duncan228
12-18-2009, 12:36 PM
What's it like to be Kobe's teammate? (http://www.ocregister.com/sports/bryant-224787-odom-play.html)
By Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
NEW YORK You saw what it's like to be Kobe Bryant.
The shot, the victory, the glory. The finishing kick in Milwaukee on Wednesday night was a basketball knight in shining armor being the fairest of them all.
Yet what about his teammates? What's it like to be one of them?
Rewind to the start of the Lakers' comeback, after a Bryant jumper first dents the Bucks' comfy 106-100 lead with 1:18 to play. The bucket is enough to spark Bryant's belief in victory into a full flame, which is where the emotion comes from a moment later at the other end.
Milwaukee's Charlie Bell gets a shot off over Bryant, and Pau Gasol is where he's supposed to be with a perfect help-defense block ... except Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova is first to reach the rebound and is then fouled by Bryant. It's at this stoppage in play that Bryant is enraged.
He has to tense up his neck and face the floor to suppress his frustrated reaction, to keep it from being an outright rebel yell.
"Box out!" Bryant barks softly, face down, walking away from the play. The words come out hardly loud enough for anyone to hear. When he speaks them, he is not even looking at teammate Lamar Odom. As Ilyasova prepares to shoot free throws, Bryant prowls all over the floor, expending manic energy.
It looks like his dog just pooped in one of his Gucci shoes and peed in the other, but he can't yell at the dog because company is over at his house. So Bryant just seethes, silently screaming. He shakes his head a lot. He steals little glances at Odom from afar.
This is how Bryant does passive-aggressive behavior. Very aggressively.
Bryant never does say a word to Odom, who had tried to guess the direction of the shot when Bell took it instead of staying fundamentally attached to the body of his man, Ilyasova. When the blocked shot took a different route than Odom expected, Ilyasova was left all alone to fetch the ball.
Ilyasova misses the first free throw. He misses the second, too. And when the live ball caroms off the rim, it heads right toward Odom.
It keeps coming down and down and Odom still makes no move forward whatsoever to go get it – to the point that Gasol comes across to collect it before it hits the ground. Odom has stayed rooted to his spot, his butt and back and hands all stuck to Milwaukee's Michael Redd – who isn't even actively trying to rebound – as if demonstrating the perfect box-out for a basketball coaching clinic.
On the Lakers' bench, Andrew Bynum has been watching it all unfold. Upon seeing Odom suddenly morph into a rebounding robot, Bynum falls back in his seat and puts his hands over his face. He cannot stifle his laughter.
Bynum, remember, knows a thing or two circa 2007 about being motivated by Bryant wanting so badly to win now and growing angry if a teammate isn't helping.
After Ilyasova's misses, Bryant scores an improbable 3-point play at the other end, cutting the Bucks' lead to 106-105. The Lakers again hold on defense as Luke Ridnour misses a 3-pointer, but that rebound caroms long and Milwaukee guard Charlie Bell is just flat-out quicker to the ball than Ron Artest, who was initially closer to it.
Bryant is frustrated again, but it's different this time. He is mad, spitting out a profanity to himself during the subsequent clock stoppage, but the sentiment is pure. There is no judgment. Artest just couldn't and didn't make the play because he couldn't and didn't, not because he was unfocused.
Likewise, Bryant directed no wrath at Bynum early in overtime for his lost defensive rebound. Bynum has been consistently bad on the boards lately while the coaches work with him on tracking the flight of the ball better, and on that particular play he had inside position on Andrew Bogut and tried – but just didn't get off the ground well enough to control the ball.
Milwaukee eventually recovered it, though Bryant had no visible reaction at all.
Leadership-wise, this is how Bryant has grown in recent years.
He will still breathe fire if he finds teammates are lax or lazy. Otherwise, he has learned the virtue of patience, understanding that building a winning team is about building up individuals, so long as everybody's really trying.
That approach is all you can ask of your friends, teachers, parents or co-workers: As long as they're consistently fair, you can trust what they tell you. Bryant isn't the fairest of them all in this regard, but he has become fair.
He doesn't rush to judgment, for these days there's no need to rush at all. The Lakers are already champions.
