Kobe Bryant Appreciates Being Held To Higher Standards Than Peers

Kobe Bryant is in the final season of his current contract with the Los Angeles Lakers and possibly his final season in the NBA.

"I get held to much higher standards than most of my peers," Bryant told Yahoo Sports on his walk out of the Barclays Center. "If I have a bad shooting night, it's, 'He's in the grave. He's in the coffin.' Look around the league, and other players have bad shooting nights – and it's just a bad shooting night.

"But the expectations that they have for me, they're actually something that I appreciate. Achilles injury. Fractured knee. Torn shoulder. Twentieth year in the league. Thirty-seven years old. All that, and the expectations are that I average 30 points.

"But I appreciate those standards, because it's something that still pushes me, still drives me."