When you're out there thinking too much, that's when you can throw the ball away a lot of times. Just play. When I don't think, I have fun.
— Robert Horry
If I played basketball, and you played with me, and all of a sudden you become my head coach, there isn't anything you can tell me, dude. Because your years in the league were just as long as mine. Why are you coaching me? That's one of the things that I hate.
I always get amazed as to how we always need to have someone as the best of something. Why can't we have two people as the best at something?
Everybody has to do their role very well to win a championship.
It takes a lot to become a dynasty.
I always say the Boston Celtics of the 1960s were the only true dynasty, because they won nine titles in a 10-year span.
I just wanted to get to the NBA. I never thought I would have a career that I've had now.
Just once, I'd like a commercial.
When I got traded to the Lakers in '97, Kobe Bryant was just a rookie.
Everything that I tried to act in my life, I put in the time and effort to try and get better at it.
You know what's funny, I really hate Par 3's. I feel like you have to be perfect from jumpstreet. But on Par 5's, you can mess up a little bit, but you still have time to adjust before you get to the hole and still end up with a birdie or a par.
I love playing videogames.
Winning isn't all that matters.
25 was my number in high school and college. But when I got traded to Lakers, it was retired, and Derek Fisher had 2, so I was stuck with 5. Nothing more special behind it than that.
I'm a big video game golfer!
The Dream is one of the best centers to play this game.
Every year's going to be a what-if. That's the game of basketball. What if a guy turns his ankle? What if a guy gets in a car wreck coming to the arena? There are so many different aspects that could happen that nobody knows. Only the man upstairs knows.
A lot of times, my best games are when I'm not even thinking.
I never cared for stuff like the All-Star Game.
An NBA star is a role player. Your role is to score a lot of points; your role is to get a lot of rebounds.
The thing about playing basketball in Houston was we had a great coach, great system, and we had guys that believed in me. Once you get that belief in you, it's easy to play basketball, so, we really never had so-called role players.
When I played, you had a lot of enforcers. You would go to the hole, get knocked down, and the referee would look at you and say, 'Get stronger, get up, and keep playing.'
It's hard to guard two dynamic players working together rather than guarding them going one-on-one.
Everything doesn't work for everybody.
I get excited for the regular season also, but it's just added excitement when the playoffs start.
Kobe's dedication to the game is unreal. And I mean that in the truest sense... it was literally unbelievable.
You cannot get complacent because there's someone out there working harder than you. So you got to keep pushing yourself to be an elite player.
Athletes love challenges, and golf is something you can never master.
I'm very happy with my career, don't get me wrong.
You want to win a championship, but you want to be considered one of the best of all time. All-Star. Hall of Fame.
Some days, I feel like being known as a smart players, sometimes clutch.
My best coach was Rudy Tomjanovich because he asked the players what they wanted to do. He felt we had a feel for the game.
I enjoy Otis Thorpe; he took me under his wing when I was a rookie. I'm also a fan of Ron Harper. He showed me the ropes and showed me what it was to play in the NBA.
I'm an old-fashioned player, an old-school player who will foul you and foul you hard.
You put pressure on yourself to go out and do better. And when you try to do too much, and you're thinking about it too much, it can throw your game off.
Whenever I hear people crying about Kobe yelling at people in practice or wondering whether or not LeBron is best friends with his teammates, I just roll my eyes. You know how many off-court conversations I had with the Zen-Master Phil Jackson in my entire time with the Lakers? One.
If you're in big-time situations all the time - like for me, high school was big-time situations, college, big time situations - you adapt.
A lot of guys... they want to take the big shot, and they talk about it because they're scared of it. You never heard me talk about it. You heard a lot of guys talk about it. But you don't have to talk about it, because if you have the confidence in yourself, and your team believes in you, you don't fear anything. You don't fear losing.
People throw legacy and dynasty around a bit too much.
After I got to the NBA, I had one goal: stay in the league for a while.
There's more to life than just basketball.
The Laker brand and name itself is fantastic. When you have a guy like Kobe Bryant in that brand also, it takes it out of this world. I think the fact that everybody sees the work ethic this guy has makes them work harder.
Learn your craft. You want to be a doctor or a teacher - it's very important to learn your craft and indulge in it. You have to get involved and learn as much as possible and go for it.
I had some moments in my career where I'd walk on the court, and I look around and feel, 'Oh, I'm the best one out here.' But then you go on another court, and you could be the worst player out there.
I'm not a big golfer, but I love to go get a bucket of balls and just smack the balls around. That's my type of game. When I do play, it's mostly in charity tournaments.
I pick good big men as teammates, don't I?
Pressure can make a diamond. Pressure makes me play better because I don't want to let my teammates or my fans down, and that makes me play extra hard.
I think free throws are harder because you have more time to think about it, and every eye is on you. When it's a trey, you catch and shoot.
My favorite champions is the 1995 championship with the Rockets. We were the sixth seed without home court advantage.
I think Phil Jackson started that feud. It happened many times that after team practice he would say, 'Kobe said this about Shaq, and Shaq said that about Kobe... ' We couldn't believe how could that happen, because just the day before we saw them together, jumping on one another.
