67 Kobe Bryant Quotes That Will Inspire Greatness - Succeed Feed (2024)

Kobe Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

During a career spanning 2 decades the LA Lakers legend won 5 championships, was named NBA Most Valuable Player and broke numerous records.

Kobe’s life on and off the court wasn’t easy, but they provided Bryant numerous moments of inspiration to use for himself and that could serve as inspiration for us all.

Whether you deemed him a hero or villain it’s hard to deny Kobe’s greatness. His insatiable work ethic was recognised by everyone and he was an absolute winner.

Its that mentality that can inspire you to unleash your own greatness.

If you need some inspiration or are looking for some extra motivation to raise your game then the Kobe Bryant quotes below are sure to give you just that. Enjoy!

Kobe Bryant Quotes To Inspire Greatness

1. “Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.” – Kobe Bryant

2. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.” – Kobe Bryant

3. “I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.” – Kobe Bryant

4. “My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.” – Kobe Bryant

5. “I focus on one thing and one thing only – that’s trying to win as many championships as I can.” – Kobe Bryant

6. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.” – Kobe Bryant

7. “Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.” – Kobe Bryant

8. “I’ve played with IVs before, during and after games. I’ve played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious in the first place.” – Kobe Bryant

9. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.” – Kobe Bryant

10. “I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.” – Kobe Bryant

11. “The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven’t had that fear.” – Kobe Bryant

12. “These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.” – Kobe Bryant

13. “I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.” – Kobe Bryant

14. “Can I jump over two or three guys like I used to? No. Am I as fast as I used to be? No, but I still have the fundamentals and smarts. That’s what enables me to still be a dominant player. As a kid growing up, I never skipped steps. I always worked on fundamentals because I know athleticism is fleeting.” – Kobe Bryant

15. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.” – Kobe Bryant

16. “People just don’t understand how obsessed I am with winning.” – Kobe Bryant

17. “I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.” – Kobe Bryant

18. “As I sit here now, when I take off my shoe and I look down at my scar, I see beauty in it. I see all the hard work, all the sacrifices. I see the journey that it took to get back to this point of being healthy. And I see beauty in that struggle. That’s what makes it beautiful.” – Kobe Bryant

19. “There’s a choice that we have to make as people, as individuals. If you want to be great at something, there’s a choice you have to make. We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be. There are sacrifices that come along with making that decision.” – Kobe Bryant

20. “I’ve shot too much from the time I was 8 years old. But ‘too much’ is a matter of perspective. Some people thought Mozart had too many notes in his compositions. Let me put it this way: I entertain people who say I shoot too much. I find it very interesting. Going back to Mozart, he responded to critics by saying there were neither too many notes or too few. There were as many as necessary.” – Kobe Bryant

21. “I’m playing against great players, playing against the best in the world. The competition – that’s what I’ve always wanted.” – Kobe Bryant

22. “On being forced to retire if his hand fell off: “Even then, you could still play with one hand.”” – Kobe Bryant

23. “Are you willing to push the right buttons even if it means being perceived as the villain?…I’d rather be perceived as a winner than a good teammate. I wish they both went hand in hand all the time but that’s just not reality…I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success.” – Kobe Bryant

24. “My brain…it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I sit there and have to face myself and tell myself, ‘You’re a failure’…I think that’s almost worse than death.” – Kobe Bryant

25. “Take it all in. Sit back and watch and listen and hear all the hate that’s being thrown at us and remember every person that’s kicking you when you’re down, because next year it ain’t gonna be this way. Appreciate it now. Let it sit in now, because revenge is sweet and it’s quick.” – Kobe Bryant

26. “Losing is losing, there aren’t different degrees of losing. You either win a championship or you’re shit. It’s very black & white to me.” – Kobe Bryant

27. “It doesn’t bother me at all. Do I hold any hard feelings? Not at all,…Life is too short to sit around and hold grudges. I don’t hold any whatsoever.” – Kobe Bryant

