Kobe opens up about: LeBron, Shaq, Michael Jordan, KD, Vince Carter and the Lakers | SportsCenter

you say the Lakers are a family, how close to family are you now or extremely, you know I always will be now, it will be said, my, you, you cut this arm off, man, I bleed purple and gold, yeah, that's never going to change, okay? How close are you to the newest member of the Laker family? Well, he's part of the Laker family, so when he first joined I told him, listen, there's anything you need, you're family now, you're part of this tradition now, so if there's anything you need just let me know if he needed something no, I think that's okay, okay, you write in the book about LeBron James, the main thing that you two discussed is what constitutes a killer mentality, what was your message to him, well, the message is. always to go out there and dominate there's no let up and once the game starts and once practice starts you know you're in that mode, you know it's all a game seven when you approach every practice, every game with that type of mentality. bleeds on the rest of the guys and then the rest of the unit has the same focus and the same intensity, but it starts at the top, chicken skin, okay, you also said that when it came to contact you enjoyed hitting and being hit more than LeBron and that impacted your head-to-head matchups.

I love how well published. I love the physical aspect, you know he liked to play more on the perimeter, which is interesting because he's 610, 280, but he liked being on the perimeter. I like to be down and I like to hit, so when I get to the post and post them, I would love to put my shoulder on his chest. I love the fills that you know come out of him, it worked out that way and As he got older, you start to see him post up more and hit a little more, but when he first came into the league, it's like dancing on the perimeter.

Jerry passed the torch to magic. The magic happened to you. to say you passed it on to LeBron, well it's funny, he didn't pass the torch to any of them, so I thought if it works, it's a figurative torch, you know Jay was here, the magic happened, right, you have the responsibility and the The pressure of the franchise is immense, and you have to win and then you know I teamed up with Shaq and we were able to continue that tradition and then with Powell and you know, and now it's Bryan and Ku and then you.

I know loans when these guys and it's their turn to do the same thing on anything and you know it's a lot of pressure but this is what we do and we don't hang Division banners what do the pictures in the book of you and Shaq say about their relationship, well, Shaq and I now have a great time together and his son, by the way, is going to be a phenomenal player and I'm looking forward to going to the gym and working out a little bit with him, but Shaq and I were the relationship has always been well, the man has always been good, we have had our right moments, but through that friction you managed to win three championships in a row, you talk a little about that friction, but you say it was never about us.

The media made it about us, what did you mean? I mean, when you plant in a market like Los Angeles, everything is magnified, so it's never really a problem between two people because those things can be resolved with conversation, but when things get excited. a lot, suddenly you have other people mixed in and we weren't mature enough to tell everyone else, shut up, shut up, I know what to do, I know what to do, we're going to do it, but still, in total. For me it was an incredible journey, you mention the players and you talk specifically about I'm going to start with Michael Jordan, you said a teaching moment, what did he teach you, he taught me a lot of things, he was, you know, a great teacher and mentor to me, but Michael was very tactical and very efficient and with his movements there was no wasted space, there were no wasted dribbles.

I mean, he was very surgical in the way he approached a game, you can see it and you made the game look so easy, this is so hard to do, you say Cagey, he never shot you, never, never, never, you have to be the one. only, well, me, but hey, the goal is to win the game, so you know there are certain players who don't. I want to talk to him because, since he knew it was a loss, it's always the same with me, like he's not going to talk. The clever one gets excited, then picks up everyone else and then they leave.

You have to do it. You know, he identifies who you can get in the head and then that's when you go to Ruben Patterson made the mistake of saying he could be the COBE stopper, how did that work for you? Well, I thought it was just a good business decision for you. He, you know, yeah, he even caught us like an idiot if you needed him to come out and say that Ruben Patterson plays the best defense, I mean anyone else, Italy, I would have said that for you, I would have helped you get a new contract, but let me I know so instead it got better, yeah I had to burn it but if you know at least let me know and then I could help you.

You say that Vince Carter brought out the best in you, how good he always was. competitive with Vince Vince was a year ahead of me and I'm still playing, which is humbling. I looked at him like a windmill the other day, it's just because of his incredible athletic ability, yeah, and we played on the same team at high. The school played a tournament together and I remember the height to which this kid came She with his feet on the ground was just incredible, but he was the number one guard in that class and I was behind him and everyone con

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We never had a chance to go head to head and then when he came to the NBA, it was a great opportunity to do that young Kevin Durant, no problem, you said. None, that has changed, how was it not a problem and how is it a problem now? Well, he came back one season and became the toughest matchup, but I've had to deal with him my entire career outside of Tracy McGrady, so what changed when he first showed up? He came into the league and I was kind of shooting in front of his face, so if I can push him right and cut off his driving angles, then I'll give myself a great chance to stop him because he's hard to stop. and he shoots to the right when you're shooting from the side of your face and then when he came back all of a sudden a shot moved more towards the top of his head, now he was going to the right, stopping and jumping, so he could post. he could turn his left shoulder he could turn his right shoulder and then it became a serious problem.

You just mentioned Tradie Tracy McGrady, young man, he worked for us, magic, you say how I mean, you couldn't say enough good things about his friend, he was an incredible man. How is that because he can do everything? I mean, yeah, you know, I think I told him one time, I told him brother, you could do everything I could do on the court, but you were 610, literally, everything. He had no offensive or defensive weaknesses and was a nightmare. protect