But you have chosen a man's world now. You're out of the kids' world. And you're going to be judged by what you do. And it's going to be for you like you're a challenger to the champion in a boxing match. You can't win with a tie. You can't win a draw against a champion. He's still the champion. You got to get a knockout. And when the day comes that you're for sure better than whoever else is ahead of you, you'll have that spot. And so, I mean, at that time, he was able to play two or three. Eddie Jones could play two or three, even though Eddie was thinner. And he was just, and he was all-defense. Uh, you know, and Kobe ended up being all-defense nine times. But, um, so he worked his tail end off. My only regret with Kobe is, well, besides the fact that he's gone, was that we didn't have our own practice facility. Every team that, us and the Clippers, had their own. If we had had our own practice facility those three years, two to two years and 12 games that I hadn't, he would have been even better because he would have slept there. If we had left, even when we were done with our two hours, he would find some place like the West Side Y or the, uh, UCLA physical courts, or he'd find a hoop and he would work. And there wasn't anybody that had any better work ethic than he did. And he was focused on himself early on, as every kid is, most human beings are, you know. Yeah, but he was willing to work at it, you know. Most people, you know, they, they want everything for themselves, but they're not willing to work for it, you know. They want to go to heaven, they want to die, you know. And but Kobe, he wanted to be not only the best he could be, he he wanted that, but he wanted to be the best ever. And he paid the prices that it took. And and he, I don't know, he got in the conversation. And, you know, so.
And but he was just coming to that fruition of people getting to know him. No question. There's no question. His, he was a tough teammate for a time because he was focused on that television. But he did learn to be, uh, accountable to his teammates and to ask the best of them. But in in the right way, he became a really good team member. And, uh, a mentor. He got true layers and contributors in society. Yeah. And this Mamba program that he has, that in fact, there's just been 400 million dollars donated to the program. Yes. It's some that will live much longer than than Kobe, rather than not just basketball, like you said, you know, while the YMCA and the church, there's a mentality of, you know, not necessarily related to church, but the instilled the spirit, mental, and body. And, you know, you can't see so many people just focus on the body. But it's the spirit, the mind, and the body, in that order. And if you get those first two right, the body will come around the best it can. Because all you do is focus on the body and your skills with that, and you don't get the first two, you won't be the best you can be. And you, you won't be a great teammate either. And I was 82 when Kobe died at 41. I lived twice as long. And I said at the time that his, if he had been able to catch up with me and get to 82, those next 41 years would have been more beneficial to everybody than, uh, than his first 44, which were significant. Yeah. [Music]