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-Today we're talking about writing poems to inanimate objects. -WHAT? -Yeah. Let's talk about that vid.
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-Yo you're watching VidTalk on VoiceTube TV, I'm JR. -I'm Ray.
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And I'm reluctant to talk about poetry, aren't we supposed to be talking about Kobe Bryant's retirement?
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Yes we are, fret not. We are talking about Kobe's retirement but more specifically we're talking about his poem that he wrote to basketball, that inanimate object.
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Kobe and poetry, now that sounds totally off, that sounds awkward cause the Kobe I know shoots great hoops and does a lot of trash talk.
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-Now that's Kobe. -That is Kobe, but... -Poetry doesn't go with him.
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Yes, but he wrote this poem to say goodbye, he wrote this poem to announce that he is retiring after this season.
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So this is kind of his way to say goodbye to basketball, to the league, to his fans, he kind of poured his heart into this poem.
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-So he's getting sentimental. -Yeah, it shows through this poem.
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Well speaking of Kobe Bryant, he's 37 years old now, he's been playing in the NBA since he graduated from high school.
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And he's been playing with the LA Lakers, that's 20 seasons in total, that's actually a record you know.
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-Cause that's the most seasons played with the same team. -For a single team.
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Within his record he's won five NBA championships and has been elected seventeen times on the all-star team.
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-Wow that is a hell of a resume. -Yeah he's really got game.
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And because of his outstanding performance on the field, he's earned himself a couple of nicknames.
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For example, the Black Mamba, Peter Pan, and there's this one: Kobe wan Kenobi.
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-May the ball be with you. -From Star Wars.
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Speaking of his name though, do you know where his real name comes from?
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-You mean Kobe? -Yeah, Kobe. -Where does it come from?
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Well actually before he was born, one day his dad was eating in a restaurant, he was having Kobe steak.
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-Really? -Kobe steak. And it tasted so delicious, he decided to call his first child Kobe.
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-For real? -Yeah, that's right. So for your case, you like to eat stinky tofu right?
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-Right, so following that logic, I would name my first child Stinky and my second child Tofu. -Stinky and Tofu.
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And I'm sure there are a lot of Kobe fans right here in Taiwan because I think he's visited us for a couple of times?
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-Four times in total as far as I recall. -06, 07, 09, and then... -This year.
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-Right, 2015. -This summer actually. -Right.
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-And so he has phenomenal influence in the basketball community. -How's that though?
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Off the top of my head, I can think of a couple of amazing feats and accomplishments that he did.
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First thing, he once singlehandedly scored 81 points by himself in one game.
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That's crazy! 81 points? What's the final score though?
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It was 2006 against the Raptors. The final score was 122 vs. 104.
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Wow so he scored 81 points out of 122, that is amazing. He really blew the competition away.
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He must have been at the top of his game at that time being.
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And on top of that, second, he is placed overall in the third place in NBA history as the top scorer.
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-In terms of total score? -Yeah, in terms of total scores. He's placed right above Michael Jordan.
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That definitely gives him some speaking rights. But he's here for a definite reason, cause he's a really hard worker.
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Usually his team they do team practice at the gym around 7 in the morning, but usually he gets up earlier than that.
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-He does individual training on his own. -Before 7? -So he gets up around like 4 in the morning. 4 in the morning to do practice.
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He's really dedicated, he really has strong work ethics.
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And don't just take it from us, a lot of other professional players have said nice things about him,
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so here are a few quotes of players paying homage to this excellent player.
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Michael Jordan said in his 2012 biography that "Kobe's the only one to have done the work," and that "he deserves the comparison to himself".
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Wow that's a great compliment.
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Jason Kidd in the 2008 Olympics said "Kobe was great. He practices as if it's game seven."
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"He wants to prove that he's the best player in the world every single practice."
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And Shaq O'Neal, his old team mate, he said in a 2011 memoir that "Kobe works out every day, he practices every day. Unlike the other stars."
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But you know, everybody has his ups and downs in life and Kobe is no exception to that.
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Recently he's been losing his touch in his game, for the past few seasons, mostly because of some injuries that he's had.
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And one in specific is his Achilles tendon. He's been really having some problems with that, suffering from that.
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And the Lakers, speaking of them. Well they haven't been performing well in the past few seasons too.
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Yeah painfully to speak, that is true. And Kobe personally, he has an accuracy rate of around 30-ish%.
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So that's one out of three shots, which is not that good actually.
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But because of his dedication and loyalty to the game, the coach refused to bench him and still puts him out there for every game.
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-Because he's kinda like... -The symbol, the spiritual leader. -...of the Lakers team.