28. “I don’t just try to score. The challenge is elevating my teammates to be able to win a championship.” – Kobe Bryant

29. “Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.” – Kobe Bryant

30. The beauty in being blessed with talent is rising above doubters to create a beautiful moment. – Kobe Bryant

31. “The most important thing is you must put everybody on notice that you’re here and you are for real. I’m not a player that is just going to come and go. I’m not a player that is going to make an All-Star team one time, two times. I’m here to be an all-time great. Once I made that commitment and said, ‘I want to be one of the greatest ever’, then the game became everything for me.” – Kobe Bryant

32. “If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will do it for you.” – Kobe Bryant

33. “The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win.” – Kobe Bryant

34. “Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change. Don’t let it stop you from being who you can be. Exhaustion tells you when you ought to stop. You only reach your limit when you can go no further.” – Kobe Bryant

35. “Dedication sees dreams come true.” – Kobe Bryant

36. “Use your success, wealth and influence to put them in the best position to realise their own dreams and find their true purpose. Put them through school, set them up with job interviews and help them become leaders in their own right. Hold them to the same level of hard work and dedication that it took for you to get where you are now, and where you will eventually go.” – Kobe Bryant

37. “Either way, I refuse to change what I am. A lion has to eat. Run with me or run from me. – Kobe Bryant

38. You need to figure out a way to invest in the future of your family and friends. This sounds simple, and you may think it’s a no-brainer, but take some time to think on it further. I said INVEST. I did not say GIVE.” – Kobe Bryant

39. “Trust me, setting things up right from the beginning will avoid a ton of tears and heartache…” – Kobe Bryant

40. “I create my own path. It was straight and narrow. I looked at it this way: you were either in my way, or out of it. If you were standing between me and the game, I was going to knock you on your back and not feel bad about it. I was unapologetically me. That’s all I ever wanted to be I was never worried about my reputation- that’s how I earned one. That’s how I became the Black Mamba.” – Kobe Bryant

41. “Determination silences doubters.” – Kobe Bryant

42. “Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.” – Kobe Bryant

43. “Learn to love the hate. Embrace it. Enjoy it. You earned it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and everyone should have one about you. Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.” – Kobe Bryant

44. “To be an event, every single night. Something witnessed. Not just watched. I had a different drive. The kind that made people uneasy. Some people wanted me to come back down to earth. To come down to their level.To relax. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t in my DNA. Because to go where others have never gone, you have to do what others have never done.” – Kobe Bryant

45. “Be willing to sacrifice anything, but compromise nothing in your quest to be your best.” – Kobe Bryant

46. “If you are going to be a leader, you’re not going to please everybody. You got to hold people accountable, even if you have that moment of being uncomfortable.” – Kobe Bryant

47. “I saw things differently. I didn’t want to do what others had done. That didn’t drive me, didn’t get me in the gym before others got up. I wanted to do one better. Actually, I wanted to do a lot better. There were players I looked up to until I looked them square in the eyes. I know that one day, when I left the game, I didn’t actually want to leave. I wanted to leave my mark.” – Kobe Bryant

48. “The biggest dreams aren’t fueled by belief. They’re fueled by doubt.” – Kobe Bryant

49. “It’s the one thing you can control. You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly. If you do it right, your game will live on in others. You’ll be imitated and emulated by those you played with, those you played against and those who never saw you play at all. So leave everything on the court. Leave the game better than you found it. And when it comes time for you to leave, leave a legend.” – Kobe Bryant

50. “We can always kind of be average and do what’s normal. I’m not in this to do what’s normal.” – Kobe Bryant

51. “We don’t quit, we don’t cower, we don’t run. We endure and conquer.” – Kobe Bryant

52. “Being a leader, it’s the art of trying to find the balance, the right times with each individual and what they need at that moment. It requires looking outward as opposed to looking inside.” – Kobe Bryant

53. “The hunger [to succeed] is the same, no matter what it is that you’re doing. It’s like an unquenchable thirst to learn more, or to feel like you could have done more, and to be brutally honest and self critical, which is very hard to do. It’s easy, and human nature is to just blame somebody else. It’s very, very hard to self assess.” – Kobe Bryant

