Legend of the 81-Point Game, The (2023)

[bunniefuu]

I will never forget that day

because it's the day
after my birthday.

NEWSCASTER:
Good morning, everybody.

Here is a live look
over Long Beach

and we love to observe
the weather from down here.

We are looking at
a pretty gloomy morning

across the Southland.

Some of the effect from
this cold front moving through

will be winds
picking up to 55 mph.

This is in effect for
the mountain communities

of Ventura
and Los Angeles County.

Pretty breezy to
even gusty conditions

into this afternoon.

I was training kids...

And my phone was blowing up.

I could feel it in my pocket
but I wasn't answering it

because I'm in
the middle of training.

And I reached in my pocket

and I'm thinking it's a
Sunday, what's going on?

One of the other guys
who was training with us,

his phone was on ringer.

So it kept, like, going off.

So I reached in and
I started getting text messages.

I get a text from
one of my friends

that lived in L.A.

And they said did
you hear about Kobe?

I'm like, nah,
what are you talking about?

I don't know what that meant.

Did I hear what about Kobe?

One of the kids comes into
the gym and says, "Kobe's dead."

He died and I'm like...
I'm like, what?

My wife came over
and she said...

"I don't believe it,

but somebody said
Kobe Bryant just died."

The buzz started going
around about Kobe Bryant.

I was like,
I don't think that's real.

I thought I thought
there was misinformation.

And I said, "Whatever."

NEWSCASTER: Wind picking up
to 55 miles an hours.

Pretty breezy to
even gusty conditions

They said Kobe Bryant died
in a helicopter crash.

That's when I knew.

That's when I was like, "Okay."

Because the people who knew Kobe

knew he traveled around L.A.
in a helicopter.

I just-- I stopped
everything I was doing

and I just sat in the chair

and I just couldn't move.

The world shut down.

The world was grieving.

No, I cried for like
three days, four days.

They just kept on showing it
on the on the news.

It's a weird energy.

We have grown men
crying in the streets.

He wasn't just the Laker.

He-- he represented us.

He wasn't just a Laker.

He was L.A.

He was a hero, a role model.

When I say all this,
to be honest with you,

I feel nothing but love,
everyone.

When I heard Kobe died I cried.

I turned into that picture

where he and I
are embracing each other

and it just didn't seem real.

And the way he died, it just...

It's just--
it's just one of those things

you would never forget.

And you still keep
asking yourself, why?

Was it avoidable?

Why did we lose our prince
in such a tragic way?

♪ See a million people cry ♪

♪ Wipe them tears
off them eyes ♪

♪ There will be a golden sky ♪

-♪ Couple th*gs passing by ♪
-♪ Kobe ♪

♪ See a million people cry
at my funeral ♪

♪ Nobody keep my spirit
alive at my funeral ♪

♪ There will be a golden sky
at my funeral ♪

♪ Couple th*gs passing by
at my funeral ♪

♪ See a million people cry
at my funeral ♪

♪ Wipin' them tears off of
their eyes at my funeral ♪

♪ There will be a golden sky
at my funeral ♪

♪ Couple th*gs passing by
at my funeral ♪

♪ The whole world is watching
live at my funeral ♪

♪ Nobody keep my spirit alive
at my funeral ♪

♪ There will be a golden sky
at my funeral ♪

♪ Couple th*gs passing by
at my funeral ♪

♪ Kobe ♪

The first time
I heard of Kobe Bryant

was about 1995, '96,

Someone said you know,
there's a kid

that's playing
high school ball

in the Philadelphia area.

And I thought, okay, whatever.
I mean, you know,

they're these high school kids,
they're all great, you know.

And he says no, no, no, Chuck,

this guy is gonna be really,
really good.

His name is Kobe Bryant.

♪♪♪

CHUCK: I said okay.

He said, his dad played
in the NBA,

Joe "Jellybean" Bryant
is Kobe Bryant's dad.

I just think he was able to pass
on just great knowledge to him.

It was something
that was transferred.

He told me the whole story about

him being overseas
playing basketball,

watching his dad being in
the army, having to go from,

you know, base to base
and stuff like that

and it was just,
it was unique, man.

He didn't want to be what
everybody else was,

the typical player
that came into the NBA.

Everybody has this same,
you know, like sob story

coming from struggle type story

they do come from poverty,
you know,

mindset poverty situations where

they want to get out
"the hood" per se.

Well then another year passed

and all of a sudden people
are talking about Kobe Bryant

coming out straight
from high school to the pros.

You know, he had
an opportunity to play with

the best players in the world
at a very young age.

But I thought, okay, are we
talking about a lottery player?

We're talking about
a midrange first round pick

and they said, no, Chuck,
this guy could be going

high in the draft
and the rest is history,

Well, him going straight
into the NBA from high school.

I mean,
I would have the same thing

if I was good enough to do it.

CHUCK: Jerry West, then the
general manager of the Lakers

brought him in for a workout

and as soon as
he saw Kobe Bryant

go after players on the Lakers,
guys like Michael Cooper

an established star
defensive talent in the N.B.A,

Jerry West said,
I've seen enough.

I gotta have Kobe Bryant.

I have got to have Kobe Bryant.

So now the agent
aren't telling us

saying, okay, I got,
I got to get Kobe to the Lakers

with the agent
and with Jerry West,

Kobe Bryant's a Laker.

JOSH:
The Lakers organization

is just so traditional.

