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.