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yep
No. 4: Kobe restarted U.S. gold rush — Carmelo Anthony is the team leader, now playing in his fourth Olympics. Kevin Durant is a driving force. Paul George and Kyrie Irving and Draymond Green and the rest are all key parts. But USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo still credits Kobe Bryant with changing the culture and at ude of the club and getting it back on the gold track, according to Dusan Vranic of theAssociated Press:
“His work ethic, approach and how he appreciates the game is infectious,” Team USA forward Kevin Durant said last month in Las Vegas. “He’s someone who loves to play so much. He’s compe ive when he steps in between those lines. He wants perfection.”
Bryant logged ridiculous hours in pursuit of that perfection, just weeks after having poured himself into an NBA regular season that ended with a six-game loss to the Boston Celtics in the 2008 NBA Finals. Watching Bryant work left Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh shaking his head, mindful that the future Hall of Famer had just logged extended minutes during that playoff run.
“I thought I was working hard,” Bosh said. “Now I have to get back into the gym.”
After training for three weeks together before heading to Beijing, former U.S. Olympic teammateCarlos Boozer noticed the entire roster had adopted Bryant’s routine.
“We all clung to it,” said Boozer, who later played with Bryant as a member of the Lakers in 2014-15 and recently agreed to a deal to play in China. “It soon became our workout, not just his workout.”
Before Bryant signed up for Olympic duty, doubts emerged as to whether his heavy focus on scoring would resonate with a team of fellow superstars.
So shortly after Bryant posted a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006, Colangelo met with Bryant and asked him a pointed question.
“What if I said to you, I want you to be a distributor and not a scorer?” Colangelo asked.
Bryant answered exactly how Colangelo hoped he would.
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Bryant said. “I just want to be on that team.”
http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2016/0...g-13-3/#Lakers
yep
Too bad he didn't have that at ude on the Lakers in the past 4 years, eh gots?
Wow. If he worked that hard and still couldn't make the playoffs in his prime, missed the most shots in nba history and became the first laker to ever miss the playoffs for three straight seasons, he must not have been that good.
That's very impressive.
All that "hard work" paid off: Worst season in NBA history.
Too bad he doesn't have as many MVPs or Finals MVPs as other all time players
Anybody can get an MVP or finals MVP. (see. Andre Igoudala/Steve Nash)....Not everyone can obtain olympic gold...
what? Christian laettner, Michael redd and Carlos boozer all won Olympic gold
Not Duncan...
Duncan is in that not everyone category.
But in the international game, Duncan never got the star treatment that every franchise player in the NBA receives. He may as well have been Angola's sixth man.
Theodore Bronze
Why don't you Laker posters celebrate Kobes gold medal coatailing with a group party?!
ATHENS -- Tim Duncan wore a haggard look as he emerged from a locker room of bronze medalists. Hardly an emotional guy, he mumbled that his international basketball career is "95 percent" over and that, oh yeah, "FIBA [stinks]."
So are you saying Christian laettner is better than Tim Duncan? What's your argument here?
That it's pathetic those guys got gold and Duncan couldn't.
Does Tim Duncan ever wear his bronze medal?
I know when Kobe does promotional shots, he likes to wear his gold medals so I was curious if Duncan does the same?
Rubén Wolkowyski likes to wear his gold.
What are you wearing to the sausage party?
ATHENS -- Tim Duncan wore a haggard look as he emerged from a locker room of bronze medalists. Hardly an emotional guy, he mumbled that his international basketball career is "95 percent" over and that, oh yeah, "FIBA [stinks]."
Can't make the playoffs in.....
Duncan walked out of that locker room Saturday night at Olympic Indoor Hall and figured, "Enough already. This just isn't worth it."
Duncan never got the star treatment that every franchise player in the NBA receives. He may as well have been Angola's sixth man.
"How can you make sense of the officiating," said U.S. assistant Gregg Popovich, Duncan's coach in San Antonio.
"If Tim Duncan knew this is how the games were going to be called, he would have thought seriously about not coming."
Hey I wonder if Chrissy Laetner and Kobe wear the same outfits when they step out?
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