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Kyrie Irving says Kobe Bryant once encouraged him to read Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” as a way to shift his focus away from proving people wrong and toward appreciating his own development.

Irving described Bryant’s mentorship as extending well beyond basketball. He said Bryant recognized his curiosity about both the sport and life and deliberately introduced him to books and other perspectives.

“He knew how curious I was, not just about being great at the game, but about life,” Irving said, via Josh Chambers. “That’s why he gave me the book ‘The Alchemist’ and told me to read that.”

Irving said Bryant studied successful figures outside basketball and encouraged him to approach personal growth with the same intensity he applied to studying the game.

“Kobe’s smart,” Irving said. “He studied all the greats in every other industry so he could figure out how to be great too.”

Irving estimated that he had already spent more than 10,000 hours studying and playing basketball by the time he reached the NBA. The No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft had won Rookie of the Year, made five All-Star teams and captured the 2016 championship with Cleveland before joining Boston in 2017.

“When I got to Boston, I was ready for a new challenge, but I didn’t know how it was going to come from within,” Irving said. “That’s why he gave me ‘The Alchemist.’”

Bryant’s message, according to Irving, was to become less consumed by external validation and the ultimate result.

“The journey is the reward. Embrace the journey,” Irving said. “Don’t think about the end goal so much where you’re fixated on trying to prove people wrong or be at the mountaintop without going through the details that it takes to really appreciate it.”

Irving’s career has since included stops with Boston, Brooklyn and Dallas. Through the 2024-25 season, he had played 779 regular-season games, averaging 23.7 points, 5.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 47.4% from the field, 39.4% from three and 88.8% from the free-throw line.

His most recent season on the court came in 2024-25, when he averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 50 games for Dallas before tearing the ACL in his left knee in March 2025. Irving missed the entire 2025-26 season while recovering, and the Mavericks announced in February that he would not return that year.

Bryant and Irving developed a close relationship during Irving’s rise into one of the league’s premier guards. For Irving, one of Bryant’s most significant lessons was ultimately about perspective rather than basketball technique.

“His mentorship was like, ‘Yo, stay curious, bro. I know you’re different. You’re not like everybody else out here,’” Irving said.