Last Motivational Speech of Kobe Bryant
if your job is to try to be the best
basketball player you can be okay to do
that you have to practice you have to
train you want to train as much as you
can as often as you can so if you get up
at 10:00 in the morning
train at 11:00 12:00 say 12:00 train at
12:00 train for two hours 12:00 to 2:00
you have to let your body recover so you
eat recovery you get back out your train
start training again at 6:00 train from
6:00 to 8:00 and now go home and shower
you dinner you go to bed you wake up and
do it again right those are two sessions
now imagine you wake up at 3:00 you
train at 4:00 you go 4 to 6 come home
breakfast relax so so about now you’re
back at it again 9 to 11 relax and now
it’s on your back at it again to 4 and
have you’re back at it again 7 to 9 look
how much more training I have done by
simply starting at 4 all right and so
now you do that and as the years go on
the separation that you have with your
competitors and your peers just grows
larger and larger and larger and larger
and larger and by year five or six
doesn’t matter what kind of work they’re
doing a summer they’re never going to
catch up because they’re five years
behind so it makes sense to get up and
start your day early because you can get
more working I didn’t feel good about
myself if I wasn’t doing everything I
could to be the best version of myself
if I felt like I left anything on a
table it would eat away at me I wouldn’t
be able to look myself in the mirror
and so the reason why I can retire now
and be completely comfortable about it
because I know that I’ve done everything
I could to be the best basketball player
I could be and so that’s where it comes
from for me you can’t leave any stone
unturned trivial things weren’t gonna
pull my attention it had to be Saints
weren’t gonna pull my attention it had
to be things that were I had a purpose I
wanted to be one of the best basketball
players to ever play and anything else
that was outside of that lane I didn’t
have time for at what age did that goal
become crystal clear dumb bitch I made
that deal with myself at 13 years old at
13 years 13 years old you will I’m very
clear about it crystal clear
and what did inspiration come from the
love of the game the love of the game
the challenge like I would watch magic
play I’d watch Michael play and I would
see them do these unbelievable things
and I’d say you know can I get to that
level I don’t know but let’s find out if
I could work that hard every day with
the being blessed with the physical
tools that I have with my career being
and I made a promise to myself from that
day that I was going to work that hard
every single day so that when I do
retire I have no regrets and that was
the most important thing for me is to
leave no stone unturned get better every
single day and if I live that way then
over time you know I’d have something
that was beautiful but that was my
philosophy it seems like a pretty simple
one but if you lived your life to just
get better every single day
and do that for 20 years we would you
follow your passion first first first
first first first
and when I retired from the game I said
they’re asking kind of all the wrong
questions it was the biggest industry I
can get into it’s all the wrong stuff
and you got to sit there and ask
yourself okay what am I truly passionate
about what do I enjoy doing and when you
feel that way honestly I mean you feel
like you have never worked day in your
life it’s the most fun thing in the
world you get up in the morning excited
about what you’re doing and you got to
be really honest with yourself about it
if you wake up in the morning and you’re
dreading going to work dude do something
else do something else and those are
hard decisions to make but when you make
those decisions it’s a very liberating
experience and you’ll find out that the
rewards will come you know basketball
for me was the most important thing so
everything I saw whether his TV shows
whether it was books I read people I
talk to everything was done to try to
learn how to become a better basketball
player everything everything so when you
have that point of view then literally
the world becomes your library to help
you to become better at your craft to
the competitiveness that I bring to work
every day is really helping people in a
sense be competitive with themselves
right if you’re if you’re animating
something or
you’re writing a screenplay or you’re
composing a piece of music is that the
best you can do don’t ask me though say
can you approve don’t ask me I’m not the
musician about the composer you know
right so the competitiveness is more
from an individual perspective are you
is this the best you can do and if the
answer is yes then off we go we talk
about this often and we always talk
about the fact that you can learn a lot
more from the failures and you can from
the successes and you have to figure out
where those landmines are and then how
to best avoid those or put or help
entrepreneurs and ourselves included
figure out the clues of where those
landmines are not that you’re going to
avoid all of them right but it’s also
when you do step only one figure it out
okay
how do you recuperate how do you balance
back and you’ll pick yourself up uses a
it should be pure I think a lot of times
we’re born into this world we actually
wind up going backwards and it seems
like the more we mature the more
responsible dreams become and the more
governors we put on ourselves and our
ability to dream and to reimagine and
it’s always a fight for his parents and
for you guys to make sure that your
dreams always stay pure so it’s not a
matter of
pushing beyond the limitations of
expectations it’s really a matter of
protecting your dreams protecting your
imagination that’s really the key and
when you do that then the world just
seems limitless passion came from the
love for the game you know I loved
everything about it like the smell of
the ball you love the smell of the bass
ball you know the smell of like
brand-new sneakers like the sound the
ball makes when it hits the ground yeah
ball going through the net like all
those things of it I love and so the
passion comes from that is once you have
that love you just want to be a part of
this thing all the time
ain’t the best way to prove your values
to be a sponge it’s always gonna outwork
your potential as hard as you believe
you can work to work hard
if your practices aren’t more
competitive than the games themselves
you’re doing the wrong thing mm-hmm
and most of these teams and coaches have
gotten into a mindset of resting players
oh it’s too much the oracle practice
light daylight daylight they fill never
gigs like that
there’s no days off you show up in your
work their practice yeah and practices
are going to be worse they ought to be
more physical there’s gonna be more
trash-talking I’m gonna let you know
right yeah you’re gonna show up today
I’m gonna let you know yeah it’s gonna
be embarrassing you’re gonna hate it
but when Game seven rolls around and NBA
Finals you will be prepared
well my ankle really really bad I came
back to finish this series but I
couldn’t touch a basketball till mid
September which was driving me crazy I
couldn’t train but I looked at this is
like the tenth time I rolled my ankle
and in one season so I’m looking at that
I’m saying okay I got to address that
and so being that I couldn’t get on the
basketball court what I did was I took
tap-dancing lessons no kidding I took
tap and tap was like the best training
for me in the world because it
strengthened my feet it changed my
rhythm and my approach to the game I was
able to change speeds when I came back
the following season you know I think
dancers put way more trainer in their
body than athletes do and I think
there’s a lot that can be learned from
that my daughter took ballet for several
years and I’ll sit there in the class
right and I didn’t know what I was
getting into his own training well that
way right but I’m sitting there in the
class and I’m watching her and watch to
get the first position the second
position I’m sorry I’m learning the
structure and the rules that go along
with that and as athletes there’s a lot
to be learned from that because if you
simply go out there and perform and play
yeah you’ll be great every now and then
if you play with a structure if you
understand the rules that come along
with that the discipline that comes
along with that then you reach another
level but you guys have my respect other
people don’t see that they’re idiots
at 13 years old I had a I had a kill
list and so you know they used to do
these rankings some Street and Smith
basketball rankings and I was nowhere to
be found
cuz I was like six four scrawny like 160
pounds soaking wet so I was like 57 on
the list and so I will look at 56 55 all
the way up to number one who these
players are with club teams they played
for so when we’re going to a you travel
circuit I got to hunt them down right
and so that became my mission in high
school is to check off every other
person all those 56 other names hunt
them down and knock them down you know
the game was just a part of me so it
never leaves even now that I’m retired
you know everything I’ve learned from
the game of basketball carried it over
into life you know like basketballs
helped me be a better person a better
friend a solid well because there’s life
lessons that are within the game plan
communication like unselfishness
attention to detail and empathy
compassion like all those things are in
the game and as an athlete if we are
aware of those things it helps us become
better human you
you
you
