Patience has never really been Kobe Bryant‘s thing, so naturally, he’s pushing for urgency when it comes to Lonzo Ball‘s improvement.
The Black Mamba says the Los Angeles Lakers’ crop of young talent must “get better now.”
Here's a little more context from @kobebryant's interview with @geeter3 from our 'Connected With…' series. Go #Lakers! pic.twitter.com/S3xprzJphr
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 9, 2017
Bryant envisions a bright future for this unproven squad.
Per USA Today (via Spectrum SportsNet’s “Connected With”):
“He needs to get better now,” Bryant said, before adding that fellow youngsters like Kyle Kuzma and Julius Randle must have the same mentality if the Purple and Gold are going to improve.
“We never thought, ‘Okay we’re gonna win four years from now,’” Kobe explained. “We really thought, ‘This is our year. We’re gonna get this done. We’re gonna push, push, push, push, push, get better now.’ And in the process of having that kind of impatience, you develop. If you’re just patiently going about it, you’ll never get there. For players, it’s a kind of patient impatience.”
Bryant went so far as to compare this year’s Lakers, with all their unproven young talent, to his rookie squad, when he, Shaquille O’Neal, Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones were expected to contend for a title, despite having “never won anything.”
“This team here is not a contending team. They haven’t won anything,” he said. “It’s the same damn thing. So patience has to be required. That day will come. These young players will grow, and then everybody will look up and marvel at the amount of talent that we have.”
