Kobe Bryant

My name is Kobe Bryant.

I'm 17 years old, and I wasn't invited to parties or, you know, friendly gatherings on the weekend.

So on Fridays and Saturdays, I would go in my rec room with my basketball and basically dribble myself to sleep.

And I think that that was the best thing that could ever happen to me.

Because during those lonely hours in the rec room, I discovered the hunger, the motivation, and the desire to be the best possible basketball player that I could be.

When I get alone with myself, when I get alone with my thoughts, I realize I've made solitude a monster.

I saw you celebrate my losses like I wasn't going to win again.

Get into something that's really personal, that means something to you.

I think that's the key to what we do.

It's got to be personal.

It's always tough leaving, you know, Seattle.

Just what we've built for the last two years with Coach Mike, you know, all my brothers.

You know, like I said, that was definitely the toughest thing about it, you know, leaving those guys.

But just like you said with, you know, Kelly Williams, just the special talent he is, the leader he is.

He actually reached out to me.

He was...

The first person to reach out to me when I did sign.

And we were texting back and forth, you know, just catching up, getting to know each other and stuff like that.

And just, you know, telling him, you know, we could build and, you know, just going off of that.

And, you know, just for him reaching out to me meant a lot, honestly.