Kobe Bryant made an appearance on Jim Rome’s radio show yesterday. I have posted here the 11 minute interview that you can listen to which includes some cool stuff about him working out at 9:00 p.m on a saturday afternoon and ditching Jim Rome for a dinner invite. Also included is the interview transcript as provided by kb24.com.
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The state of the Lakers’ union: “I feel like we’re playing very well. We’ve had a couple of games there where we could have played much better, obviously, but that’s just the nature of the beast, man. It’s such a long season, you have some games where you really don’t have the energy. Sometimes you find a way to win ‘em, sometimes you don’t. But we’re playing well. ”
On the importance of defeating the Celtics on Christmas day: “It was good for us to see what kind of changes we’ve made since we last saw them in June.”
Are the Lakers strong enough win a championship now? “I think so. I think so. We have a great opportunity. It’s such a long season you have to get a little luck sometimes. You start fighting the injury bug…it’s that time of year you gotta fight those injuries off to try to continue that rhythm.”
Do you have enough defensive-minded players on the roster? “We feel like we’re pretty good defensively. We have a system in place that we continue to try and improve on and get better at it…we just continue to work on the defensive end, improve our rhythm and improve our timing as a team and get better and better as the season goes on.”
On hearing and reading criticisms of this year’s Lakers squad: “That’s what’s fun about the game of basketball. The criticism as it pertains to the game, you expect that type of stuff…you wanna hear the barbershop talk, you want people to say ‘this is what’s wrong with the team’ or ‘this is what they’re doing good’ and hear the pundits go back and forth about it but it’s all about basketball and that’s fine by us.”
At what point during your career were you most ‘dialed in’? “I’d probably say it started in our second championship run. Because that’s when Phil gave me more responsibilities it terms of being able to organize the team and format our offense. That’s kind of when I matured the most as a basketball player.”
What motivates you to continue to pay the price and grind it out when you’ve already accomplished so much? “I enjoy it. I just love what I do. To me it’s not a drag to get up early in the morning and go work out and lift weighs before practice. It’s fun for me. I love what I do and it makes it easy to wake up and put the work in when you love it.”
Are you ok if your teammates don’t share that mentality? “No, I’m not. I’m not at all. I’m not at all. (Laughing) Fortunately for us, we’ve done a great job of bringing players here who are gym rats. If you come to see one of our practices, if practice is at 11, guys are there at 10 o’clock shooting, guys are there lifting weights. Even when practice is over, everybody is still staying an extra half hour, 45 minutes, just out there shooting, playing shooting games with each other, working on their games because we’re a bunch of gym rats and we all love to play the game and I think that makes things a lot easier.”
Do you feel like an old 30 or a young 30? “Naw, I feel great. I feel great, man. This is the best shape I’ve been in, in a long time, in terms of my health and tendonitis, and things like that. Because tendonitis can really wear on a players’ career, particularly at this stage of their career. But I feel great, my legs feel strong, my conditioning feels fantastic and I’m ready to go man. Hopefully we’ll be playing into June.”
Do you think your Philadelphia Eagles can get a win vs. the Giants in the NFL playoffs this weekend? “I do, man. I think sometimes you have teams you just match up well with, and I think the Giants is ours. But you’re playing against the defending champs, so they’re going to be ready to go. But I’m excited, man. I got my Eagles jersey in my locker, sitting there, and I’m flaunting it in front of Derek Fisher and a couple other Cowboy fans that we have on the team. We’re having a good time with it.”
Is there anybody outside the NBA that you admire and respect that you’d like to sit down and talk with? “Yeah, there’s a gang of them. Tiger obviously is at the top of the list. Lance Armstong…Lance Armstrong is as well. Michael Phelps. There’s a list of them that I admire for what they do and I follow them and try to learn from them.”