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But Kobe himself, he couldn't take this pressure anymore, he wanted to take this off his shoulders,
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and he said, long beforehand, he has made this decision, and he felt that this is the right time to do it.
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This is the right time to let go. To retire and to call it a career basically.
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And he expressed this with his kind of melancholic, kind of determined poem.
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-So this is where the poem comes in. -Right, this is finally where the poem comes in.
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-Alright do you have the poem? -Yeah, so here we wanted to show you a little excerpt of the poem
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-so that you can get a feel of the inner world, the inner feelings of... -The Black Mamba! -...of Kobe Bryant. Here's the poem.
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Dear Basketball, you gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream and I'll always love you for it.
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But I can't love you obsessively for much longer. This season is all I have left to give.
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My heart can take the pounding, my mind can handle the grind, but my body knows it's time to say goodbye.
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And that's OK. I'm ready to let you go.
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I want you to know that now, so that we both can savor every moment we have left together.
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The good and the bad. We have given each other all that we have.
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-Wow, that is deep. That is really deep. -Do you like poetry now? -No, I've always had bad memories with poetry. So no.
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So this about it for Kobe's retirement, and right here we have a video for you that's a news highlight on this particular issue,
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and after you check this out, we'll be back with the Weekly Challenge.
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After 20 incredible seasons as one of basketball's brightest stars, Kobe Bryant is planning to retire at the end of the season.
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Bryant wrote a poem published in the player's tribune announcing his decision to hang up his sneakers and call it a career.
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And what a career it's been! Bryant will go down as the NBA's third all-time leading scorer just above Michael Jordan.
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During his run, he captured five championships, two final's MVPs, and seventeen all-star game appearances all with the Lakers.
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Not to mention his two gold medals.
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He's come a long way since setting a record for being the youngest player in an NBA game, but like anyone else, his youth has faded.
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Welcome to the Weekly Challenge part of VidTalk, and today we're looking at this particular sentence.
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Bryant wrote a poem published in the player's tribune announcing his decision to hang up his sneakers and call it a career.
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Now we want you to make a sentence with "call it a career", and what does that mean JR?
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Well call it a career you've probably heard of the phrase "call it a day"? Which means to wrap up the day, to finish the day's work.
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So call it a career means to finish your career, make an ending to it.
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So call it a career is to end your profession. End you life as a professional.
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And call it a day is ending a day's work. So call it a something.
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You can make a sentence with either call it a career, or call it a day, call it a night.
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And leave it in our comment section right there, we might choose yours for the next episode.
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Thank you for liking, commenting, and sharing this video!
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And remember to subscribe to VoiceTube TV right up here and come back every Thursday night for a new episode of VidTalk.
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And also, subscribe to both of us here: rayduenglish and jrleeradio.
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And let's go to our comments left by you guys in our last episode. Last time we talked about bucket lists, kicking the bucket.
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Things that you want to do before you die, and we wanted to cover as much ground as possible so we've chosen 10 of your comments.
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-I have 5, you have 5. -I have 5. Let's start with yours.
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First of all we have YuChen, "Before I kick the bucket, I want to go hang-gliding." Okay cool.
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Chia Min, "Before I kick the bucket, I want to travel around the world within 80 days with my lovely family."
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Sounds expensive.
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And Odette, "Before I kick the bucket, I want to live with my family on an island and be good friends with dolphins."
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(dolphin sounds) Can we be friends with you? We're dolphins.
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Yu Ting, "Before I kick the bucket, I want to be a person with strong self confidence."
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And Tseng Yu, "Before I kick the bucket, I want to be a person who can influence people around the world,
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-and then teaching them the specific location of Taiwan." -Tell people we're not Thailand, we're Taiwan.
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-What you got there? -Well what I got here is 5 comments, Benson Wang,
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"Before I kick the bucket, I want to see JR and Ray with my own eyes."
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-Before that though, you can see us every week on VidTalk. -And stop brown-nosing.
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Ok next, automatic230, "Before I kick the bucket, I want to become a professional dancer and finish a wonderful performance."
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That sounds lovely! Next, her name is I want to be a nutritionist, bless you.
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She said, "Before I kick the bucket, I want to be an honored guest on VidTalk."
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-That won't help you with your exam though. -But it'll be fun!
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Alright, next! Sunny820714, is that your birthday? Happy birthday by the way.
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"Before I kick the bucket, I want to become a person who doesn't give a damn about what others think of me, I just want to be truly be myself."
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You do you. You do you.
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Last but not least, Mong Chi Shi. Sounds like a monkey.
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"Before I kick the bucket, I want to use the rest of my life to accompany my family, especially my wife." That is sweet.
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And those are our comments for today! Thank you very much that's a wrap for the show.
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-And I'm JR, -I'm Ray, -and we'll talk to you next time.