You can be mentored by people who aren’t alive. 100%. Because the story still lives, these muses are here so it’s important to learn from them.
Because you realize they are people just like us, they make mistake just like us and they kept going. . .
and we can do the same. You know they say we die twice. Once when the breath leaves our body, and once.
. . when the last person we know says our name And he would be shooting baskets in the dark because they hadn't even turned the lights on yet.
He'd be there an hour, two hours before everybody. Everybody would be at breakfast and he would show up fully sweated out like he'd just done three hours of workout before anybody did anything. How much harder will you work in this off season now, to get back to the championship?
I push myself to exhaustion. I played game with the flu, I played game with 102F fever man. I made a promise to myself.
I was gonna work that hard, every single day. When I do retired. .
. I have no regrets. If I can work that hard everyday.
. . where would my carrera be?
From Lower Merion High School. . .
in Pennsylvania. This kid right here, mark my words, is going to be unbelievable. And there you see Kobe Bryant in foreground.
. . the man many have dubbed the next Michal Jordan.
He wants it so bad he's willing to go to the extreme, at the age of 34 playing 38 minutes. That's ludicrous. He's coursed as much as I am.
He just wants to get to the offensive end and go one-on-one. I'm gonna make his ass work down here. It was fun to be out there.
This man played with the broken finger. . .
and won a championship. To Garnett, back to Kobe! 81 point game.
Olympic Champion the United States of America. Back to back title for the Los Angeles Lakers. A three-peat and a sweep.
The fourth NBA Championship. The LA Lakers the 2010 NBA Champions. Falls down.
. . and he is hurting, but the Lakers need him at the free throw line.
. My family walks in. I have tears in my eyes.
They look at you and stuff and I'm like. . "It's all right, the dad's gonna be all right, would be fine" As a parent you gotta set the example.
This obstacle cannot define me, it's not going to be resposible for me stepping away for the game that I love. I'm gonna step away on my own terms. We all have sh*t that we go through.
We all have things that obstacles that are on our way at some point or another. We all had doubt, but we chose, we chose. Using the darker emotions, the anger, frustration.
Sadness. Using this as a weapon. No matter what happens the storm eventually end.
And when the storm does end, you want to make sure that you are ready. So I've really learned to put one foot in front of the other, because eventually that storm. .
. passes. Those times when you get up early and work hard, those times when you don't feel like working, you are too tired, you don't want to push yourself, but you do it anyway.
. . that is actually a dream.
I didn't know if I can do it. . It was my daughter who put things in perspective for me, Gianna she is not 13 and she was like: "well.
. . you always tell us to go for it" We’re not on this stage just because of talent or ability.
We’re up here because of 4 a. m. We’re up here because of two-a-days or five-a-days.
We’re up here because we had a dream and let nothing stand in our way. If anything tried to bring us down, we used it to make. .
. us stronger. We were never satisfied, never finished.
We will never be retired. That's how you have to be if you want to be a winner, There is just no way around it. Rest in the end, not in the middle.
I took that to heart. My next dream is to be honored one day, for inspiring the next generation of athletes to have a dream, sacrifice for it and never ever rest in the middle. Uncommon amongst uncommon people.
A sixty point game. What an exit. .
. for number 24. You couldn't have written this.
And the Oscars goes to. . .
Dear Basketball. Yesterday was supposed to be celebratory day, and then we got tragic news about Kobe Bryant and everything changed in a second. Life is short and it's fragile and we don't know how many birthdays we have.
Just celebrate life. And. .
. if you haven't told someone you love them, do it now. Do it.
Tell people you love them. Call your friends, text your friends. Hug them.
Kiss them. And when I took her to the Lakers game, we just had so much fun, because it was first time I was seeing the game. .
. through her eyes. And she had such a great time.
. . as a father.
. . that's all you want.
No one knows how much time we have. That's why we must live in the moment, we must enjoy the moment It was her. .
. like she was having such a good time, players would come and say "Hi" to her, Lebron was talking about her fade-away. .
. We must reach and see and spend as much time as we can with our family and friends and people that we love. The most important thing in life is how your career moves and touches those around you.
And how it carries for the next generation. And you realize. .
. that's what makes true greatness.
