L.A. Times: His giant arms have embraced championships, punched defeats, clutched stardom, shoved frustration, been marked with every sort of tattoo and twist and tear.
Yet marching into National Stadium for the Olympic opening ceremony Friday, Kobe Bryant looked down and saw something new.
Goose bumps.
“First time ever,” he said.
And for his next act, the coldblooded superstar has become a bouncy public patriot, wearing his flag the way he once wore his glare.
Kobe Bryant with goose bumps is like the Great Wall with graffiti, but it works.
Red, white and human, he has never looked better.
“This has a greater significance than anything I’ve ever been part of,” he said at the U.S. Olympic basketball team’s practice Saturday, his voice strangely familiar.
Oh, yeah. This was the Kobe Bryant from a dozen years ago, before he disappeared under the drama.
He’s grateful. He’s humble. He’s awed. After a difficult June featuring a lost NBA championship and an embarrassing Shaquille O’Neal rap video, he’s that kid again.
Entering today’s nutty Olympic opener against host China — “It will be the highest-energy game I’ve ever been part of,” he said — Bryant has decided there’s something bigger than Lakerland.
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I was sooo mad they didn’t want to televise this live in the westcoast, but Im glad they had it live online because its a pretty good game, and Kobe and the rest of the team are ice cold from 3
i got it live and i live on the west coast.
but it was on one of the extra usa hd channels that i dont think everyone gets.
what a second half, they had me a liitle nervous in the first
It’s gonna be tough, I watched some basketball yesterday on nbcolympics.com and the teams there are pretty good. Players in that team have to treat every game as if its a playoff game 7 elimination. Especially in the Medal Games.
The games in the pre-olympic trials were baloney except for Australia. I’m excited to watch these games as much as last season’s NBA finals.
Guys, I´m a little dissanpoited that in these very important basketball days reading the blog it seems Bryant is the only Laker playing the Olympic Games. There is another Laker playing. His name is Gasol and he pwned Greece with Spain.