In this post, we’ll read some of the most inspirational Kobe Bryant quotes who became one of the greatest and most iconic figures in the history of the sport.
Kobe Bryant (1978–2020) was an American professional basketball player born on August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent his entire 20-season NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bryant entered the NBA directly from high school, making him one of the youngest players to ever play in the league. He was also listed by Forbes in the 2016’s America’s richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 list.
Bryant was an 18-time NBA All-Star and received numerous awards, including two NBA Finals MVP awards. He was known for his dedication to the game and his work ethic.
Let’s read some of the best Kobe Bryant quotes about leadership, hard work, success and more.
Table of Contents
Kobe Bryant Quotes
1. “Friends can come and go, but banners hang forever.”
2. “Trust me, setting things up right from the beginning will avoid a ton of tears and heartache.”
3. “My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.”
4. “You guys know how I am. I don’t forget anything.”
5. “I don’t talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.”
6. “You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.”
7. “Eeew, I’d be a little uncomfortable Googling myself. People sit there – and Google themselves? That’s kind of weird.”
8. “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.”
Kobe Bryant Motivational Quotes
1. “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.”
2. “I want to see if I can. I don’t know if I can. I want to find out. I want to see. I’m going to do what I always do: I’m going to break it down to its smallest form, smallest detail, and go after it. Day by day, one day at a time.”
3. “I create my own path. It was straight and narrow. I looked at it this way: you were either in my way or out of it.”
4. “A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness.”
5. “I never needed any external forces to motivate me.”
6. “Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.”
7. “The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win.”
Kobe Bryant Inspirational Quotes
1. “If you do not believe in yourself no one will do it for you.”
2. “The most important thing is you must put everybody on notice that you’re here and you are for real.”
3. “After all, greatness is not for everybody.”
4. “From the beginning, I wanted to be the best. I had a constant craving, a yearning, to improve and be the best.”
5. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great at whatever they want to do.”
6. “I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.”
7. “You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.”
8. “We can always kind of be average and do what’s normal. I’m not in this to do what’s normal.”
9. “I think the definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you.”
10. “If you really want to be great at something you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Hard Work
1. “Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.”
2. “I see the beauty in getting up in the morning and being in pain because I know all the hard work that it took to get to this point. So, I’m not, I’m not sad about [retiring]. I’m very appreciative of what I’ve had.”
3. “May you always remember to enjoy the road, especially when it’s a hard one.”
4. “I saw you come in and I wanted you to know that it doesn’t matter how hard you work, that I’m willing to work harder than you.”
5. “One of the main takeaways was that you have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light.”
6. “If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it.”
7. “It’s disgusting, but my father taught me when your mouth gets dry, just suck the sweat out of your own jersey. There’s no bravado to any of it; it’s just a disgusting little trick.”
8. “You can manipulate an opponent’s strength and use it against them.
9. “When everyone else was thinking it was time for bed, his mind was telling him it’s time to get ahead of the competition.”
10. “I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my game, but I also wasn’t willing to sacrifice my family time. So I decided to sacrifice sleep, and that was that.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Life
1. “It doesn’t bother me at all. Do I hold any hard feelings? Not at all. Life is too short to sit around and hold grudges. I don’t hold any whatsoever.”
2. “Have a good time. Life is too short to get bogged down and be discouraged. You have to keep moving. You have to keep going. Put one foot in front of the other, smile and just keep on rolling.”
3. “The only way I was able to pick up details on the court, to be aware of the minutiae on the hardwood, was by training my mind to do that off the court and focusing on every detail in my daily life. By reading, by paying attention in class and in practice, by working, I strengthened my focus. By doing all of that, I strengthened my ability to be present and not have a wandering mind.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Leadership
1. “A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord.”
2. “There’s a big misconception where people thinking winning or success comes from everybody putting their arms around each other and singing kumbaya and patting them on the back when they mess up, and that’s just not reality. If you are going to be a leader, you are not going to please everybody. You have to hold people accountable. Even if you have that moment of being uncomfortable.”
3. “Leadership is lonely. I’m not going to be afraid of confrontation to get us to where we need to go.”
4. “The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Success & Winning
1. “We don’t quit, we don’t cower, we don’t run. We endure and conquer.
2. “Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.”
3. “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.”
4. “Winning takes precedence overall. There’s no gray area. No almosts.”
5. “I focus on one thing and one thing only – that’s trying to win as many championships as I can.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Failure
1. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.”
2. “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.”
3. “Losing is losing. There aren’t different degrees of losing. You either win a championship or you’re s**t. It’s very black and white to me.”
4. “When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain—it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself ‘You are a failure,’ I think that is almost worse than dying.”
5. “There’s nothing truly to be afraid of, when you think about it, because I’ve failed before, and I woke up the next morning, and I’m OK.”
