Ball in his hands, season on the line, and failure promised Kobe Bryant a summer of scorn. For everything that comes with the responsibility of greatness, Bryant can live with the cutting criticism, the besmirching of his legacy, the volume rising on those determined to diminish him in the context of his contemporaries. In losing, he could live with it all – except allowing that barrage to barricade him behind a wall of hesitancy and reluctance.  Read more after the jump.

Shay Marie x Sabrina B.

“I don’t give a [expletive] what you say,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports late Friday. “If I go out there and miss game winners, and people say, ‘Kobe choked, or Kobe is seven for whatever in pressure situations.’ Well, [expletive] you.

“Because I don’t play for your [expletive] approval. I play for my own love and enjoyment of the game. And to win. That’s what I play for. Most of the time, when guys feel the pressure, they’re worried about what people might say about them. I don’t have that fear, and it enables me to forget bad plays and to take shots and play my game.”

For all of Bryant’s missteps in the final moments of a devastating Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder – the bad pass to Durant, the missed shots, the ball fumbled out of bounds – he swears they were all cleansed from him before the Lakers’ charter flight ever touched down in Southern California. Perhaps the five championships make it easier, perhaps the infallible confidence – even arrogance – that his DNA, his relentless preparation, predetermine that Bryant involves himself in the game’s most important stages.

“I found it pretty funny, entertaining, that I made a bunch of mistakes down the stretch, mistakes that I normally don’t make,” Bryant said. “So yeah, I ended up laughing at myself. I knew we’d have a chance to get it back.

“And maybe that’s what separates me from a lot of people: I can laugh at myself in those situations, whereas most people might feel really insecure or nervous about the next one, or pissed off and hold that anger for the next game. I can find the entertainment and humor in it.”

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