9 Quotes Kobe Bryant yang Menginspirasi, Atlet Sejati!

Kesempatan Bangkit

"Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise."

Bagi Kobe, tekanan dan tantangan adalah kesempatan. Dia bisa menjadi salah satu pemain terbaik karena dibentuk oleh tekanan dan tantangan itu.

Demi Kemenangan

"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 adalah atlet sejati, pemenang sejati. Dia mengingkan kemenangan lebih dari apa pun, entah dengan bermain di lapangan, duduk di bangku cadangan, atau memberikan botol minum pada rekan setimnya.

Dukungan Orang Tua

"My parents are my backbone. Still are. They're the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40."

Sehebat-hebatnya Kobe, dia tetap membutuhkan dukungan orang-orang terdekatnya untuk tetap berdiri tegak. Baginya, orang tua adalah suporter nomor satu.

Jadi Diri Sendiri

Kobe Bryant meninggal dunia, Senin 27 Januari 2020. (c) (ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

"I don't want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant."

Pada puncak kariernya, Kobe sering dikaitkan dengan legenda NBA lainnya, Michael Jordan. Kendati demikian, Kobe ternyata tidak tertarik dengan perbandingan tersebut.

Main Demi Tim

"There's been a lot of talk of me being a one-man show but that's simply not the case. We win games when I score 40 points and we've won when I score 10."

Kobe boleh jadi pemain terbaik Lakers, bahkan pernah mencetak 81 poin dalam satu pertandingan. Namun, dia menjamin kemenangan tim bukan karena dia sendiri.

Melawan Cedera

“The process of it [drives me to come back]. I want to see if I can. I don’t know if I can. I want to find out. I want to see. I’m going to do what I always do: I’m going to break it down to its smallest form, smallest detail, and go after it. Day by day, one day at a time.”

Kobe, sama seperti pemain lain pada umumnya, juga pernah mengalami cedera yang menyulitkan. Saat itu, dia menghadapi cederanya sebagai profesional untuk segera pulih.

Bukan Pekerjaan

Penghormatan untuk Kobe Bryant yang meninggal dunia pada kecelakaan helikopter, Senin (27/1/2020) dini hari WIB. (c) AP Photo

“I never looked at [basketball] as work. I didn’t realize it was work until my first year in the NBA. When I came around, I was surrounded by other professionals and I thought basketball was going to be everything to them and it wasn’t. And I was like, ‘This is different.’ I thought everybody was so obsessive about the game like me. It was like, no? Oh, that’s hard work. I get it now.”

Bagi Kobe, bola basket adalah segalanya, hidup, hasrat, pekerjaan, segala tentang dirinya. Bagi sebagian atlet NBA lain, bola basket hanyalah tempat mencari uang.

Menolak Kegagalan

“When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain, it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself, ‘You’re a failure,’ I think that is a worse, that is almost worse than death.”

Kobe pun pernah gagal, meski dia mengoleksi lima trofi NBA. Saat gagal itulah dia dibentuk, Kobe tidak mau menerima kegagalan.

Jadi Pemimpin

“Leadership is lonely … I’m not going to be afraid of confrontation to get us to where we need to go. There’s a big misconception where people thinking winning or success comes from everybody putting their arms around each other and singing kumbaya and patting them on the back when they mess up, and that’s just not reality. If you are going to be a leader, you are not going to please everybody. You have to hold people accountable. Even if you have that moment of being uncomfortable.”

Bagi Kobe, pemimpin harus berani mengambil keputusan, bahkan keputusan sulit yang mungkin melukai rekan setimnya. Jika ingin menang sebagai pemimpin, dia menginginkan rekan-rekan yang bertanggung jawab.

Berbagai sumber: Google, ESPN, Muse, NBA TV