Just a short time after ‘Kobe:The Interview aired on NBATV, Los Angles Lakers star Kobe Bryant has opened up more about the early days of his career.
In the early 2000’s the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Bryant, Shaquile O’Neal and head coach coach Phil Jackson were dominating the NBA and making sure that anything that happened came through them. They commanded the respect and adulation of the rest of the league in the early 2000’s and won 3 straight championships to prove it. By the end of their run in 2005, it was time that someone left and in Bryant’s case, he was the last man standing as Shaq was traded away and his coach, Phil Jackson, left the team.
As Kobe is nearing the end of his career, he recently sat down with GQ Magazine for an in depth interview and he revealed that he had a strong ‘hate’ towards Jackson early on in his days with the ‘Zen Master’ as he reflects on his career and the paths he took to get where he is now.
Bryant revealed that this aggression and negative feelings towards Jackson is what pushed him over the edge and made him snap to his ‘maniacal’ level of competitiveness that we all know today.
Kobe Bryant, Courtesy of GQ Magazine’s Chuck Klosterman
Why do you think Jackson would write such negative things about you? Was he trying to psychologically motivate you, or is he just kind of a weird, arrogant person?
So he would take shots at me in the press, and I understood he was doing that in order to ingratiate himself to Shaq. And since I knew what he was doing, I felt like that was an insult to my intelligence. I mean, I knew what he was doing. Why not just come to me and tell me that? Another thing was that I would go to him in confidence and talk about certain things, and he would then use those things to manipulate the media against me. And from that standpoint, I finally said, “No way. I’m not gonna deal with that anymore.” This was during our first run, during those first three championships. So when he’d come out in the press and say those things about me, I was finally like, “F**k it. I’m done with this guy. I’ll play for him and win championships, but I will have no interaction with him.” Yet at the same time, it drove me at a maniacal pace. Because either consciously or unconsciously, he put a tremendous amount of pressure on me to be efficient, and to be great, and to be great now.
When this was happening, did you actively dislike him?
Yeah. (pause) Yeah. I was like, “F**k him. I’m out here busting my ass. I’m killing myself.” And it became insulting. Because I chose to extend my deal with the Lakers to play with Shaquille O’ Neal and win championships. I knew what I could have done individually. I could have gone to another team and averaged 35 points a game. I could have gone anywhere and destroyed people. I gave that up to win championships. So it was infuriating to hear people say I was selfish. It was very, very maddening.
You have to commend Kobe opening up, especially after he opened up in his recent documentary with NBA TV, this spot with GQ really shows you a side of Bryant and how he really felt about Jackson and what he did to Kobe but how in the long run, it paid dividends for Kobe and made him more focused than ever on the end goal.
Phil Jackson, the Zen Master. King of the manipulation and also King of getting the best out of his players.
