Over the 20 years of an illustrious career, one thing that Kobe Bryant will be remembered for is his work ethic.

With his attitude towards work, Kobe won five NBA Championships and two NBA Finals MVP among many other accolades.

However, even the “Mamba” had once felt negative about his game and wanted to go back to school to prove himself.

Talking in “All The Smoke” podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Bryant said that not getting games at the start of his career was a “nightmare” for him.

“There were a couple of them… losing to the Celtics in ’08 was tough. Before that, at the beginning of the journey, I was not playing … I would have went to school because I felt like my coach Del Harris at the time was trying to make sure he did not show favoritism to the young kid and as a result, he swung in the other direction doing things that weren’t really fair … My first two, three years were a nightmare for me,” he said.

A 17-year old Kobe Bryant was the first overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. It was a time when rookies hardly got a run in the team straight away.

“I sit around and watch all my peers going out there and playing 35-37 minutes … everybody’s doing their thing and I’m sitting here glued to the bench getting really, really pissed off and ticked off, thinking I should’ve just gone to college. That was the hardest part,” he said.

Kobe Bryant aimed for eight championships

Kobe has been an NBA Champion for five seasons. It includes winning three consecutive Championships between 2000 and 2002. For many, it would be a satisfactory achievement. But Bryant said that he had initially aimed for eight championships but had to finish with five.

Also read: Jimmy Butler is Full of Praise for Lebron James: “Whatever, Whenever, He’s There!”

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“It pissed me off. But, things are what they are,” he said. “You push for a goal, and my original goal was to try to win 8. You push for it. Push for it. Push for it, and you do the best you can.”