Kobe Bryant didn’t stop Believin’ for two long years

NBA star Kobe Bryant is one of the fiercest competitors ever seen on the basketball court, at least as hard on himself as he is on his opponents.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant jokes with members of the Denver Nuggets in the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

BETWEEN this hellish season and a 2008-10 journey marathon, Kobe Bryant’s brought masochism to a new level.

The retiring superstar was so vexed by the 2008 NBA Finals loss to the Celtics that he wouldn’t let himself let go of the last moments, when he exited TD Garden after Game 6 and a 131-92 blowout loss.

As the Celtics celebrated, the Boston fans sang along to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,’” because if any basketball city doesn’t want to let go of the 1980s, it’s Boston.

For two years, Bryant said, he let Steve Perry contort his voice to an unseemly high octave in his ear, all the while vowing revenge on the team and the city.

That payback would come in 2010, Bryant’s last championship, as the Lakers took the Finals in seven games. But still: Two whole years of “Don’t Stop Believin’”? It went on and on and on and on?

“It was a tough two years in between,” Bryant told reporters, according to CBS Sports. “I remember when we were losing, they played that song, that Journey song, and the whole arena started singing that song, and I hated that damn song for two years. Seriously, man. But I listened to the song every single day because it just reminded me of that feeling.”

And Bryant held on to that feeeelin’.

“Same thing with the Dropkick Murphys,” Bryant said. “Like, I’m listening to the Dropkick Murphys all the time just because I wanted to remember that feeling, you know what I mean? To go back in 2010 and have that redemption — I was telling Metta [World Peace] on the bench when Paul Pierce was running back down, ‘You know, Metta, I’m so damn happy we won that 2010 Finals. I’d be sick a s — t sitting here right now.’ And he felt the same way.”

This story originally appeared on the New York Post

Originally published as Kobe Bryant didn’t stop Believin’ for two long years