Kobe Bryant demands his teammates to be the best every night, and he's not afraid to challenge them. He's not afraid to challenge them publicly, he's not afraid to challenge them in the locker room, and that's what you need from a leader.

Jay Williams

Millions of guys play millions of basketball games every day of the week at the playground or the YMCA. But LeBron James gets $20 million a year because he can jam on all of those guys. We're always going to want to see LeBron and Kobe go at it.

Adam Carolla

I want to be a winner. But you can see Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Wayne Gretzky - that kind of people - where you can see and say yeah, this is players who win everything. I want to be in this page, too.

Alexander Ovechkin

Guys like LeBron, Chris Paul, Kobe... They all speak to me. It's just insane that all these top tier guys who have been in the All-Star game for so many years actually know who I am. I mean not in a million years did I think that Kobe would speak to me.

Andre Drummond

In high school and stuff I would watch Kobe clips.

Andrew Wiggins

The Kobe craze really annoyed me. Most of the practitioners had no real understanding of the product and were abusing it and exploiting it in terrible and ridiculous ways. Kobe beef should not be used in a hamburger. It's completely pointless.

Anthony Bourdain

I guess, if it wasn't for Jordan, there would be no LeBron or Kobe who plays like that.

Ben Simmons

I think everybody's ideal is to have a wonderful career with one franchise, like Kobe and Tim Duncan.

Blake Griffin

I grew up being a Kobe fan, of course.

Brandon Ingram

There are no other Kobe Bryants.

Brandon Ingram

If I would compare anybody to Michael Jordan, it would be Kobe Bryant.

Charles Oakley

I'm much more starstruck by athletes than I am by actors, and I think I saw Kobe Bryant at a basketball party, and I just kind of froze. He's monstrous.

Chris Evans

Kobe was a legend.

D'Angelo Russell

I want to be me - and people know it's me. I don't want: 'He's trying to act like Kobe' or 'His answers are like something Kobe would've said.' Nah. If it's me, I'm going to say it.

D'Angelo Russell

For me it's just amazing that I grew up watching Tim Duncan and KG and Kobe and Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson and all those guys and now it's like, 'Man, I can't believe they actually got old.' It's like they actually walked away. It's crazy to think about, but the game has to keep moving.

Damian Lillard

In my 20s, I could just power through stuff and be fine, but now, in your 40s? It's kind of like Kobe Bryant. He plays basketball a little bit differently than he did when he first started out.

Daniel Wu

Michael, to me, he was an assassin. He was one of those guys that prepared himself extremely well and was relentless in his attacking. And there are a few guys who have that mentality. I think Kobe Bryant has that type of mentality, and LeBron has that type of mentality.

David Robinson

At the end of the day, the only person to have a better Kobe sneaker game than me is Kobe himself.

DeMar DeRozan

I played against Kobe a lot when I was in high school during the summers, even in college, just being that guy in L.A. coming up. He always gave me advice here and there, and even the smallest things stuck with me. I watched every single thing that Kobe did, every game, every move. He made me a student of the game.

DeMar DeRozan

In my head, I'm a big Kobe fan.

Derek Carr

I seen an interview with Kobe; he said what separated him from a lot of people was everyone thought 30 points was a lot. He said he never set himself a limit, and that always sticks in my head. He said he'd score 100 if he could. So he never had a limit, I don't put a limit on anything.

Devin Booker