For Los Angeles Lakers legendary retired shooting guard Kobe Bryant, the word “patience” is definitely not one of the first things that come to mind when you think of him. He did come straight out of high school, was selected in arguably the NBA's best draft class in 1996 and rapidly took the league by storm.

In an article posted on Friday by staff writer Trevor Lane of Lakers Nation, Bryant expressed the need for urgency when it comes to the development of the Lakers' young core players such as rising star rookies Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma.

“No, not for [Ball]. He needs to get better now. Kuzma, better now. Randle, better now. Players, you want that now,” Bryant said. “We never thought, ‘OK, we’re going to win four years from now. We really thought this is our year. We’re going to get this done. We’re going to push, push, push, push, push to get better now.’ And in the process of having that impatience, you develop. If you’re just patiently going about it, you’ll never get there. For players, it’s kind of patient impatience.”

In 24 starts this year, Ball is currently averaging a pretty solid stat line with 8.8 points, 7.0 assists, 6.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.0 block per game but continues to struggle with his shooting from the floor.

Bryant says that in contrast to the youthful squad the Lakers have now, the Lakers team he joined when he was younger was able to be a little more patient with their development.

“Even when Shaq and I first came here, there was still patience. Shaq still had to grow up, he was extremely young. I still had to grow up. We had a lot of the pieces around that had to grow up,” Bryant said. “Now, it seemed like it was easier then because it seemed like we were a contender right off the bat. Van Exel, Eddie Jones and Shaq. But that wasn’t the reality. It took us years to get there. The only difference was we were a contending team. Never won anything, but we were a contending team. This team here is not a contending team, they haven’t won anything. It’s the same damn thing. So, patience has to be required. That day will come. These young players will grow, and then everybody will look up and marvel at the amount of talent we have.”

In order for the Lakers to be contenders in the eyes of Bryant, Ball must be able to develop on the fly so he and his teammates will be able to make noise in the Western Conference. Ball, Kuzma and the rest of the young Lakers (9-15) will be on the road tonight as they look to win their second game in a row against the Charlotte Hornets (9-15) at Spectrum Center.