For some reason, I always wanted to work in an environment where things weren't so good. I'm no messiah, but I always wanted to try and make a difference where a team hadn't prospered.
Many people, men in particular, just can't not be active. I guess our minds demand that we seek other challenges.
I often do things that surprise me, not to mention others.
I like to keep people guessing.
I think, at the end of the day, when you hear the same voice all the time, it goes in one ear and out the other when you're a player.
You have to win games by scoring points, of course, so that's important. But when you're having nights against a good defensive team, you have to win in a different manner. You have to win a defensive-type game.
Obviously, stats are important tools, but I think there's something behind those things; somewhere along the way, you've got to try to look inside someone.
There's always two or three players I like, and why I like them, I can't tell you. There's just something about them I think would be great on a team.
When the Warriors are on, my wife keeps away from me. I'm a rabid fan, and my language sometimes is not too good.
The Lakers had been home to me, unlike the home I had grown up and felt apart from.
I went a few times, but I felt there was no way that any therapist could understand my particular torment and also felt in some respects they were sicker than I was.
I've been so low sometimes and when everyone else would be so high because I didn't like myself.
I've seen a lot in my life. I've seen a lot of winning. I've seen a lot of testing times. I think when you're tested, you really find out what you're made of, OK?
I've always been really nationalistic, and I had a brother killed in Korea. And I think the 'Star Spangled Banner,' even today - and I've heard it a heckuva lot of times, OK - has always been a significant feeling to me.
I'm not one who likes to be honored, to be honest with you. That's never been who I am.
I have often wondered why I was never captain of the Lakers.
You need to possess more than a little nastiness to play basketball at the highest level.
Kevin Garnett was a great player, but he wasn't Kobe Bryant.
Some guys lay their fannies out there every night - they play the game at such a high level, and they give so much that, frankly, they don't get credit for it. And I think it's tragic sometimes.
Everyone always says you have to be on the best team, the team that wins. Oh, no, no, no. I disagree with that.
I see people that have success, and I see how poised and polished they are and how they handle it. I wonder inside if they feel the same way that I feel.
Even though I felt, at times, 'My goodness, you're among the upper echelon,' there is still a huge void there. A huge void. It is about self-esteem. That's a thing that has always been a real complex part of my life.
A shot is a lever; it's all it is. You don't open a car door differently each time. A car door is efficient - it opens and closes. So is a shot.
You get so addicted to winning that you don't want that feeling to stop.
In the playoffs, the best players are supposed to play better. I did. It made no difference.
If I'm not nervous, if I don't have at least a little bit of the same self-doubt and anxious feelings I had when I started playing, then it will be time for me to go on. I must have that tension.
I'm surprised when the ball doesn't go into the hoop. I think I should make every shot.
Defensively, from a team standpoint, I didn't feel I played very well. Very rarely was I satisfied with how I played.
There's been so many unbelievable players in Los Angeles, maybe the best of the best.
If you don't want to win, you don't want to be around me.