They have nothing to prove, plenty of time to improve and a leader who wants the best for everyone ... almost as much as wants the ball in his hands at the end.
By Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
NEW YORK You saw what it's like to be Kobe Bryant.
The shot, the victory, the glory. The finishing kick in Milwaukee on Wednesday night was a basketball knight in shining armor being the fairest of them all.
Yet what about his teammates? What's it like to be one of them?
Rewind to the start of the Lakers' comeback, after a Bryant jumper first dents the Bucks' comfy 106-100 lead with 1:18 to play. The bucket is enough to spark Bryant's belief in victory into a full flame, which is where the emotion comes from a moment later at the other end.
Milwaukee's Charlie Bell gets a shot off over Bryant, and Pau Gasol is where he's supposed to be with a perfect help-defense block ... except Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova is first to reach the rebound and is then fouled by Bryant. It's at this stoppage in play that Bryant is enraged.
He has to tense up his neck and face the floor to suppress his frustrated reaction, to keep it from being an outright rebel yell.
"Box out!" Bryant barks softly, face down, walking away from the play. The words come out hardly loud enough for anyone to hear. When he speaks them, he is not even looking at teammate Lamar Odom. As Ilyasova prepares to shoot free throws, Bryant prowls all over the floor, expending manic energy.
It looks like his dog just pooped in one of his Gucci shoes and peed in the other, but he can't yell at the dog because company is over at his house. So Bryant just seethes, silently screaming. He shakes his head a lot. He steals little glances at Odom from afar.
This is how Bryant does passive-aggressive behavior. Very aggressively.
Bryant never does say a word to Odom, who had tried to guess the direction of the shot when Bell took it instead of staying fundamentally attached to the body of his man, Ilyasova. When the blocked shot took a different route than Odom expected, Ilyasova was left all alone to fetch the ball.
Ilyasova misses the first free throw. He misses the second, too. And when the live ball caroms off the rim, it heads right toward Odom.
It keeps coming down and down and Odom still makes no move forward whatsoever to go get it – to the point that Gasol comes across to collect it before it hits the ground. Odom has stayed rooted to his spot, his butt and back and hands all stuck to Milwaukee's Michael Redd – who isn't even actively trying to rebound – as if demonstrating the perfect box-out for a basketball coaching clinic.
On the Lakers' bench, Andrew Bynum has been watching it all unfold. Upon seeing Odom suddenly morph into a rebounding robot, Bynum falls back in his seat and puts his hands over his face. He cannot stifle his laughter.
Bynum, remember, knows a thing or two circa 2007 about being motivated by Bryant wanting so badly to win now and growing angry if a teammate isn't helping.
After Ilyasova's misses, Bryant scores an improbable 3-point play at the other end, cutting the Bucks' lead to 106-105. The Lakers again hold on defense as Luke Ridnour misses a 3-pointer, but that rebound caroms long and Milwaukee guard Charlie Bell is just flat-out quicker to the ball than Ron Artest, who was initially closer to it.
Bryant is frustrated again, but it's different this time. He is mad, spitting out a profanity to himself during the subsequent clock stoppage, but the sentiment is pure. There is no judgment. Artest just couldn't and didn't make the play because he couldn't and didn't, not because he was unfocused.
Likewise, Bryant directed no wrath at Bynum early in overtime for his lost defensive rebound. Bynum has been consistently bad on the boards lately while the coaches work with him on tracking the flight of the ball better, and on that particular play he had inside position on Andrew Bogut and tried – but just didn't get off the ground well enough to control the ball.
Milwaukee eventually recovered it, though Bryant had no visible reaction at all.
Leadership-wise, this is how Bryant has grown in recent years.
He will still breathe fire if he finds teammates are lax or lazy. Otherwise, he has learned the virtue of patience, understanding that building a winning team is about building up individuals, so long as everybody's really trying.
That approach is all you can ask of your friends, teachers, parents or co-workers: As long as they're consistently fair, you can trust what they tell you. Bryant isn't the fairest of them all in this regard, but he has become fair.
He doesn't rush to judgment, for these days there's no need to rush at all. The Lakers are already champions.
They have nothing to prove, plenty of time to improve and a leader who wants the best for everyone ... almost as much as wants the ball in his hands at the end.