A private chat with Lakers' Kobe Bryant

Jet, April 7, 2003 by Melody K. Hoffman

Kobe Bryant, a co-star of the NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers, is playing an amazing, record-breaking season.

In January, he made an NBA-record 12 3-pointers, including an unprecedented nine in a row. In February, Bryant went on a scoring binge averaging 40.6 points while shooting 47.2 percent from the field during the month. He scored 40 or more in nine-straight games and led the Lakers to playoff contention. Including his last two games in January he scored 35-plus points in 13 consecutive games, second only to Wilt Chamberlain.

To top it off, on March 5 Bryant scored the 10,000th point of his career, becoming the youngest player to reach that mark (JET, March 24).

Though his talents speak volumes on the basketball court, he admits that he is a very private person off-court.

However, Bryant, a husband of two years to his adoring wife Vanessa and a father to his 3-month-old daughter Natalia, agreed to a private chat with JET Magazine where he reflected on fatherhood, basketball, being a role model and life after basketball.

"I've never been a good communicator. Maybe it's just a manly thing, I don't know," Bryant tells JET during his interview at Chicago's Ritz Carlton hotel before a game against the Bulls.

"I've learned how to be patient. Patience and listening, you must have those in a relationship," and to be a good father, he says.

When Bryant isn't on a road trip, his days at home in L.A. are pretty normal. "I'm at the house messing around with my wife and Natalia all day pretty much. Reading to her, watching TV, jumping her up and down. She follows and she smiles. I read anything I can get my hands on-astrology books, obviously children's books, newspapers, anything. She's sitting on my lap and if I have something there, I just pick it up and start reading to her.

"I'm really looking forward to when she turns 2, 3, and then you can start having all types of fun ... Whether it's taking her to Disneyland or a whole bunch of balloons, little things that kids find very intriguing that to adults doesn't seem that magical, but to kids it means everything."

Though he'll give her lots of love and affection he definitely won't be overprotective:

"My philosophy is I want my daughter Natalia to pretty much experience life to the fullest, the ups and the downs," says Bryant. "I know some parents don't want their kids to go through any down periods. I do. I'll be there; I'll support her. I'm sure my wife will too.

"Because that's how you learn. From my point of view and my wife's point of view, it's not always good to tell a child what to do all the time and tell the right path to go all the time. Sometimes children need to fall on their faces-that's the best way to learn. It'll be tough, but I think it's for the best. I have to keep in mind that the ultimate focus here is to raise a responsible individual ... a person who can live on her own and make her own decisions and be a leader. So that's what we're going to try to do."

Bryant, who grew up with two older sisters, says he plans to have more children, but if the next one is a boy, "that will probably be it."

"I would definitely love to have a boy next time," said Bryant. "And if that's the case, it'll probably be it for us, because I want to make sure that we invest all of our time into raising our kids to the best of our knowledge. With the (basketball) schedule and everything, time is limited as it is. I don't want to have five, six, seven kids and not really have time to spend with each individual child ... and time with your wife is gone, that'll be a tough situation."

FUN TIME AND MUSIC

"I have a need for speed, daredevil activities," Bryant reluctantly says about what he enjoys doing besides basketball. "My favorite is bungee jumping. I've only done it twice. I love adventurous things.

"I'm outgoing ... sometimes. I'm sarcastic. I love hip-hop. Right now I would say the best album is 50 Cent. That's one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. [I like] Jay-Z, Nas, Jada Kiss ... the usuals. I don't really listen to R&B that much, can't get into it."

BALL PLAYER & ROLE MODEL

Though basketball is Bryant's passion, it's also his profession, and despite the euphoria he gets from those crowd-pleasing dunks and thrilling three-pointers, he takes the game very seriously.

"I have a responsibility to perform every night. One of my big things is even if I'm hurt, it doesn't matter. If I can walk, I'm going to play. That's the type of responsibility I feel I owe to the paying public, especially on the road.

"As far as to the youth there's a lot of talk about whether a person is a role model or not, and we can debate that until we're blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is kids do look up to you. So you do have somewhat a responsibility. And I think the definition of a role model is a little skewed, because people perceive a role model as being or supposed to be perfect all the time and not making mistakes. But my definition of a role model is a person who kids can look up to and say OK, he made this mistake, if I'm in the same situation, now I'm going to do it differently because I've learned from him.