Q. Kobe, I’m sure this weekend you’ve probably shared a lot of special moment was lot of players and legends and have had great conversations. Is there one thing that maybe a fellow peer or legend said to you this weekend that you’ll take that kind of stood out more than the others?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, I think it’s the stories of when they first came into the league and they were matching up against me, and just kind of the little things that — an elbow here or a steal here, and then wanting to earn my respect at an early age, right? Coming into the league, playing against me, wanting to prove to me that they were as competitive.
When I hear those kind of stories, man, that makes me feel real good. Because over the years you’re competing against each other. Those aren’t stories you’re ever going to share with somebody that you’re competing against, right. But at this stage, it feels absolutely wonderful to hear these those things.
Q. When you get home and the kids ask you how the All-Star Game was, how will you describe to them your last time All-Star?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, they’re here. They were sitting right behind the bench, so I was talking to them virtually the whole game. They’ve enjoyed this as much as I have, coming to these arenas. You know, they’ve seen me throughout the years get up at 4:00 in the morning and work out and train and come home and work out again. So it’s awesome, as a father, for them to be able to see all the hard work and how it pays off.
Q. Allen Iverson and Shaq were announced as the finalists for the Hall of Fame. I know both guys meant a lot to you, talk about that.
KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, Shaq obviously on a more personal level, having played together for so many years and winning three championships, right, and all that he’s meant to the game, and meant to me personally.
And AI as a competitor, he drove me to be as obsessive, more obsessive about the game, because I had to figure out how to solve that problem, you know? And I told him — I saw him here this weekend. I said you don’t realize how much you pushed me. And I don’t think people nowadays realize how great you were as a player and how big of a problem you were for defenses. Happy for them both.
Q. What was it like for you out there? It looked like there was a lot of fun and some vintage Kobe as well.
KOBE BRYANT: It was fun. I had a blast playing with those guys, laughing and joking with them on the bench. And, you know, I got a chance to stop Pau [Gasol] in a post, redeem myself from what he did to me when Chicago came to town. But all those things are just fun. I had a great time. I had a great, great time.
Q. Could you just share a little bit of your conversation before the game with Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson? And when you came into the league, there was a lot of concern voiced from the elder statesmen, including Magic, in fact, about what kind of caretakers you and AI and that whole generation were going to be for the game. With the benefit of hindsight now, how do you feel about that journey and what kind of shape the game is in now compared to when you came in?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, Oscar and I have spoken throughout the years sporadically. Bill Russell and I have talked more often, and he’s given me a lot of great advice on leadership and competitiveness and things of that sort. So he and I were more just catching up and touching base. I had changed some of my information, so I was kind of giving him the new information so we could continue to touch base and talk. Come to town in L.A. and we’ll catch up and things like that, right.
But as far as the league, when we first came in, it’s always the younger generation that comes in and it’s just like the elder statesmen says this younger generation has no idea what they’re doing. They’re going to absolutely kill the game. The game, when we played, was pure and all this kind of stuff. Hey, man, that’s always the case. When we came in, we were just young kids that wanted to play, and AI was aggressive. It was a newer generation, newer culture, but I think where the game ended up, it ended up in a beautiful place.
David Stern changed the dress code somewhere in between that, that helped, I think. But, yeah, I think the game is in a beautiful place now.
Q. When you went at Michael Jordan in 1998, you went at him, like it wasn’t just like you were in the game with him. Did anybody go at you tonight?
KOBE BRYANT: No, Michael was still Michael. I mean it was ’98. I mean, he was that guy. I’m 20 years in and it’s different. These kids, they’re so many generations removed from that, that it’s not even about that anymore because they’ve literally grown up watching me since the age of seven. So it’s different than when I went at Michael.
Q. It’s been very rare for you in your career to go out of the All-Star break with nothing really to play for. What do you do in these last 27 games to make it meaningful?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, you try to make the second half better than the first, and you try to forget about what happened the first half of the season in a sense of what our record is, and take this break to come in and feel like you have a clean slate, right? Mentally approach it as you’re 0-0, and see if we can’t get better. Because as the season progresses and season ends, you want to feel like free agents and other players around the league are looking at the Lakers roster and saying they have some talent and they have some potential. So that’s what we want to try to do.
