21 Life Quotes By Kobe Bryant To Remember Him By

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By Mayukh Saha / Truth Theory

The Black Mamba is no more.

One of the greatest basketball players of all time, Kobe Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Bryant was considered to be one of the most lethal shooters in modern-day basketball. He played for the Los Angeles Lakers and was an integral part of making them one of the best teams at the beginning of the 21st century. His rivalry with Shaquille O’Neal was the stuff of several documentaries and talk shows.

Post retirement, Kobe Bryant turned his attention towards the other spheres of life- with acting and writing playing major roles. He had turned into a major philanthropist, giving back to society that had given him so much.

He was an inspiration and here are 21 quotes that would inspire you to breeze through obstacles.

1. I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.

2. Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

3. When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain, it cannot process failure.

4. Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.

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5. 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.

6. I realized that intimidation didn’t really exist if you’re in the right frame of mind.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.

10. The beauty in being blessed with talent is rising above doubters to create a beautiful moment.

11. Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.

12. My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

13. This is the moment I accept the most challenging times will always be behind me and in front of me.

14. There’s been a lot of talk of me being a one-man show but that’s simply not the case. We win games when I score 40 points and we’ve won when I score 10.

15. When you make a choice and say, ‘Come hell or high water, I am going to be this,’ then you should not be surprised when you are that. It should not be something that is intoxicating or out of character because you have seen this moment for so long that … when that moment comes, of course it is here because it has been here the whole time, because it has been [in your mind] the whole time.

16. Reality gives nothing back and nor should you.

17. I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

18. 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.

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19. I can remember winning the first championship and kind of being like, ‘Okay, now what? What happens now?’ … [Teammates] celebrating, waving champagne bottles around … And outside of that, it was, ‘Okay, now what?’

20. Leadership is lonely … I’m not going to be afraid of confrontation to get us to where we need to go. 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.

21. The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

We stand by Kobe Bryant’s family in this time of despair and hope that the Lord gives them the strength to deal with this loss.

Image Credit:  sh_lisong hollandog

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