America isn’t always very forgiving. Perhaps Phoenix fans Friday night thought Kobe Bryant, being a Los Angeles guy, was a Democrat. Just about every time he touched the ball, he was booed.
Bryant just shrugs his shoulders. He says nothing.
After all, the criminal case against Bryant for sexual assault has been dropped, though a civil suit remains. Isn’t he innocent until proved guilty?
There are many who blame him for the dismantling of the Los Angeles Lakers.
It didn’t help Bryant that the prosecution was said to have leaked details of its case, including Bryant claiming Shaquille O’Neal had disposed of embarrassing sexual complaints by paying off the accuser.
That set off a barrage of O’Neal attacks on Bryant, which coincided with the release of former coach Phil Jackson’s book. The book sided with O’Neal and put the blame for the Lakers’ deterioration last season on Bryant.
Add to this mix accusations from players such as Ray Allen that Bryant is a selfish player who will ruin the Lakers. Of course, there are those who believe he already has wrecked them because he forced the dismissal of Jackson and the trade of O’Neal as part of the breakup of the three-time NBA champions. After all, who would disrupt all that winning?
“Kobe had nothing to do with [all that stuff],” insists Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak to disbelieving NBA watchers. “He never asked for anyone to be traded or fired. We were in discussions with Shaq about an extension, and for reasons unrelated to what Kobe did or said, we made the trade.
“It has been well documented our chemistry in the locker room wasn’t the best the last couple of years. Perhaps in time people will look at it differently.”
They do look at Bryant differently in Los Angeles, where the Bulls get their first look at Bryant’s Lakers on Sunday. There, he’s still golden.
“I live for challenges like this,” said Bryant, who had a triple-double with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists on 10-for-33 shooting in Friday’s 107-102 loss to the Suns. “We’ll be all right. If you don’t like uphill battles, you don’t like living.
“We have some catching up to do. We’re competing hard in a game against a quality team, a game we should have won. I like where we are, but I know we have a lot to prove.”
Bryant would have the most to prove.
He was to be the next great figure in the NBA’s star system.
Before he turned 20, he went after Michael Jordan in an All-Star Game, shooting on 11 of his team’s first 13 possessions. The networks agreed in promoting him as they did Jordan. The NBA was on board.
An incident was indicative.
Jordan was out of basketball running the Washington Wizards before his reappearance as a player. Bryant entered a room near the locker room where Jerry West and Jordan had come after watching the game. Jordan began some trash talking about him in his day, and Bryant warned Jordan: “Stay up in the suite. It will be safer for you, old man.”
Perhaps it was Bryant who needed a safe haven.
Bryant got the championships that eluded Jordan as a young player, but he never had the chance to be a Jordan. Bryant, now 26, yearned–and still does–to top Jordan at everything.
Bryant spoke like Jordan did, charming the media without revealing much. Yet he never could be Jordan because O’Neal was standing right there by the basket. It led to the team success Jordan didn’t have until he was 28. But Jordan’s teams allowed him to expand his game and to steal the public’s imagination.
Still . . .
“Kobe is the best all-around player in the game today, at both ends of the court,” Hornets coach Byron Scott says. “He’s about the closest thing to No. 23 that there is. MJ was a lot quicker, but they’re both 6-6, tough, strong, tenacious and have that same attitude on the court. They don’t want just to beat you. They want to rip your heart out.”
Bryant figures to experience a scoring high for a few years. The Lakers’ plan–for some time–has been to rebuild around Bryant. When Jackson told management last winter he would leave if Bryant didn’t, Jackson’s days were numbered.
Then, when an apparently declining O’Neal asked for a contract extension of more than $90 million over three seasons, owner Jerry Buss decided it was better to trade him one year too soon than one year too late.
Bryant always had been more professional–in shape, ready for training camp, working out hours before the game. But he was the loner, often estranged from teammates. He seemed an annoyance to the likable and playful O’Neal.
When Bryant had the chance to leave, he decided to look around.
That’s why he visited with the Bulls, though he was set on the Clippers. They even had a jersey prepared with his name for the news conference. Then the Lakers traded O’Neal and Bryant re-signed.
It was a new Bryant.