They've been there
from the beginning, man,

and they just had so many

huge memories
within the N.B.A.

We're number one.

[crowd chanting]

Purple and gold is...

it is a representation of
something that's bigger

than the city of L.A.
as a culture.

It also represents the N.B.A.

Like when people think N.B.A,

first two teams
that come to mind:

Lakers, Celtics, period.

But funny enough, man,
when I got to L.A, I--

I really didn't know...

it sounds stupid, but I really
didn't know that, like,

the Lakers were that big--

[chuckles] that big of
a team because

I've never been to
the West Coast before, man.

It was just an unbelievable
experience for me, man,

just going out there,

The caliber of organization
and then what that embodies,

Lakers is about
championships, right?

They're not thinking about
regular season,

they're not thinking
about nothing else

until April to June
that's it. [chuckles]

I was so interested
in having a high school kid

go straight to the pros.

I mean,
Kevin Garnett had done it

and other players, of course,

preceded Kobe Bryant
from high school.

Some successful,
some not, it's a tough jump.

We're talking about
a young person, 18 years young,

and they may have
all the athletic skills,

but their playing against men,

men that have
had college experience,

a number of years in the N.B.A,

that are physically big.

Yeah. As a player
I did play against Kobe.

I remember his rookie year.

Uh, he was actually guarding me
and I wasn't a marquee player

So I guess the coach
put him on me and,

you know,
right out of high school

and he was long, lanky and thin

and we actually called a play,
called a turn four back to back

and I posted him up
and I scored on him.

But this is the thing,
I remember...

he was playing
his defense so hard

and I remember after
I scored the second basket,

I kind of turned
and said to him,

"Young fella,
you're gonna be just fine.

Like, I'm supposed to score
on you, I'm a grown man.

You're 19, you're 18,

I'm supposed to score,
I outweigh you by 50 pounds.

But he was trying so hard

and he actually had a plan and
knew what he was trying to do

and knew what
he was trying to accomplish.

You knew after him--
watching him play

and play against him
his rookie year,

you knew he was gonna be good.

And you can tell
because he had that...

I don't know if I can say this,
if I could use profanity,

but he had
that f*ck you attitude

and the great ones do.

They would take him out
the game, say something to him.

But when they put him back in
the game, he would try it again.

And that's the thing I love when
he tried something in the game

and it didn't work,

the next day at practice
he was working on it.

And, see, as a coach, that's
when you know you got something.

♪♪♪

Well, you can't do anything
to change the cards,

but you got to
play your hand right, right?

CHUCK: Phil Jackson was
a Hall of Fame coach

even before he received
the Lakers offer.

What he did with the Bulls,

with Michael Jordan
speaks for itself.

I grew up watching the great
Chicago Bulls win championships.

And who was the coach
of those teams?

Phil Jackson.

CHUCK: And Phil Jackson
knew how to coach,

he knew how to coach superstars.

He knew how to coach
average players,

and he knew
how to coach rookies.

When I learned from Phil was

how to handle
different personalities,

How he handled
different personalities,

I got to see that every day.

SAM: At the end
of the day it's about

can you get a group
of young men,

get them all on the same page,

get them all single-minded
to achieve one goal.

All coaches gravitate to
players that want to be great,

that work hard,

See, when you get to the gym

and the player's in the gym,
already sweating,

when you get there at
seven o'clock in the morning,

you know you got something.

Everybody say
they want to be successful.

No, they don't, everybody
don't want to be successful.

What do you mean?

Are you getting up early,
putting extra work in?

What are you doing to be
successful other than this...

Flapping your gums, talking.

Every year you ask players,

who want to win the
championship, raise your hand.

Everybody do this.
Then you start saying,

What sacrifices
are you willing to make?

This guy is literally working
while people are sleeping

like-- like, does he sleep
like, is he a vampire?

Is he-- is he mixed
with something else?

Is he hybrid? Like, what's
going on with this guy?

Like, this is Kobe, like,

all these crazy stories
that talk about his work ethic.

I got the chance to experience
that for two years.

I showed up to the training
facility at 6:30 AM to get rehab

and Kobe Bryant
was in the gym by himself

sh**ting in the dark.

So he's like,
"Meet me in the gym."

I'm like, "What time?"
He was like, "Five o'clock."

[chuckles] Something like--
All right, cool.

Every time I saw Kobe
it was either leaving

or coming from a gym

or we were going to
a restaurant, one of the two,

and if we were
leaving a restaurant,

he was going right
back to the gym.

That's just
what it was with Kobe.

I think Kobe was great about
getting his teammates

to be better.

Already had a work ethic,
but his work ethic

was astronomical compared to
anybody's that I've ever seen.

I wanted to be around him
as much as I could.

I have the greatest respect for
people that make the sacrifice.

People don't understand
the time it takes

to just be a good NBA player.

What do you think
it takes to be great?

See, people, he got talent,

everybody in the NBA got talent.

Kobe didn't jump higher
than everybody in the N.B.A.

Kobe wasn't the greatest,
best sh**ter in NBA.

He wasn't the best ball handler.

He wasn't,
but because of the work,

but I'll tell you what he was,

he was probably
the greatest worker.

[traffic din]

CHUCK: I wanted to be
a sports commentator

since I was five years young.

My favorite sport
was basketball.

I love the game.

I love the fact that chemistry
is so important in the sport

On the floor,
you've got five players

and they not only have
to pass the ball

and be unselfish, they have to
move without the basketball

and it's a thing of beauty.