54. “If you make it, great. If you miss it, what’s there to be afraid of?” – Kobe Bryant

55. “If you want to make history, you have to do historic things.” – Kobe Bryant

56. “There is power in understanding the journey of others to help create your own.” – Kobe Bryant

57. “Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.” – Kobe Bryant

58. “There’s a reason why players that have multiple championships have multiple championships. There’s a certain characteristic and an understanding and knowledge and that’s not something that’s easily taught. You kind of have to go through it and it kind of has to be part of your DNA from the beginning.” – Kobe Bryant

59. “I was probably born a scorer, but I was made a winner. Whatever works, whatever wins championships, wins games, that’s what I do.” – Kobe Bryant

60. “Heroes come and go, but legends are forever.” – Kobe Bryant

61. “You always have to be on edge. You always have to take every practice, every game, like it is your last.” – Kobe Bryant

62. “It’s not about the number of hours you practice, it’s about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice.” – Kobe Bryant

63. “I wanna be the best, simple and plain.” – Kobe Bryant

64. “I never tried to prove anything to someone else. I wanted to prove something to myself.” – Kobe Bryant

65. “What I’m doing right now, I’m chasing perfection… and if I don’t get it, I’m going to get this close.” – Kobe Bryant

66. “Listen to how everyone is talking about you. You have to use it as fuel for motivation.” – Kobe Bryant

67. “You can’t be held captive by the fear of failure or the fear of what people may say.” – Kobe Bryant

Did these Kobe Bryant Quotes inspire you to be better?

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67 Kobe Bryant Quotes That Will Inspire Greatness - Succeed Feed (2024)

FAQs

What was Kobe Bryant's motivational quotes for success? ›

Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.” “I saw you come in and I wanted you to know that it doesn't matter how hard you work, that I'm willing to work harder than you.” “Dedication makes dreams come true.”

What was Kobe Bryant's inspirational things? ›

Kobe inspired millions of people around the world through his remarkable achievements, work ethic, and leadership. Kobe coined the term Mamba Mentality to describe his approach to the game and life. It represents a mindset of constant improvement, resilience, and determination.

What does Kobe Bryant say the key to success is? ›

To grow, you have to constantly learn, you have to constantly move, constantly improve. That's the key. That's what makes life fun.”

What was Kobe Bryant's great quote? ›

Life is too short to get bogged down and be discouraged. You have to keep moving. You have to keep going. Put one foot in front of the other, smile and just keep on rolling."

What was Kobe's favorite quote? ›

Kobe Bryant continues to be a source of inspiration for fans after his death with his "Mamba mentality," a mantra for the competitive spirit, including non-athletes. As the NBA icon said best: "Hard work outweighs talent — every time."

Who was Kobe's inspiration? ›

Michael Jordan, Kobe's idol, said Kobe was the only person to ever approach Jordan's work ethic. From Roland Lazenby, author of "Michael Jordan: The Life": "He said Kobe had done that work to deserve the comparison. He says Kobe's the only one to have done the work."

What is Kobe most famous for? ›

Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, Bryant won five NBA championships and was an 18-time All-Star, a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, a 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), and a two-time NBA Finals MVP.

What is Kobe Bryant's legacy? ›

Bryant's legacy lives on with the Los Angeles Lakers, with the NBA and WNBA (both leagues have awards in honor of him), with Nike and with the Mamba and Mambacita Foundation.

What are 3 famous quotes by Muhammad Ali? ›

Here are some of his most famous quotes:
  • "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. ...
  • "I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."
  • "It's not bragging if you can back it up."
  • "I'm young; I'm handsome; I'm fast. ...
  • "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."
Mar 2, 2023

What are some NBA quotes? ›

Michael Jordan
  • “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. ...
  • “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.”
  • “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. ...
  • “Obstacles don't have to stop you. ...
  • “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.”
Apr 16, 2019

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