https://twitter.com/OldManAndThree/status/1316842777599115264?s=20
Duke 传奇教练 Mike Krzyzewski 分享了2008年 “Redeem Team”和 Kobe 的故事：
“When we were starting to build a culture at USA basketball, and [Bryant],
Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd were added. … We’re getting ready for
Beijing, I’m with my staff in Vegas…and all of a sudden there’s a knock on
the door, two days early, and it’s Kobe,” Krzyzewski remembered. “He said,
‘I want to guard the best perimeter player on every team that we play.’
Now, he’s the NBA scoring champ, he’s the best player in the league at
that time. … And he knew that he would have to change a little bit and be a
leader.
“当我们要开始在美国队建立起国家队的篮球文化时，
Bryant、Chauncey Billups 和 Jason Kidd 加入了我们。”
“我们那时正在为启程前往北京做准备，我和我的团队待在拉斯维加斯...
突然之间有人敲我的门，提前了整整两天，来的人是 Kobe。”
“他说：‘我想要防守每一支我们碰到的球队里面，最强的外围球员’，
他是 NBA联盟的得分王，他在那时是全联盟最好的球员。
而他知道这个场合，他要做出一些改变，去成为一名领袖。”
“And then he pauses — and, you know him and Jordan had the same eyes, they
killed you with their eyes — and he leans forward and he said, ‘Coach, I
promise you I’ll destroy ’em.’”
“然后他停顿了半晌 — 而你也知道他和 Jordan 有着相同的眼神，
他们能用眼神杀死你 — 然后俯身附耳和我说道‘教练，我保证我会消灭他们。’”
“The first practice he doesn’t take a shot,” Krzyzewski added. “So I call
him over afterwards … I said, ‘I’ve seen you destroy teams offensively.
Will you shoot the friggin’ ball?’ And he said from then on, I was the only
coach ever to ask him to shoot.”
“在我们第一次球队练习时，他一次都没出手，”
“所以我在那之后给他打了电话，
我说：‘我曾看过你用进攻摧毁敌队，你可以出手投那该死的球吗？’
然后他跟我说：我是从以前到现在，唯一一个要求他出手投篮的教练。”
“He had this vision of moments. He knew that for us to win the gold medal we
would have to beat Argentina … and he wanted to guard Ginobili. Believe me,
he already had that figured out. It wasn’t just to set an example for the
team. … So, we do play Argentina in the semis, and we’re beating them by 20
points and Ginobili gets hurt … and it becomes a six-point game, because now
[Kobe’s] not interested anymore. That’s who he was.”
“他有着觉察那种关键时刻的视野。他知道要赢得金牌我们就必须击败阿根廷，
而他想要去防守 Ginobili，相信我，他非常早就弄清楚这会是关键。
不仅仅是为了替整支球队树立榜样。”
“所以，我们确实在准决赛碰上阿根廷，并且大胜二十分，Ginobili受伤了，
你会想，那我们岂不是要赢四十分了，结果却变成六分差，因为，
Kobe 已经对这支阿根廷没兴趣了，他就是这样的人，上天祝福他。”