Kobe Bryant spoke about his view of the exceptionalism of the Los Angeles Lakers when asked if he might help the front office recruit free agents this offseason.

"You know, the thing about this franchise is that you shouldn't need recruiting to come in it," Bryant said. "It takes a special person to want to play for this franchise, and take the pressure that comes along with playing for this franchise. The pressure of following Magic [Johnson]'s footsteps, myself and the dynasty that we've had, it takes a special person to do that.

"And if I need to convince you come here, to carry that legacy forward, then you ain't the one to be it."

The Lakers have won 16 titles as a franchise with Bryant contributing five of them. Magic Johnson won five additional titles during his playing career.

"When you're here, the most important thing is winning championships. I don't care about anything else. It's winning championships," Bryant said. "You don't have to like each other, but you will show up to practice every day and play hard, you will focus and commit to winning, and you know, if that's the case, then you'll be just fine."

Bryant was asked what would happen if a player is not up to that standard.

"Then you can go play someplace else," Bryant said. "That's fine, too. I mean, it's a certain personality that comes along with it. It's a brand thing. I mean, the Lakers stand for excellence. They stand for winning. We don't hang division banners. You know what I'm saying? We don't do that. We don't retire everyone's jerseys. We retire Hall of Fame jerseys.

"... The people that are here need to be able to lift that standard and hold themselves to that standard. Which in turn gives you the ability to hold everybody else to that standard. If you can't do that, you can't be here."