Right now as I'm delivering
this message to you,

I'm seeing Kobe Bryant with the
Lakers with Shaquille O'Neal.

It was beautiful basketball
to see the two of them

destroy opponents
in sync together...

checking their egos at the door

and making sure their team
rose to the occasion

and won a basketball game.

That's the beauty and
the essence of the sport

where you can play for the team

and the name
on your chest, Lakers,

instead of the back
of the jersey

with your individual name.

And that's what
Kobe and Shaq did.

When they won
those championships

back to back to back,

I'm thinking,
okay, this is rigged,

you know, this is--
something's going on here.

And the only thing that
I can compare it to

is back when
Michael Jordan played

when they won their first three

and then Mike took off
and then they came back

and then
they won the second three.

So I'm thinking, okay,
something's with this--

with this type of player,

comparing him
to Michael Jordan back then.

Well, I felt very fortunate
that in a short amount of time

I went from...

a little snotty nose kid
from North Carolina

to a role model
and to a lot of people.

Who was Kobe following? Um...

Who did he have as a role model?

Which player was Kobe
most influenced by?

Michael Jordan.

SAM: This is what was funny,

I remember about his 3rd,
4th year in the league.

The joke was in the locker rooms
Kobe walked by,

look at him, he want to be
like Michael Jordan.

Look at him,
he talked like Michael Jordan.

Look at him, he stick his tongue
out like Michael Jordan.

And I'll never forget this.
I'm in the locker room one day,

Some of the guys
in the locker room

hating on Kobe,
he wanna be like Mike.

I stopped him.
I turned the tv on mute,

And this is what I said,

and I hope I can say this
and excuse me,

I want to apologize in
advance but it pisses me off.

Show you how people think.

I said, you guys are
a bunch of stupid m*therf*ckers

And they said, "Why?"

Y'all are sitting in the room
laughing at a player

who wants to be like
Michael Jordan.

Let that sink in.

Y'all are laughing now.

It's not that he's--
just wants to be like him,

he's working his a*s off
in the gym.

While you're laughing,
he's in the gym,

trying to be as good,
if not better,

than the guy that we think is
the greatest, Michael Jordan.

And you idiots are laughing.

What you should be doing

is picking somebody like him,
who's great,

and getting your a*s
out this locker room

and get in the gym
and start working on your game

and start mimicking that guy.

Who's stupid, the guy
that's trying to be like the--

the guy that's trying
to be like the greatest?

Or the guys that sit around here
too afraid to try to be great?

If I had to pick what player
right now represents the future

it would have to be Kobe Bryant

with the way that he plays
the game of basketball.

I have high regards in terms of
how he focused on the game.

He works on
his basketball skills.

Each and every year
he gets better.

I think Michael Jordan
passed off the torch to Kobe.

He handed him the keys
and said, "Hey...

This is your NBA now.

Do with it what I did
and go further."

It was a Sunday night,
we're in Los Angeles.

SPORTSCASTER: Just another
great day to be in L.A.

Downtown Los Angeles, you're
looking at the basketball...

CHUCK: I remember
that Laker ball club

average, maybe a little
above average, not much...

Kobe Bryant was playing
with guys like Lamar Odom,

Kwame Brown, Smush Parker,
Chris Mihm.

So you could tell
that if the Lakers

were gonna win a ballgame,
they relied on Kobe Bryant.

DEVIN: I just remember...

Phil was, he just kept saying,
we have to win this game,

we have to win this game.

So you know,
everybody's kind of doing

what they do before the games.

You know,
some people eating fruit

and some people on their phones
trying to figure out

tickets for their family
and stuff like that.

I just remember Kobe
was sitting in his locker,

quiet, just sitting there
the whole time quiet,

I'm like, hm...

I'm just watching, you know,
I'm a rookie. I'm like...

kind of watching
everything that he's doing

to get prepared for the game.

You know, Phil
comes in a lot of times.

We watched like, um,
film before the game

just to go over like some of
their sets and stuff like that.

And he's quiet,
not saying nothing.

He's just sitting there
and then he just

comes in the middle
and is like...

let's go,
you know what I mean?

So we break off,
we run out the tunnel.

JOEY:
Going into the Staples Arena,

it's kind of a surreal
kind of atmosphere.

You know, they black out
all the seats around

and then the only thing lit up
in the court is the court.

So going into that game,

you know Kobe is going to do
something special.

You know, he's gonna score
a lot of points, but...

you don't know exactly
how many points

or what he's gonna do.

And the buzz
is going around the NBA,

Kobe's on a tear.

That's what, that's all
you hear, Kobe's on a tear.

He's scoring 45,
he's scoring 50.

So, you know
coming into that game,

something's going to happen.

SPORTSCASTER:
And there's Sam Mitchell,

the head coach of the Raptors.

SAM: When you're playing against
a great player and a great team,

like Kobe Bryant and Lakers...

you don't have to get your teams
necessarily ready to play.

They're gonna be ready.

Look, when we played against
good teams and great players,

I never--
I slept like a baby. Why?

I knew our players were gonna
be ready to play

'cause if they wasn't
we were gonna get beat

we were gonna get embarrassed.

You think our players go relax

the night before
playing Kobe Bryant

and the Lake-- and the Lakers?

What do you do?

How do we get Kobe
to not score 40 points?

