Interview with Kobe Bryant's....dad

Some of you might know that I do stints for a temp agency working all kinds of jobs from washing dishes to lecturing Japanese people about Malaysia. My latest job was to interview Kobe Bryant's dad for their free magazine.



The article I wrote:

Basketball with Bryant sensei
Challenges in Japan and his lessons for the ‘game of life’
Joe Bryant, also known as coach or ‘sensei’ to the Tokyo Apache team stands tall at 207cm high. It was an impressive view as we met to interview him during his basketball session with the children at a community centre here in Tokyo. Warm and friendly, he was ready to field our questions with a smile on his face. As a child, Bryant was a natural at basketball due to his height and won a basketball scholarship to enter university. He carved a mark in the basketball world as Joe `Jellybean` Bryant, a man known for his skills at the hoop and his soft spot for jellybeans. When Bryant named his son Kobe after the famous Kobe beef, his interest in Japan was sealed. The opportunity to work in Japan provided him with the challenge to learn a different culture. To date, Bryant has lived in Japan for 3 years stating his love for the good food and the great service. Unfortunately, shopping was not part of the list, as clothes here don’t seem to come in his size. Challenges for Bryant also came with coaching the team. Even though Basketball speaks an international language, his main challenge was to incorporate language that both coach and team could react to in the heat of the moment. Towards the end, Bryant had a few words of advice for us students on how to tackle the ‘game of life’. “If you study all the time, you are going to be stressed. You need to have a ‘shut down’ period. No TV, just relax and rejuvenate your body. Have patience in life. You have to smile and learn to turn the other cheek.
Life goes on”.

Thank you to Dezryn and Jeffrey for tips on preparing the questions.