“As an outsider looking in, I wondered why he and Shaq couldn’t get along, why Shaq was calling him a selfish ball hog,” says Chucky Atkins, one of nine new Lakers. “But he has been nothing but a great teammate. The first day I met him he says how great it is to have me here. We sat around at camp and talked at night, we’d go to dinner.
“You look at other guys in this league who haven’t accomplished as much, guys like Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady. Nobody says anything negative about those guys. I feel for Kobe, but he says he doesn’t care, so why should I?”
You won’t hear anything different from teammates. Coach Rudy Tomjanovich says Bryant calls him at home to talk basketball, something he said no player ever has done. Teammates say Bryant runs drills when coaches aren’t there, organizes team dinners and card games.
“He really has been more of a leader,” longtime Lakers assistant Frank Hamblen says.
“He’s the vocal majority now, but he’s great interacting with the guys, working with them, getting them involved in practices and games, like the other night against the Clippers [when he didn’t look] for his shot until he got everyone going.”
Yet when the media asked him about it afterward, he shot back that last season when he did that the media accused him of “sabotaging” the team by refusing to shoot.
When questions come up about Jackson, O’Neal or on-court rivalries like with Allen, Bryant usually is curt in cutting off the questioner. He now declines one-on-one interviews and talks to reporters only after games, as per NBA rules. He has been furious and frustrated about what he considers media manipulation of his statements and cheap-shot attacks. Friends say he feels betrayed and hurt.
So he has withdrawn from everyone but his teammates.
Which is why the Lakers are competitive, though just 5-5. This week they get Vlade Divac back and hope Karl Malone decides to rejoin them. The Lakers are targeting potential free agents-to-be, such as Amare Stoudemire and Yao Ming, for the summer of 2007 when they will be well under the salary cap. Bryant believes that will yield another title.
He yearns again for the cheers.
BRYANT’S STATISTICS
2004 game-splits
%%
DT RESULTS, OPPONET MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A PTS REB AST ST
N19 L 107-102 vs. Phoenix 45 10-33 5-10 4-5 29 11 10 0
N17 W 103-89 vs. Clippers 45 9-16 0-1 5-5 23 6 11 5
N13 W 84-79 at Houston 42 7-20 0-5 5-7 19 11 3 0
N12 L 122-113 at Orlando 44 14-31 2-8 11-12 41 7 8 2
N10 L 110-87 at Memphis 34 4-19 2-6 10-13 20 6 4 1
N9 W 106-98 at N. Orleans 38 8-18 1-5 14-14 31 8 4 0
N7 W 106-90 vs. Atlanta 44 6-12 1-2 11-12 24 5 6 0
N5 L 105-96 vs. S. Antonio 45 8-22 1-5 11-13 28 5 4 1
N3 L 104-78 at Utah 41 9-21 4-9 16-20 38 4 1 1
N2 W 89-78 vs. Denver 42 5-14 1-2 14-15 25 4 7 1
SEASON TOTALS 385 68-196 17-53 101-116 258 62 58 11
SEASON AVG/PCT 38.5 34.6% 32.1% 87.1% 25.8 6.2 5.8 1.1
Career averages
YR G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% PPG RPG APG SPG
96-97 71 6 15.5 41.7 37.5 81.9 7.6 1.9 1.3 .69
97-98 79 1 26.0 42.8 34.1 79.4 15.4 3.1 2.5 .94
98-99 50 50 37.9 45.5 26.7 83.9 19.9 5.3 3.8 1.44
99-00 66 62 38.2 46.8 31.9 82.1 22.5 6.3 4.9 1.61
00-01 68 68 40.9 46.4 30.5 85.3 28.5 5.9 5.0 1.68
01-02 80 80 38.3 46.9 25.0 82.9 25.2 5.5 5.5 1.48
02-03 82 82 41.5 45.1 38.3 84.3 30.0 6.9 5.9 2.21
03-04 65 64 37.6 43.8 32.7 85.2 24.0 5.5 5.1 1.72
TOTALS 561 413 34.5 45.3 33.0 83.5 21.9 5.0 4.3 1.47
Through Friday (Chicago Early Edition Sports section, Page 12).
%%
%%
%%
