Kobe Bryant Plays With No Fear

After setting the record for most missed shots in NBA histroy, Kobe Bryant opened up about his lack of fear playing basketball.

"There's nothing truly to be afraid of, when you think about it," Kobe Bryant told ESPN Los Angeles' Baxter Holmes after Tuesday loss.

After setting the record for most missed shots in NBA history, Bryant seemed to be unaware that he had just set a mark that would likely stand for all eternity.

As would be expected, Bryant did not fixate on the negative implications of missing his 13,418th shot. Instead, he attempted to explain the mentality that allowed him to not simply achieve that mark but also the mentality that made him one of the greatest scorers in NBA history.

"Well, I'm a shooting guard that's played 19 years," Bryant emphasized the word "shooting" mixed with his longevity to explain the record.

Then, as he does often, Bryant dug deeper into his own psyche.

"You've got to step up and play, man. You can't worry about criticism," Bryant said. "You can't worry about failure. You really can't worry about that stuff."

While "No Fear" may be a catchy phrase to put on a t-shirt, Bryant was adamant that he had never felt fear on a basketball court. Multiple times, Bryant reiterated that he had no reason to be afraid.

"You've got to go out and figure that out and play and do the best you can, and whatever happens, happens," Bryant said. "You can't be held captive by the fear of failure or the fear of what people may say."

Bryant, who has a reputation for keeping a mental tab of everyone who has ever burned him, insisted that he was not at all concerned with the public perception of his play.

"And I don't mean to sound cavalier when I say that, but never," he insisted that "fear" was not in his basketball vocabulary. "It's basketball. I've practiced and practiced and played so many times."

When pressed on whether he had even felt afraid for a single moment on a court, Bryant answered crisply: "No." 

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