In May, we broke the news that Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant spent the day in Cupertino, California with Apple Senior Vice President of Design Jony Ive. Today, in an interview with Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman, Bryant confirmed the meeting with Ive and shared some details behind the discussions. Kobe said that he has been calling up leaders across industries to learn more about their processes. He says he asked Ive what goes into the product creation process as Bryant moves to develop his own products as his basketball career winds down.
Bryant says that Ive also asked him how he prepares for basketball games, and Bryant compares his own work to the process of developing gadgets. Just like Ive has an end goal for a product and works to piece all the components together to reach that goal, Bryant says he has a goal for each basketball game that he takes many steps to work toward. We previously reported that Apple is partnering with Bryant and other athletes to test the company’s upcoming fitness and health wearable, but Bryant did not address those reports in this interview.
You can watch the interview with Bryant regarding Apple below:
For those interested, here’s the complete Bloomberg interview regarding Kobe’s post-basketball business plans and his documentary:
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So this is why he was at Apple.
Reblogged this on Taste of Apple and commented:
Some interesting tidbits here.
“Just like Ive has an end goal for a product and works to piece all the components together to reach that goal, Bryant says he has a goal for each basketball game that he takes many steps to work toward.”
Yeah, they have so much in common, Apple and Bryant; engineering and designing a smartphone for a global mass market and preparing for a basket ball game is very …. wait WHAT? This makes absolutely no sense what so ever?
“Yeah, for instance” Kobe continued “you know, uh, before a game, let’s say, I’ll work out, get hydrated, take a shit… tie my shoes… These are very crucial steps that have to be performed before myself, or anyone can win a pro basketball game”…
Have another glass of Hateraid already geez. I am sure he signed something and it would be in Kobe’s best interest not to reveal what went on anyway.
I’m not saying it’s the same, but really you can’t even make a little itty bitty sense out of what they are trying to say?? Love/Hate/Indifferent about Kobe, doesn’t matter, but the dude is a world class professional at his craft. It’s as easy as that. Move on.
Look, obviously Kobe Bryant wasn’t visiting Apple just to exchange platitudes with Jony Ive á la “You Apple guys prepare your products to reach a goal, and I also prepare my basketball games to reach a goal, so hey … we should do more together, right?”. Kobe Bryant visited Apple for a very specific purpose – because that’s the only way you get to visit Jony Ive and his team at Apple, because they need your input. Knowing that Apple is putting the finishing touches on a new wrist worn device with a heavy emphasis on fitness, health and training, I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out what the design team needed Kobe Bryant for.
Kobe Bryant is an intense, smart guy with a lot of focus. He’s making small talk about the visit, but there was more going on. Jony Ive doesn’t have that kind of fandom.
I love this Kobe Bryant story.
http://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/19o38z/hi_rnba_my_name_is_robert_and_im_an_athletic