It's almost impossible
but it's doable.

We were winning the game.

That's the thing
that people don't understand.

We had never beat
the Lakers in L.A.

I mean we were winning the game,

we were winning the game
the majority of the game.

SPORTSCASTER: So we are ready
to rock and roll here,

at the Staples
with Raptors and the Lakers.

Lakers won in Toronto
on December the 7th, 102-91,

Wide open and a three is good.

Oh, Peterson
Matt Bonner comes up

and scores for the Raptors

and another three,
Mike James, and for the...

ice play by Charlie VillanuevaN
and the Raptors now six...

SAM: And the team that I was
coaching, we wasn't very good.

I think we won, like,
29 games that year.

We wasn't that good

and we had a chance
to beat the Lakers in L.A.

Man, we were playing
like sh*t, man.

[laughing] It was crazy, like,
we played terrible that game.

SMUSH: I'm looking and I'm like,
okay, that's an open shot.

You gotta make that.

SPORTSCASTER: Smush Parker
with a questionable shot.

SMUSH: Oh, we missed again.

Oh, gosh what
are you doing, Smush?

I almost forgot
we were up, like, by 20,

We were k*lling
the Lakers in L.A.

And he was the only one
doing anything.

SPORTSCASTER: Kobe Bryant
weaving inside,

working on Jalen Rose.

He has 14 in the quarter,
but his team trails.

Solid job by the Raptors
on the road here

at the Staples Center, 36-29.

Think about this,

every night,
Kobe Bryant got your best

the other team's best.

Every night, when you're
playing against Kobe,

you know, if you don't bring
your best, he can get 81.

Every night you play

somebody trying
to kick your butt

because you're Kobe Bryant.

So you gotta bring your A-game,
mentally, and physically.

That's why we respect and love

and appreciate
those guys so much.

You know how hard it is,

somebody coming at
you with their best?

Every night.
They went to bed early,

they ate right,
they got their rest,

they went over their notes,

they got their self ready.

What would you do
if you were preparing

to play against Kobe Bryant?

INTERVIEWER:
I would give everything.

Thank you.
So he got that every--

now think about this,
82 nights in the playoffs.

That's what he got every night.

That's why he had to have
that mamba mentality.

He had to take
his mind to a place

that no one else could go

because every night
you took your mind--

every night when I played
against a great player,

I took my mind to a place
that I could very rarely go

because you got my best
every night,

every time
I play against a great guy.

[crowd murmuring]

SPORTSCASTER:
Bryant has not seen action

here in the second quarter.

SHAWNE: You know, he's always
gonna be in k*ll mode.

But you can tell sometimes

that he has a different switch
because it's personal.

It's like he loved challenges
that will make him rise above.

Like he gonna rise to
the occasion every time.

I mean he's a pretty serious,
like for the most part,

like when
he's locked in for games

like doing what he does,

but when he goes
and just stops talking

it's like, all right,
he's on something else tonight.

So that that would be like how
you know he's gonna go

and do something crazy
and be on another level.

So anybody that challenges
Kobe, he loved it.

He loved people
that don't back down to him.

[crowd cheering]

SPORTSCASTER:
We have a time out

for the Lakers,
44-32, Raptors on the road.

DEVIN: So I'm on the bench,
I'm watching the game.

He comes out,
he hits the three.

Pow! Crowd goes crazy.

SPORTSCASTER: Everybody
get in he drops the three.

How about that? Kobe Bryant,
back into the game.

BRIAN: Played a whopping
nine minutes during that game.

During those nine minutes it
just felt like I was running...

[chuckles]
back and forth, back and forth.

We're running past each other
on defense and offense

and I said, "Go ahead.
Do you boy," just like that.

Kobe didn't have the greatest
three point percentage

and that wasn't
the greatest part of his game.

But we knew that if he came out

and he was hitting threes
in the beginning,

it is gonna be
hard to guard him

because you got to guard him
from so far out, right?

SPORTSCASTER: And the Raptors
go into the locker room

leading 63-49 at the break,

sh**ting, uh, towards 62%

and a chorus of boos
coming from the Laker crowd

here, Chuck,
as both teams exit the floor.

DEVIN: We're losing,
'til we get to halftime.

So we get to halftime,
you know, we come in, and...

once again, he's sitting there
in the locker, quiet,

♪♪♪

SMUSH: This is privy
information,

nobody knows this.

So Phil Jackson has
two sets of offenses.

Okay, so we run a certain
offense in the first half

that we don't run
in the second half.

If the offense is getting to
you know get Kobe the ball.

So Mamba was always mobbed
in the second half of any game.

Quiet locker room,
halftime, Phil comes in.

You know, once again
we're breaking down film.

He's yelling at everybody.

"Guys, we gotta win this game,
we gotta win this game."

And he was kind of loud, that--

during that-- during that time.

We're still down.

So it's like...

what are we gonna do?

How are we gonna
dig ourselves out of this?

They come back out,
like I said, quiet...

Didn't say one word
the whole time.

We come back out...

Third quarter.

Never seen nothing
like this in my-- in my life.

He goes bananas,

We were leading,
you know, we were up

and then next thing
you know, something happened.

A switch happened.

Like, a switch in his head

and somebody probably
ticked him off

and said something to him
or something.

And I'm thinking,
I don't think there was anything

that we did or said
that triggered him.

I have no clue.

But next thing you know,
Kobe just unleashes

the terror on us, and it was...

it was a sight to see.

