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- What people see on court is another side of me; it’s not me.
- One thing you gotta know about me is I have absolutely no filter. I have no problem saying what the hell I think of someone.
- The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.
- I focus on one thing and one thing only – that’s trying to win as many championships as I can.
- I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming.
- I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.
- I’m playing against great players, playing against the best in the world. The competition – that’s what I’ve always wanted.
- I’ve played with IVs before, during and after games. I’ve played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious in the first place.
- The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven’t had that fear.
- I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.
- I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.
- I’m chasing perfection.
- Can I jump over two or three guys like I used to? No. Am I as fast as I used to be? No, but I still have the fundamentals and smarts. That’s what enables me to still be a dominant player. As a kid growing up, I never skipped steps. I always worked on fundamentals because I know athleticism is fleeting.
- I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.
- Magic has five championships. I have five championships. I’m pretty sure we both know what we’re doing.
- I draw from the crowd a lot.
- I love going one-on-one with someone. That’s what I do. I’ve never lost. It’s a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want.
- I’m extremely willful to win, and I respond to challenges. Scoring titles and stuff like that… it sounds, well, I don’t care how it sounds – to me, scoring comes easy. It’s not a challenge to me to win the scoring title, because I know I can.
- Everything negative — pressure, challenges — is all an opportunity for me to rise.
- These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.
