Since announcing his impending retirement at seasons end a few weeks ago, sports fans have been a very reflective mode, reminiscing on his illustrious career of Kobe Bryant. The future Hall Of Famer has done quite a bit of reflecting as well. Sunday, following the Los Angeles Lakers 112-96 loss to the Memphis Grizzles, Bryant spoke with ESPN and when asked what piece of advice he would share with himself as a rookie in the league, he showed a great deal of maturity saying “to understand compassion and empathy.”
Kobe Bryant:
Well, because that’s the biggest thing about being a leader, I think, and winning a championship is understanding how to put yourself in other people’s shoes. That’s really the most important thing. It’s not necessarily the individual skill you possess. It’s about understanding others and what they may be going through.
And then, in turn, when you understand that, you can communicate with them a little bit better and bring out the best in them. Bringing out the best in people isn’t passing them the ball and giving them open shots. It’s about how to connect with them, how to communicate with them so that they can navigate through whatever issues they may be facing. That’s a very, very hard thing to do.
Off the court, Kobe Bryant has had a reputation for being very ridged in his approach to teammates and coaches. This has been one of the major factors as to why star players (cc: Dwight Howard) left the Lakers and why superstar free agents avoided joining the team.