It was impressive,
to say the least

SPORTSCASTER:
Kobe Bryant now at 32.

And the opportunity is there.

Kobe again for three.
71-55, Raptors.

So he comes out,
hit the three, boom,

comes back down another time.

Another three.

Boom, right?

So we're like, oh, my God,

we were like bumping
each other, like.

Everybody's yelling
from the bench,

"Give it to B, give it to B,"

You know, we called him "B"
like, you know.

"Give it to B," like--

So dudes just literally,
just coming down

like just passing to him,

He going like one on four,
one on five.

I'm like,
this is crazy man, like.

You couldn't do anything.

As hard as you tried,
you couldn't do anything.

SPORTSCASTER: You got Bryant
with a pull up three.

You got to be kidding me.
He has 41

A good time out here
by Sam Mitchell, Chuck.

You do not want to get
this crowd back into the game.

75-65, Raptors.

He had that look in his eye.

"I'm gonna score a lot of points

"and you're not gonna be able
to do too much about it."

SPORTSCASTER: Kobe Bryant
feeling it with 47 points.

I'm just shaking my head because
I'm playing it over my head

and that's all you could do
was just, wow.

You know,
what is this guy doing?

We play the zone.

We played a box-and-one.

SPORTSCASTER:
He gets another touch,

Peterson playing with
three fouls,

Bryant double pump,
forced it up...

We played a triangle-and-two.

We played every defense,

we played defenses that
we had never practiced,

that I had played in college.

We did-- I tried to do
everything I thought of

to slow him down.

JOEY:
The majority of the game,

we just wanted to try to
get the ball out of his hand.

We wanted to send a body
or have a presence

so he would pass it
to the other guys on the team,

so they would score.

My biggest thing with
great players like Kobe,

I was a firm believer
in denying them the ball,

trying not to let them catch it.

Do your dirty work early.

All you could do is try
to take him off his spots

and make him work.

But you were
really at his mercy.

He just kept attacking

MAN: The great ones, you gotta
hope they have an off night.

You're not gonna
stop the great ones.

No one stopped Michael.

No one stopped Larry Bird.

Nothing worked.

The single covers,
the double covers,

the triple covers
that we threw at Kobe.

Were throwing bodies at him.

We're double teaming
and we're triple team him,

he's still scoring
and he's making the and ones,

he's making all
of his free throws,

he's making all of his threes.

He was sh**ting over 50, 60%

from the field goal
and the three point line.

And I'm just looking at him
like, "What the?"

You know, but I had
to keep my cool and composure

'cause we were trying
to win the game.

SPORTSCASTER: And at the end
of the third quarter,

it's been all L.A.,
all Kobe Bryant.

91-85 with crowd on their feet.

JOEY:
I think it kind of made Kobe hot

because he was saying, "Okay,

"you're gonna send double
and triple team at me.

"I'm just not
gonna pass the ball."

And I said this to Kobe.
If we would have won the game

and you would have had
the 81 points,

they would have
called you selfish.

You know, I think for him,
more so than anything,

it was about
proving everybody wrong.

That he could
carry a team by himself,

a team that wasn't stacked with,
you know, all these superstars.

So, I think that for him,
this season was, you know,

he was very motivated by--
by that point

of like,
"I can carry anybody," you know?

He told me he just
didn't want to lose that game

and he thought that he could
win it by himself if he had to.

Man, he put on his cape.

He put on his cape

and he carried us
throughout that game, man.

When he-- when he gets
into his, uh, his "mamba" zone,

like he looks at me.

[dramatic music]

And you-- I know that he's--

he's-- he's--
he's ready to attack.

You know that means get him
the ball and get out of his way.

When you think about
mamba mentality,

if you go into the history
on the snake,

you know,
it's just a deadly person.

SAM:
Keep coming, keep pursuing.

Don't give up, don't give in.

Find a way.
That was what Kobe was about.

I'm gonna keep knocking on
that door

until I find a way to get in.

Toughness, mental toughness.

I'm gonna break you.

I'm gonna get right inside you
and make you pay

for being on the NBA floor
trying to guard me.

Drive determination,
fearlessness, aggression.

BRIAN: Slither and get angles
and get his angles

and then attack like a mamba
and explode to the rim.

I just feel like
he's just straight k*ller.

K-I-L-L-E-R.

Just a k*ller.

And that's what
mamba mentality means to me.

[hissing]

It's having
an extreme will to win

in anything that you're doing.

Anything that you're doing.

Just having
a will to win in life

Literally, like whether
that's being a husband or wife,

father or mother,
journalist, a teacher,

janitor, police officer,

whatever it is
that you're doing,

whatever is
a part of your lifestyle,

you approach that in such a way
where the attention to detail,

making sure you're performing
at a high level,

no excuses, showing up
every day, doing the work,

working your a*s off,
all of that...

in my definition
is the mamba mentality

We want the people that are
gonna go the extra mile

to be the best you could be
in life.

SMUSH: He made me realize that
I was thinking too small.

He wanted to be
the best player in the world.

I just wanted to make the NBA.

So that alone, we just know
what type of person he was

because he lead by example.

So, we had to watch what he did
to kinda see his leadership.

How hard he played,
you know, the preparation,

the dedication,
how hard he practiced.

DEVIN:
You know, every day in practice,

it was that mentality.

Him staying late.

You know him getting there
at five a.m. in the morning.

