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Kobe Bryant: Michael Jackson tried to get me to meditate

Kobe Bryant says it took two Jacksons to get him to meditate: Former coach Phil Jackson, and the late pop star Michael Jackson.

From an interview in The New York Times:

[Kobe Bryant] KB: Phil Jackson introduced me to it. When I was 18, Michael Jackson tried to get me to meditate. He could sit in meditation for seven hours. But I couldn't sit still for 20 minutes.

[Interviewer Philip Galanes] PG: Michael Jackson?

KB: Yeah. "Thriller" Michael Jackson. [New York Times]

Kobe adds that it took another three years and Phil joining the Lakers before he "dived right into meditation."

"I always knew the game carried a deeper meaning, more than X's and O's and strategy," he says.

Read the whole interview with the Times here.