The Los Angeles Lakers aren't playoff contenders and Kobe Bryant hates losing, but he doesn't hate this season or this team.

"The idea of me having no patience is misunderstood," Bryant told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday night. "I don't have patience when we're not putting the work in, if I see that we're not doing our job as professionals. If that's happening, I'll let my team know about it. But this is not that kind of group. We work. These guys want to get better every day. They're there early working, they're there late working.

"This organization put forth a lot of effort to try and land some of these top free agents. They went for it. I respect that. I appreciate that.

"Now it's time for me to go out there and do my job – not whine or complain about it."

The Lakers have never seen Bryant so patient with his teammates as he's been this season.

"A knee fracture, an Achilles' injury and old age – nobody expected me to be moving the way that I am right now," Bryant told Yahoo. "To an extent, I didn't either. But I've done a lot of work. It's a puzzle that there's no example for. We're trying to figure this thing out on the fly.

"It's a lifestyle, an absolute around-the-clock lifestyle. There's no getting away from it. I've always enjoyed that aspect of it, the process of it, the building of it. But there will come a point when I don't anymore, and then it will be over for me."