duncan228
06-14-2009, 12:31 AM
Sensing Victory, Bryant Lets Down His Guard (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/sports/basketball/14nba.html?_r=1&ref=sports)
Howard Beck
New York Times
ORLANDO, Fla. — The facade finally cracked, 10 days and 4 games after the quest began. In his 11th interview session of the N.B.A. finals, Kobe Bryant smiled and chuckled and made a joke. His chin and jaw were back in their normal alignment.
“I’m just really happy to be in this moment right now,” Bryant said Saturday, his mood clearly enhanced by the proximity of a fourth championship.
For nearly two weeks, Bryant had been locked in a perpetual scowl (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/sports/basketball/10dribble.html) — his demeanor dark and his answers clipped. He did strange things with his chin.
But the Los Angeles Lakers now hold a 3-1 lead in the finals, and the grimace has faded as quickly as the Orlando Magic. The Lakers can clinch the championship Sunday night at Amway Arena.
Title talk was off limits for the last two weeks. Bryant gently embraced it Saturday.
“I think this one is special,” he said, “because you rarely have the opportunity to get back up the mountain twice in a career.”
The Lakers won three championships (http://www.nba.com/lakers/history/lakers_history_new.html#36) from 2000 to 2002, but that was a different time and a different team. Shaquille O’Neal dominated, in play and personality. Bryant gritted his teeth and played understudy. Veterans occupied every corner of the locker room. Coach Phil Jackson had a soul patch.
It has been seven years since they celebrated anything. Jackson has since retired and unretired. The Lakers missed the playoffs once, were eliminated in the first round twice and so frustrated Bryant that he demanded a trade (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/sports/basketball/31kobe.html).
This is Bryant’s time and Bryant’s team. He has been a forceful scorer in this series (33 points per game) and a skilled playmaker (8 assists). Only Michael Jordan in 1991 and Jerry West in 1970 have averaged 30 points and 8 assists in the first four games of the finals.
If the Lakers win the championship — and no team has lost the finals after taking a 3-1 lead — Bryant will be a lock to win his first finals Most Valuable Player award.
It would be the franchise’s 15th championship and Bryant’s fourth, but his first without O’Neal. That topic was among the many that evoked cold sentence fragments from Bryant when the finals began.
“It definitely means a lot to him,” said the former Lakers guard Tyronn Lue, who now plays for the Magic. “He’ll probably say it doesn’t, but the competitor he is, he definitely wants to win without Shaq to prove everybody wrong.”
O’Neal earned his fourth championship in 2007, with Miami. With his next ring, Bryant will join O’Neal and the San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan as the most decorated superstars in the post-Jordan era. He will move that much closer to matching Jordan’s set of six.
Someone mentioned the possibility, and Bryant batted it away, but this time with humor.
“I’m trying to get this damn fourth one,” he said with a laugh.
Even discussion of Bryant’s future, a subject that usually irritates him, became fodder for one-liners.
“I have a decision about my future?” he said, coyly. (Bryant has an option to terminate his contract this summer.)
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
When another reporter probed further — “because you just brought it up” — Bryant quickly corrected him: “I didn’t bring it up. I deflected.” More laughter.
But no, Bryant said, he cannot imagine playing for anyone other than the Lakers, which should be comforting to Los Angeles fans, though not surprising.
This is the best supporting cast Bryant has had since O’Neal was traded in 2004. Pau Gasol is averaging 19.8 points and 7.8 rebounds in the series, and converting 58.8 percent of his field goals, the perfect inside complement to Bryant’s perimeter game. Lamar Odom, despite his usual inconsistency, is averaging 12.5 points and 7.3 rebounds. Trevor Ariza, a former spare part for the Magic, supplied a critical scoring boost to help lead a Lakers comeback in Game 4. Derek Fisher, derided as too old by some fans, hit two series-changing 3-pointers in that victory.
The Lakers seem grateful to be back on this stage, with the Larry O’Brien trophy waiting in the wings and Champagne chilling down the corridor.
“It feels like the first again,” said Fisher, Bryant’s only remaining teammate from 2000.
Fisher noted, a little sheepishly, that some of his current teammates were in junior high school when the Lakers last won a title.
