Kobe：The passion came from the love of the game. I loved everything about it. Like the smell of the ball.
Host: You liked the smell of the ball?

Kobe: Yes! And, like, the smell of brand new sneakers. The sound of the ball makes when it hits the ground.

Host: Sneakers in the gym, ch ch ch ch.

Kobe: Sneakers squeaking, yeah. The ball going through the net. All those things, I love. And so the passion comes from that. Because once you have that love, you just want to be a part of this thing all the time.

Host: When you talk about this love, when does it develop? Did you like it when you were five?

Or was this something that kind of gradually.

Kobe: When I was two, I was born to play basketball, you know what I mean? I played a lot of different sports, but nothing brought me the sense of peace and the sense of escape that basketball do.

Host: Is it an escape? When you get on the court, is that your zen time? Your solitude time?

Even though it's the team working?

Kobe:

Yeah,

when I need that escape, it's there for me, right?

When I need a friend, it's there for me.

When I need to vent, don't give me, it's there. So the game is absolutely everything for me.

Host: When we talk about trying to get kids to be passionate, I don't think every kid, I don't think your situation is the norm. Not everying kids knows their passion at two, or five, right? How do kids find that passion? You embraced that right away too

Kobe: As parents we try to expose them to as many things as possible, and then see if there is one thing that connects with them, becase if it does, you don't have to tell them to do it. Whether it's writing or drawing or painting, if they have that passion, you don't have to tell them, they'll just go off and do it because it's fun. They'd rather do that than anything else. So but as parents, it's our job to just expose them to as many things as possible and see which one they gravitate to the most. 

Host; It's interesting because you talk about kids , right?

Originally, we were talking about you, now you are talking about your kids and their passions. Do you kind of feel that passion for them, and say, hey, let's go play some basketball, or volleyball, or let's go swiming?

Kobe: Yeah, we expose them to all kinds of , I mean they play a lot of different sports, and do a lot of things creatively, writing and things like that, designing, and you just sit back and see which one they  move to and then it's our responsibility as parents to just kind of set them up for success as much as we possibly can.

Host : Do you want them to play basketball? I want them to find whatever it is their passinate about, whatever they feel like their purpose is, then that's what I want them to do. Do they love basketball, though, your girls?

Kobe: my youngest one, she does, she wants to play, she wants me to teach her how to play this summer, and our eldest is really into volleyball. And so we'll see, you know, passions tend to change.

Host:So you going to get into volleyball now? 

Kobe: Well,yeah, I mean, my sister was a great volleyball player so we have a teacher in the family.

Host: Is there one moment where you can say it defined your passion for baskerball? Is there a story or moment  where you said, yeah, that was it ! That's where I felt passionate.

Kobe： No，it never leaves. It never leaves. Like, the game is just a part of me. So it never leaves. Even now that I'm retired, you know, everything I learned from the game of baskerball,

I've carried it over into life. Basketball's helped me to  a better person, a better friend, a better colleague.

Host: How so?

Kobe: Well, because there are life lessons that are within the game. Like communication, like unselfishness, like attention to detail, empathy, compassion, all those things are in the game. And, as an athlete, if we are aware of those things, it helps us become better human beings.

Host:And you can apply that to your post-basketball days, retirement, and to your business world. Future ventures?

Kobe: Sure, I mean you can. I was applying that even when I was playing, just in life outside of the game. And even more so now, in building a business, and all these things. The kind of culture you want to have, all those things are directly learned from the game of basketball for me.

Host: Next up is the next pillar, be obsessive, Obsessive.  I think a lot of people equate that with you. You know, Kobe is obsessive in a lot of things. We've been doing this for what?

Eight years now, Asia tour, I've been with you for a long way. The one moment that stands out of we've done, I don't know how many events we've done,800 events? The one time was 4am, we went out to practice at 4am. And that was your idea to do it. And all these Nike people are like, "no, no, no, no let's not do that." And your were like, "let's do it at 4am." So you've got security, you've got brand marketing, sports marketing，"no, no, no, no. Let's not do it." And you're like, "let's do it !" Because that's your obsessives. Right？

Kobe：I mean, to me it just makes complete sense.

Host: But not to us.

Kobe: But.....

Host: I'm usually sleeping at 4am. You're working out. So talk about that.

Kobe: Ok, so if your job is to try to be the best basketball palyer you can be, right? 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 in the morning, train at 11,12, say 12, train at 12, train for 2 hours, 12--2, you have to let your body recover, so your eat, recover, you get back out, start training again at 6. Train from 6--8, right? And now, you go home, you shower, you eat dinner, you go to bed, you wake up, you do it again, right? Like those are two sessions. Now imagine you wake up at 3. You train 4--6, come home, breakfast, relax, so so, lalalala, now you are back at it again, 9--11, right? relax, and now, you're back at it again, 2--4, now you're back at it again, 7--9, look at how much more training I have done by simply starting at 4. Right? 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 5 or 6, it dosen't matter what kind of work they do in the summer, they are never going to catch up. because you're 5 years behind. Right? So it makes sense to get up and start your day early because you can get more work in.

 Host: Is that genetic? Or is that something you engrained and trained yourself? Who taught you that?

Kobe: No, for me it was just common sense. Like, if I start earlier, I can train more hours. And I know the others guys aren't doing it because I know what their training schedule's. Right? So I know if I do this consistently over time, the gap is just going to widen and widen and widen and widen and widen and they won't be able to get that back. So to me, it was just common sense.

I'm thinking like how can I get an advantage.?Oh, start earlier, yeah, let's do that.

Host: When did your start doing that?

Kobe: Man, Like high school? High school. My first class at high school was at 7:45, I used to get to the gym around 5am, and I'd play before school, and then school would start.

Host：Who is playing with you at 5am? 

Kobe: My coach. My coach will show up and we do all these baskerball drills.

Host:So just you and your coach.

Kobe: Just me and my coach. And sometimes it would just me and my janitor, who is still there today. And then I'd play at lunch time. 

Host: That guy should get a medal.

Kobe: Well, I helped him out with a few things, but I played during lunch, and then practice after, go home, do my school work and then watch a bunch of game films and games on TV, and study film.

Host:Was that the only thing you've been obsessed about basketball?

Kobe: Well, until recently, yeah. Basketball dominated my entire life, more than 30 years.

Host: When I brought it up,like is it genetic, or you just learned it, I mean, how did that idea even come up?

Because that's obviously a pillar of mamba mentality, the obsessiveness. This is just, like you said,"I'm gonna get up at four if everybody's gonna get up at six. if everybody's gonna up at four, I'm gonna get up at two, right?"

How do you development that, or where do you learn that from?

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