6. “Be sad. Be mad. Be frustrated. Scream. Cry. Sulk. When you wake up you will think it was just a nightmare only to realize it’s all too real. You will be angry and wish for the day back, the game back, that play back. But reality gives nothing back and nor should you.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Practice
1. “Rest at the end, not in the middle.”
2. “If you want to be a better player, you have to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more.”
3. “We psych ourselves up too much. Like if you try to talk yourself into, ‘Oh, this is a big moment, this is a big shot,’ you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You shot that shot hundreds and thousands of times. Just shoot another one.”
4. “I want to learn how to become the best basketball player in the world. And if I’m going to learn that, I gotta learn from the best. Kids go to school to be doctors or lawyers, so forth and so on and that’s where they study. My place to study is from the best.”
5. “What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths.”
6. “I realized that intimidation didn’t really exist if you’re in the right frame of mind.”
7. “I don’t f**k with bees, man. Other than that, I’m not afraid of nothing.”
8. “The last time I was intimidated was when I was six years old in karate class. I was an orange belt and the instructor ordered me to fight a black belt who was a couple years older and a lot bigger. I was scared s**tless. I mean, I was terrified and he kicked my a**. But then I realized he didn’t kick my a** as bad as I thought he was going to and that there was nothing really to be afraid of.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Challenges
1. “I’m extremely willful to win, and I respond to challenges. It’s not a challenge to me to win the scoring title, because I know I can.”
2. “Everything negative—pressure, challenges—is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
3. “This is the moment I accept the most challenging times will always be behind me and in front of me.”
4. “I had to organize things. So I created the ‘Black Mamba.’ So Kobe has to deal with these issues, all the personal challenges. The Black Mamba steps on the court and does what he does. I’m destroying everybody that steps on the court.”
5. “There’s no need to get too crazy or bent out of shape. There are still challenges every day. But I’m still having fun. I was born to play this game. I still love it.”
6. “When I have the chance to guard Michael Jordan, I want to guard him. I want him. It’s the ultimate challenge.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Dreams
1. “Dedication makes dreams come true.”
2. “We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be. There are sacrifices that come along with making that decision.”
3. “Use your success, wealth, and influence to put them in the best position to realize their own dreams and find their true purpose.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Haters
1. “Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.”
2. “Take it all in. Sit back and watch and listen and hear all the hate that’s being thrown at us and remember every person that’s kicking you when you’re down, because next year it ain’t gonna be this way. Appreciate it now. Let it sit in now, because revenge is sweet and it’s quick.”
3. “People say bad things about you in the paper on Monday, and then on Wednesday, you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread. I’ve seen that cycle, so why would I be nervous about it happening?”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Coaches
1. “I don’t think a coach becomes the right coach until he wins a championship.”
2. “Good coaches tell you where the fish are, great coaches teach you how to find them.”
3. “The beauty of coaching is growing the players from the ground up. That journey continues.”
Kobe Bryant Quotes About Basketball
1. “I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.”
2. “Boos don’t block dunks.”
3. “If I wanted to play, I’d still be playing for the Lakers.”
4. “The message was that if you want to win championships, you have to let people focus on what they do best while you focus on what you do best. For me, that was rebounding, running the floor, and blocking shots.”
5. “I don’t want chumps, I don’t want pushovers, and if you’re a chump and a pushover, I will run over you.”
6. “I love that kids are building confidence on and off the court and unlocking their potential through sport.”
7. “I never looked at [basketball] as work. I didn’t realize it was work until my first year in the NBA. When I came around, I was surrounded by other professionals and I thought basketball was going to be everything to them, and it wasn’t. And I was like, ‘This is different.’ I thought everybody was so obsessive about the game like me. It was like, ‘No? Oh, that’s hard work.’ I get it now.”
8. “There’s certain players that I’ve made cry. If I can make you cry by being sarcastic, then I really don’t want to play with you in the playoffs.”
9. “Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.”
10. “In an individual sport, yes, you have to win titles. Baseball’s different. But basketball, hockey? One person can control the tempo of a game, can completely alter the momentum of a series. There’s a lot of great individual talent.”
These Kobe Bryant quotes reflect his work ethic, dedication, and competitive spirit that contributed to his status as one of the most beloved and respected figures in the sports world.
He became one of the all-time leading scorers in NBA history. He scored 81 points in a single game against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, which is the second-highest point total in a single game in NBA history.
Bryant announced his retirement from professional basketball in 2015, and he played his final game with the Lakers on April 13, 2016. In that game, he scored an impressive 60 points. After retiring from basketball, Bryant pursued various business ventures and creative projects. He won an Academy Award for his animated short film, “Dear Basketball,” in 2018.
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