“It’s a lifetime from the last championship won,” he said. “It feels new again. You know, that’s why I’m laying everything that I possibly have out there to try to help this team.”
Howard Beck
New York Times
ORLANDO, Fla. — The facade finally cracked, 10 days and 4 games after the quest began. In his 11th interview session of the N.B.A. finals, Kobe Bryant smiled and chuckled and made a joke. His chin and jaw were back in their normal alignment.
“I’m just really happy to be in this moment right now,” Bryant said Saturday, his mood clearly enhanced by the proximity of a fourth championship.
For nearly two weeks, Bryant had been locked in a perpetual scowl (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/sports/basketball/10dribble.html) — his demeanor dark and his answers clipped. He did strange things with his chin.
But the Los Angeles Lakers now hold a 3-1 lead in the finals, and the grimace has faded as quickly as the Orlando Magic. The Lakers can clinch the championship Sunday night at Amway Arena.
Title talk was off limits for the last two weeks. Bryant gently embraced it Saturday.
“I think this one is special,” he said, “because you rarely have the opportunity to get back up the mountain twice in a career.”
The Lakers won three championships (http://www.nba.com/lakers/history/lakers_history_new.html#36) from 2000 to 2002, but that was a different time and a different team. Shaquille O’Neal dominated, in play and personality. Bryant gritted his teeth and played understudy. Veterans occupied every corner of the locker room. Coach Phil Jackson had a soul patch.
It has been seven years since they celebrated anything. Jackson has since retired and unretired. The Lakers missed the playoffs once, were eliminated in the first round twice and so frustrated Bryant that he demanded a trade (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/sports/basketball/31kobe.html).
This is Bryant’s time and Bryant’s team. He has been a forceful scorer in this series (33 points per game) and a skilled playmaker (8 assists). Only Michael Jordan in 1991 and Jerry West in 1970 have averaged 30 points and 8 assists in the first four games of the finals.
If the Lakers win the championship — and no team has lost the finals after taking a 3-1 lead — Bryant will be a lock to win his first finals Most Valuable Player award.
It would be the franchise’s 15th championship and Bryant’s fourth, but his first without O’Neal. That topic was among the many that evoked cold sentence fragments from Bryant when the finals began.
“It definitely means a lot to him,” said the former Lakers guard Tyronn Lue, who now plays for the Magic. “He’ll probably say it doesn’t, but the competitor he is, he definitely wants to win without Shaq to prove everybody wrong.”
O’Neal earned his fourth championship in 2007, with Miami. With his next ring, Bryant will join O’Neal and the San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan as the most decorated superstars in the post-Jordan era. He will move that much closer to matching Jordan’s set of six.
Someone mentioned the possibility, and Bryant batted it away, but this time with humor.
“I’m trying to get this damn fourth one,” he said with a laugh.
Even discussion of Bryant’s future, a subject that usually irritates him, became fodder for one-liners.
“I have a decision about my future?” he said, coyly. (Bryant has an option to terminate his contract this summer.)
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
When another reporter probed further — “because you just brought it up” — Bryant quickly corrected him: “I didn’t bring it up. I deflected.” More laughter.
But no, Bryant said, he cannot imagine playing for anyone other than the Lakers, which should be comforting to Los Angeles fans, though not surprising.
This is the best supporting cast Bryant has had since O’Neal was traded in 2004. Pau Gasol is averaging 19.8 points and 7.8 rebounds in the series, and converting 58.8 percent of his field goals, the perfect inside complement to Bryant’s perimeter game. Lamar Odom, despite his usual inconsistency, is averaging 12.5 points and 7.3 rebounds. Trevor Ariza, a former spare part for the Magic, supplied a critical scoring boost to help lead a Lakers comeback in Game 4. Derek Fisher, derided as too old by some fans, hit two series-changing 3-pointers in that victory.
The Lakers seem grateful to be back on this stage, with the Larry O’Brien trophy waiting in the wings and Champagne chilling down the corridor.
“It feels like the first again,” said Fisher, Bryant’s only remaining teammate from 2000.
Fisher noted, a little sheepishly, that some of his current teammates were in junior high school when the Lakers last won a title.
“It’s a lifetime from the last championship won,” he said. “It feels new again. You know, that’s why I’m laying everything that I possibly have out there to try to help this team.”