Him doing everything
that he needed to do

in order to put the best
Kobe Bryant on the court.

♪♪♪

If he looked at us and
we weren't ready, he'd tell you.

♪ I told you ♪

And that's why people said,

"I want to be
around Kobe Bryant."

You know, you have no choice
but to fall in line.

That's what the great
superstars, that's what they do.

♪ I gotta do this ♪

He's just like,
"Shawne, man, I'm telling you,

"you just gotta play
hard as you can.

"You just gotta play hardest."

But I'm so frustrated,
but I'm saying in my head,

I'm like, "God damn,
I am playing hard as I can,

"so what do you think
I can do," you know?

Like what is
the next level of this?

I was just saying
in my head, I was like,

"If I ain't playing hard
enough for Kobe like sh*t,

"I think I might retire,"
'cause sh*t, I'm playing--

I don't have nothing left
out here.

I'm giving my all.

BRIAN: So many kids look up
to him because of who he was.

They wanted to be Kobe Bryant.

I wanted to be Kobe Bryant.

Another story.

We had a strict
diet um, at the Lakers.

So they had this--
this big diet team.

I don't know if they were
from Germany, something.

They was--
they was from a soccer club.

They were spending
a ton of money on this.

They was trying to get everybody
to be on grass fed--

grass fed beef,
um, pure organic stuff.

But you gotta understand,
we was losing.

So every day, when we come in,

they'll bring us into
the meeting room,

we're sitting there

and I probably
shouldn't be tell you this,

but they'll bring us in
the meeting room

and we'll be sitting there,

and they'd be talking--
talking to us about food

and Kobe said,
um, he just raised his hand,

he said, "Listen, um,
do y'all have the study on this?

"Do you have the facts on this?
Who did the study?

"When was this study conducted?"
He just stand up.

He was like, "Because I don't
give a... about no eating.

"We just lost four games
in a row

"and y'all in here talking about
what they're gonna eat?

"To hell with that."

He was like, "I want the study,
I want the study.

"Is this facts, proven facts?"

It's like, he just challenged
our nutritionist.

He just challenged her

and challenged him
all the way to the bone

to where they had to come in
with a pack of papers

to prove to him this stuff
is facts, this is a study,

but he still
didn't want to hear it

because we had lost
four games in a row.

He feels like
there's bigger things out here.

Even though he wasn't playing,

there's bigger things there to
be talking about than food.

They need to be in the gym.

JOSH: There's gotta be
an obsessive nature to it.

So, when you talk about
Mike Tyson, obsessive, right?

Just crazy.
Like the way his mind works,

the way he approached boxing.

Michael Jackson, right?

Still another
great iconic person,

great in his field. Same thing.

Same thing with Mike,
same thing with Kobe.

It's just the way
they operate is so different

Amongst everybody else

and they set the tone
coming in from the start.

It's definitely been, um, some
broken cameras after the game

and some things misplaced
here and there.

Some-- some cuss words said.

BRIAN: I had to tell him
and I had to-- I had to beg him,

Be like,
"Yo, pass the ball dude."

And he always thought that him
sh**ting over three guys

was a better chance of making
it than somebody else sh**ting.

Me and Kobe started to
butt heads a little bit.

Um, you know, if-- if--

if you want me to be completely
honest and candid right now,

I didn't feel Kobe honestly
was giving respect to me

or his teammates.

So, I told the story a long time
ago

that I stopped passing Kobe
the ball.

I wasn't forcing Kobe the ball.
Let me clarify.

You know, Phil Jackson in
the beginning of the season,

I remember Phil Jackson in the
beginning of the first season

that I was there told-- told
everybody in the locker room,

"Kobe is going to get his shots.

"Don't force him the ball if the
defense is denying him the ball,

"that's where we get
our most turnovers."

You know, guys, you know, going
like this pumping, pumping,

trying to get him the ball, they
force a pass and it's a steal.

Uh, so for me, I go like this,
I look at Kobe

and if he was denied,
I go this way.

It's not that I didn't
pass him the ball,

I just wasn't
forcing it to Kobe.

So he felt, I was looking him
off and you know,

that's the reason why I didn't
start my second season,

You know, Kobe Bryant was
the face of the organization.

You know, so if he's unhappy,

they're gonna try to find a way
to make him happy

and that's all that was.

You know, he-- he was, he's the
greatest, one of the greatest.

I'm just a pawn.

It made me feel a way
when he passed away.

I didn't expect for it
to hit me the way it did.

But when I heard of his passing,

like it-- it hit--
It rocked me to my core.

Like I couldn't walk,
My legs gave out, I was shaking.

Um, and I didn't know why,
but you know,

as I was thinking about, it's
because at the end of the day,

we developed a bond

A brotherhood.

We went out there every night,
you know,

82 games for
two seasons straight.

We were teammates, even though
we might have did this,

we were still like this
and uh, you know,

it bothered me that he and I
didn't get a chance to talk,

you know, to one another, um.

[somber music]

You know, we're not
the smartest in-- in our 20s.

Here I am in my 40s and I still
make mistakes,

but I realized
that in my 20s, like I was--

I made a lot of them.

He has the reputation
of being an as*h*le.

I love it because again,

guys at that level have to have
a arrogance and c*ck

and the competitiveness
about themselves

because they demand greatness.

[crowd cheering]

CHUCK:
So, it's a Sunday night game

and the Raptors are up big.

