Kobe's heart is as strong as his muscles.

The NBA is a big family, and I think of all these rookies as my brothers. I still believe I am blue collar among the All-Stars.

The journalists are poking me all the time. It's impossible for me to stop even I want to.

Sport is the best means of communication between people from different religions and countries.

Basketball, in America, is like a culture. It is like a foreigner learning a new language. It is difficult to learn foreign languages and it will also be difficult for me to learn the culture for basketball here.

I understand basketball is not my entire life. It's only a part of my life. And there are a lot of other things that interest me a great deal ... other goals to seek, and this is how I have balance in life.

Embarrassed journalists ask me embarrassing questions, and they get embarrassing answers, and then hand out embarrassing stories to the embarrassing editors, who put them to the front pages of newspapers. When is this going to end?