Yes, he would like you to know that he isn't a jerk off the court, saying, "That's what I do that's not who I am. He accepts that Vanessa has been the leader in raising their daughters. I remember Bryant's wife, Vanessa, referring to him one time by the utterly common term "workaholic." That is what he has been, and he knows it. "It takes a lot of time to be a great friend or to be social, and that's time I just wasn't willing to give." "Things that I want to do to be a great basketball player take up a lot of time," he said. The thing with Bryant as his career winds down is that he owns it, either way. Sometimes it scares us because what is in him is totally not in us. Sometimes it inspires us because what is in him might be in us. He still possesses the vitality to push through and prove something to himself-which, in turn, proves something to us.
#NBA LIVE 2003 KOBE BRYANT TV#
And the sparkle in his eyes throughout his NBA TV interview, even mostly revisiting the past, was not merely a wistful one. "Can I do this thing?"īryant's driving force has always been curiosity about what he can do as long as he tries. I want to see."īryant used similar phraseology when reflecting on the question of whether or not he could win a championship without Shaquille O'Neal. What is clear is that Bryant, who did not appear in New York to speak over the weekend despite being voted to the All-Star team, still has fuel in the tank for another nine-month rally. "Even when you realize that you need to appreciate the time and the moment," Bryant said, "it still goes by fast." And just like that, yet another of his final seasons was gone. Instead, he succumbed to getting the surgery.
You can hear in Bryant's words just how much he was tempted to keep playing through the bigger tear. I've had this pain for a long time, and I've never actually gotten it looked at because the strength was so good." "Even now, the strength in my shoulder's good," he said prior to surgery. It was an injury that got worse-and prompted Bryant to get an MRI that showed how bad it had become. In an advance showing provided to Bleacher Report, Bryant clarified to Rashad that it was not a new injury suffered when Dante Cunningham bumped his shoulder from behind on Bryant's Jan. The interview was filmed just after Bryant found out about the long recovery ahead for the torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder: "I just did this! I just did this! Nine months. Ahmad Rashad and Bryant literally walk through some memory lanes, reflecting on still photographs of Bryant's career hanging on the walls of the Coastline Art Gallery in Newport Beach, California. That is the vibe in NBA TV's Kobe: The Interview, an hour-long special that will air at 9 p.m.