Kobe Bryant Forever: The NBA Legend’s 6 Most Inspirational Quotes

By Aashna Shah. 26 Jan 2023 2:59 PM

It’s hard to believe it’s already Kobe Bryant’s third death anniversary. On Jan. 26, 2020, the NBA legend and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna died in a tragic helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, along with seven others.

The former Los Angeles Lakers star is survived by his wife, Vanessa, and their three other daughters, Natalia, Bianka and Capri.

Kobe is remembered today not only as one of greatest basketball players of all time — an 18-time All-Star with five championship rings — but as one of the most inspirational figures the world has ever seen. His “Mamba mentality” transcended sports.

In honour of Kobe, here are six memorable quotes from the mind and voice of a timeless icon.

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Photo by Steve Grayson/WireImage

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

On Realizing He Was Different From Other NBA Players:

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On Retiring And Facing The End Of His Basketball Career:

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Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

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On What It Takes To Lead:
Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
"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."
- Source: NBA TV
On Failure:
Photo by Steve Grayson/WireImage
"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're a failure,' I think that is a worse, that is almost worse than death."
- Source: Showtime's "Muse"
On Coaching Daughter Gianna:
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“The best thing that happens when we go out, fans will come up to me and she’ll be standing next to me and they’ll be like, ‘Hey, you gotta have a boy! You and V gotta have a boy to have somebody to carry on the tradition and the legacy.’ She’s like, ‘Hey, I got this! You don’t need a boy for that.'”
— Source: "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
On Realizing He Was Different From Other NBA Players:
Photo by VCG/Getty Images
"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."
- Source: ESPN
On Retiring And Facing The End Of His Basketball Career:
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
"There is beauty in that. I mean, it's going through the cycle. I mean, it's the cycle that is the natural progression of growth, of maturation. I mean, there's no sadness in that ... I see the beauty in not being able to blow past defenders anymore, you know what I mean? 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 it. I'm very appreciative of what I've had."
- Source: ESPN
On Achieving Success:
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
"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."
- Source: Showtime's "Muse"

Kobe Bryant Forever: The NBA Legend’s 6 Most Inspirational Quotes

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