They're up by nearly 20 points

and then Kobe took over.

Came away with a steal
at mid court.

Went to the rim, dunked
and the place started to ignite.

And all of a sudden,

you look at Kobe Bryant
the box score.

He's got 25, he's got 32,
he's got 41 and I'm thinking,

"what are we seeing here?"

So Kobe Bryant's
around the 46, 48 point mark.

And I'm thinking to myself,
"Wow."

And I turned to
my color analyst, Leo Rautins.

I said, Leo, "I think he's
probably gonna get 65+ tonight."

And boy, was I wrong.

Everyone knew at Staples,
he was going to get the ball.

They sent Mike James,
Chris Bosh,

Matt Bonner
Mo Peterson, Jalen Rose.

They sent everyone
at Kobe Bryant

and Kobe just
sliced them up.

Man, when I tell you
it was just like bucket

after bucket
after bucket after bucket.

Bryant is just like looking
at me like, "Welcome to school."

You know, we didn't know how big
it was gonna be

as far as like his point total

but we knew it was gonna be
something special.

CHUCK: Here's Bryant.

And Kobe was going everywhere.

He was going
to the rim on dunks.

He was doing pull up threes,

He was doing fadeaway jumpers
from 18 feet.

He was going to the foul line.

Everyone in the arena
and the Toronto Raptors knew

that he was going
to get the ball

and we still couldn't stop him.

"Kobe is--
Did he just make that shot?

"Okay, let's get him
the ball again.

"Dang, that was
a tough shot."

And there was one shot
that I remember,

he caught it about 38 feet out
near the hash mark.

The shot clock was going down.

CHUCK: Kobe right into the lane.

What am I watching here?

ANNOUNCER: Well, we're gonna
have a timeout here.

Okay. Yeah. He's-- he's on
a different level right now.

I mean, I'm watching perhaps

the greatest individual game
I've ever seen.

So, this is L.A., right?

You got celebrities and stuff
like that.

Rick Fox is sitting
on the other side,

right opposite of the bench.

And he's like baiting him to do
certain things and then,

you know, Kobe won't sh**t
that three, right?

And he would pull up and sh**t
it. Bam, knock it down.

and he's like, "What?
Right there, right there?

Like, you know, so it became
like this little chess game

that was going on
within the game.

It was a game within the game.

You had Lakers and the Raptors,
I get that.

But then inside the game,
it became Kobe Bryant

and once Kobe started
getting past 55 to 60 points,

Kobe Bryant
became the-- the game.

His world inside that game
started to grow

and grow and grow.

He has 79 points.

It really superseded anything
over what we were seeing

with the Raptors
and the Lakers

because all the attention
was on Kobe Bryant

and how many points
he was gonna end up with?

He's got 79 points and
the crowd is just going crazy.

He goes to line.

LEO: That was close.
How much pressure do you want?

CHUCK: I'm going for 80.

This crowd is on their feet.

wanting to be together--
There it is.

Remarkable. Outstanding.
Spectacular.

Chuck, did you ever think
you'd see a player

in any one of our games
put up 80 points. 81.

If somebody told me
we'd be in the house tonight

watching Kobe Bryant with 81.

I can't believe what I just saw.

And now, Bryant's
run out the game.

An NBA player scored 81 points.

MAN: You wanna show
your teammate love.

Everybody understood
after the game

how classic of a moment
that was.

I think Kobe was loved and
respected by so many people

because they appreciated
the effort every night.

He tried to be
great every night.

He understood
what the game was about.

Yeah, it was about
the competition,

it was about winning,

but he understood he had
a responsibility to show up

and try to be great
for the fans every night.

[crowd cheering]

There are some people
save their money

to get to go to one game.

One game and Kobe felt like,
"Hey, man.

"I wanted that person to come to
see me live for the first

"and maybe the only time

"I wanted them to leave there
with something special."

He felt that responsibility.

CHUCK: When somebody with
their hard earned money,

puts that money into a ticket
for himself,

for a family member,
for a next door neighbor,

to say, "I want to see
Kobe Bryant play."

Wow, it doesn't get
any better than that.

-[somber music]
-[crowd cheering]

Look, man. What do you say Wilt
Chamberlain score 101 points?

You shake his hand
and say he's great.

What do you say when
Kobe Bryant scores 81?

You shake his hand
and you say it's great.

CHUCK: Did it hurt?

Yeah, because everyone's still
talking about,

"Hey, you're the team
that gave up 81 to Kobe Bryant."

I must have heard that
for a good two to four weeks.

Coach Mitchell, Sam Mitchell.

We get into the locker room
and it was just silence.

It was just quiet 'cause
we're still all kind of stunned.

Like Kobe just scored 81.

Then the coaches come in like
they normally do,

like any other thing
and then they're-- they're mad.

For me, it was disappointing.

but like I said,
it was Kobe Bryant.

But you can't blame the vets,
you can't blame Jalen,

you can't blame Mo,
you can't blame Mike James,

you can't blame
any of the older guys

because they knew it was coming.

The coaches knew it was coming.
Who do you put the blame on?

So guess who got
the majority of the blame?

Me and the younger guys.

Jose Calderon,
Charlie Villanueva, the rookies.

So, it was
a learning experience from us.

It was a bad one, but
you couldn't blame anybody else.

That's just kinda
how it went at that time.

You put the blame and
you chalk it up, you move on.

But at that point on, now,
you're in the history books,

It's written.
What do you do?

Here's the thing.

It's easy to look back now
at that game

and say, "We should have
doubled Kobe Bryant."

They did everything they could
in a sense,

whether it was a box-and-one,
whether they trapped him.

We did double Kobe Bryant.
We played zone.

we played box-and-one,
we played triangle too.

And at a certain point, I don't
want to say to the journalists,

"Do y'all know
what you're looking at?"

But we did all those things.

I did everything that I knew to
do humanly possible to beat him

and to stop him
and to win the game.

And he did everything humanly
possible

in the-- in the God given talent
within the rules of the game

to not let us do that.

And that night,
he was the better man.

What's wrong with that?

I was on teams
that won a lot of games.

Those were the nights,
we were just a better team.

That's what sports about.

That's what you love about it.

If you remember, there was
a short brief time

where he flirted
with going to Phoenix.

I never thought
that was gonna happen.

When you walk into
the Staples Center,

you see the names.

Kareem, Magic,
all those great players

and then
you see the banners.

You see the crowd.

Jack, Denzel.

Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?

MAN: Kobe Bryant was
a Los Angeles Laker.

He was the franchise period.

But I mean,
you're talking about 20 years

that he gave
the one organization.

I mean,
that's a hell of a career.

♪♪♪

It's still kind of bewilders me.

We didn't know why he retired.

I think-- I think that he had
officially given the game

everything that he could,
is my opinion on why he retired.

♪♪♪

DEVIN: You look at the court,
it's like your stage.

So for him, that was
his standing ovation moment.

You take that time,
you sub somebody out

so they can-- So we can
give them their flowers

while they're
still alive, right?

So, that's their moment
where, you know,

it's like they get their encore,
you know what I'm saying?

So um, yeah,
to all the viewers,

understand it's nothing
different than being an actor.

Once it's over, you stand up

and you give
that person an ovation.

CHUCK:
So Kobe Bryant is retiring

and this is
his swan song at NBA arenas.

And everyone would
acknowledge Kobe Bryant

with a video tribute
to his great career.

And I saw Kobe
and he recognized me.

I said a few words to him.
He came back and he said,

"Hey, thanks for everything."

And that's the last words
he spoke to me.

"Thanks for everything."

When he played his last game
and I coached

and he played his last game,
after the game,

I just want to hug him
and just tell him I love him

and just tell him,
"Man, it's been a pleasure

"to play against you
and to watch you play."

And to say that I played
and coached in the era

that you participated in
because it was a great era.

I got a chance to witness

and play against one of the
greatest players of all time.

He was one of
my favorite players.

I thanked him for being

everything that an NBA player
is supposed to be.

And I hugged him.

It's brief moments every day

that I still can't believe
that Kobe Bryant's not with us.

You know, when you're grieving
about certain people,

a lot of times what I like
to do is, like,

let me take a step back
and what would that person want?

I could hear
them in my mind like,

"You better not be f*cking
crying you little b*tch."

[laughs]
You know what I'm saying?

Like, I can hear that.

I can hear him say that,
you know?

That's not what he would want.

There's a lot left with Kobe
that might take years and years

to get to and I'm sure everybody
has tons of stories,

tons of things
that they can get to.

You know, he had grew into
such a wonderful human being.

[indistinct chatter]

He seemed like he was happy.

That's the thing,
like, he finally, like,

"I done found my happiness,"
you know what I mean?

"I'm happy."

And that's the hardest thing
to do for a player

of his stature, for 20 years,
to be in that limelight,

to walk away from that
and still find peace, right?

And he found his peace.
He was happy.

[music fades]

I'm gonna-- I'm just one
of those type of people

that I love and respect
greatness.

I love being in
the company of greatness.

I love being around people
that are higher achievers,

that-- that don't understand
what the word "quit" means.

Love being
around people like that.

That's how you grow
and that's how you learn.

Like, what makes you feel like

you can still achieve that?

Even though everyone has
told you no,

even though you don't really
know how to do it,

how do you figure out
how to get from point A to B

when you don't have a route?

And that's the thing.
And so, if I could choose

one day to be with him,
I would choose to be with him

that morning and try to talk him
out of taking the helicopter.

[pensive music]

[lights shut off]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

["Ballin" by Coolie & Silla]

[rapping in German]

♪ I'm running red lights
and stop signs ♪

♪ Parley when it's shop time,
it's only cracking ♪

♪ As soon as I drop mines
dropped line ♪

♪ Like players and p*mps,
I'm permanent in the game ♪

♪ Y'all- just temps ♪
♪ But back to the lecture ♪

♪ And the hand
that I'm spitting ♪

♪ Y'all fools gotta learn
to be subtle with women ♪

♪ If baby got cake like
Dolley Madison, homie, yes ♪

♪ Honey gotta own
but you don't got funding then ♪

♪ Is you in it to win it,
though? ♪

♪ In it to spin it 'cause you
knew what you was looking for ♪

♪ You want a- with chips
that's rolling on rhythm ♪

♪ Sportin deadies
and Versaces ♪

♪ And them brand
new Timberlands ♪

♪ A house and a job
and benefits and a pension ♪

♪ No tension, just a big
attention, did I mention ♪

♪ Daddies,
they were ready and willing ♪

♪ Did I mention,
Coolio [German] ♪

[rapping in German]

[song fades, crowd cheering]

[whistle blows]

[crowd booing]