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Archive for the 'Kobe Watch' Category

Jerry Buss & Kobe Bryant, happy together

Published by Jim Murdoc on October 1, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 1 Comment

O.C. Register: Kobe Bryant walked over to the far side of the court and initiated the conversation with Jerry Buss today after practice. What a difference a year makes.

Bryant and Buss spoke amiably for a few minutes before parting with a handshake on which Buss reached out gently with his left hand to squeeze Bryant’s elbow for a little extra. Buss had sat in on the first Lakers practice of the season — his car parked just outside the door with the license plate “9XWCHAMP” — and had the most fun watching Bryant and Pau Gasol play a fun game of one-on-one on a side basket while most of the other Lakers ran practice-ending sprints.

Buss smiled big and laughed loud when Bryant got on a roll, scoring time after time over Gasol on an array of short pull-up jumpers before breaking out a lovely up-and-under move after Sasha Vujacic had tried to advise Gasol to stand taller by repeatedly yelling over: “He can’t shoot over you!” Gasol finally surrendered with a playfully hard foul on the next Bryant attack.

Bryant and Gasol, both coming off Olympic action over the summer, were excused from parts of practice. The Lakers will practice again tonight at their El Segundo facility and are scheduled for two-a-day work through Sunday.

For Kobe, 30 is the new 20

Published by Jim Murdoc on September 30, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 2 Comments

O.C. Register: He stood there Monday, a prince who had become king, and decreed: “I am happy. There’s a lot to be happy about, a lot to be thankful about.”

Kobe Bryant rules like never before – with an improbably high approval rating and the outright confidence that his team shouldwin the NBA championship this season.

“We’ve got all the tools here,” Bryant said. “We’ve got all the pieces of the puzzle. Now it’s on us to do the work. If we do the work, we should win it.”

That work began officially Tuesday with the first Lakers practice of the season, but with Bryant planning to tap only selectively into the disappointment of falling short in the NBA Finals last season: “Use it whenever you need it,” he said.

There is otherwise no reason for Bryant to retrieve the scowl he so often wore one calendar year ago. He even tried Monday to douse his only existing brushfire by calling his interest in leaving the Lakers for a $50 million European payday “a joke.”

Bryant, who can opt out of his contract at season’s end, said he just blurted out the answer that he’d be interested because he had told USA Basketball teammate – and Nike sponsorship brother – LeBron James not to worry about fielding any dangerous questions during their joint news conference at the Olympics.

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Kobe Bryant on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Published by Kam Pashai on September 11, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 10 Comments

Kobe showed up on Jimmy Kimmel again — but much changed from his last apperance, over a year ago.

Here’s a video recap of Kobe on the show, enjoy!

Kobe’s decision is selfless, but is it smart?

Published by Jim Murdoc on September 10, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 9 Comments

Fox Sports: Call him nuts.

Call him a little bit over the top when it comes to his basketball commitment.

You can call Kobe Bryant anything you want, but you can drop all this selfish stuff about him being more important than the team. And you can even take it a step further as he proves he is far more willing to stick himself out there for his teammates than Shaquille O’Neal ever was.

Tuesday on his website kb24.com, Bryant addressed the topic of the damaged ligament in his right pinkie finger that has needed surgery since Feb. 5. Doctors told him it will take up to three months to heal, so Bryant has opted again not to have it repaired — just as he did more than seven months ago and after the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in the Finals in June.

Wrote Bryant, “When the doctors told me recovery from a procedure could be 12 weeks, I just decided now was not the time to have surgery. What it really came down to for me is that I just didn’t want to miss any time ‘punching the clock’ for the Lakers, given all we are trying to accomplish as a team this NBA season.”

If he were to have surgery this week, he would likely miss at least the first month of the regular season, which begins Oct. 28 for the Lakers. And keep in mind, Bryant still played in all 82 regular-season games and 21 playoff games despite the injury during the Lakers’ 2007-08 march through the Western Conference. He averaged 30.1 points during the playoffs after a regular-season average of 28.3, as the Lakers surprisingly won the conference title.

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Breaking News: Kobe to Forego Surgery on Pinky

Published by Jim Murdoc on September 9, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 78 Comments

ESPN: Reigning NBA MVP Kobe Bryant will not have surgery on his right pinkie because recovery would take too long.

Bryant has played with damaged ligaments in the finger since February, but said Tuesday that he won’t have surgery after seeking opinions from hand specialists.

“When the doctors told me recovery from a procedure could be 12 weeks, I just decided now was not the time to have surgery,” Bryant said on the Web site kb24.com. “What it really came down to for me is that I just didn’t want to miss any time ‘punching the clock’ for the Lakers, given all we are trying to accomplish as a team this NBA season.”

Bryant averaged 28.3 points while playing in all 82 games despite injuring the finger Feb. 5 against the New Jersey Nets. The Lakers guard put off the surgery until after the Beijing Olympics, where he helped lead the United States to the gold medal.

“My understanding is he had two options: He could get it repaired or he could not get it repaired,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak told ESPN.com’s J.A. Adande. “I think he’s proven that he can play for long periods of time with the finger as it is. He did it from February through the middle of June. Then he did it all summer.

“We’re not concerned it’s anymore susceptible to injury. It was a personal decision. My understanding is it can be repaired at a later date. Maybe that’s something he’ll do for life beyond basketball. It was a personal decision that we support.”

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Kobe Bryant’s TV Appearances

Published by Jim Murdoc on September 7, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 15 Comments

Mamba will be making several appearances this week and it starts tonight when he presents at MTV’s Video Music Awards. On Monday, he’ll be appearing on Oprah with Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin, along with approximately 150 other U.S. Olympic team members. The following day, he’ll appear as a guest in the Jimmy Kimmel show.

Check your local listings.

Kobe to announce his surgery date for finger on Monday

Published by Chris Manning on September 5, 2008 in 2008 Off-Season and Kobe Watch. 16 Comments

Kobe will announce on Monday, from his Website KB24.com, his date to have surgery…

O.C.Register: Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has announced that Monday he will specify the date he intends to undergo surgery to repair ligament damage in his right pinky finger. Bryant plans to reveal the news on his website kb24.com.

Recovery time is expected to last at least six weeks, so if Bryant had immediate surgery, the soonest he likely would be back on the court would be the second week in October. The Lakers open training camp Sept. 27 at their El Segundo practice facility.

Kobe can turn to Becks for advice

Published by Jim Murdoc on September 4, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 8 Comments

Yahoo!: When he faces the most controversial decision of his career over the next few years, Kobe Bryant could find advice and inspiration from an unexpected source.

David Beckham.

Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, has stated his intention to test the waters in Europe at the end of his current deal in 2011 and indicated he may be prepared to walk away from the NBA and seek a lucrative contract across the Atlantic.

NBA players have made the switch to Europe before. Dominique Wilkins did it in the 1990s and 2004 lottery pick Josh Childress left the Atlanta Hawks this summer to play in Greece.

However, if Bryant was to make the same move it would be a truly ground-breaking development, a global icon stepping into the unknown and potentially spawning a seismic change in the established order of North American professional basketball.

The only sporting parallel that can realistically be drawn is with Beckham.

Fifteen months ago, the world’s most famous soccer player left arguably the biggest club on the planet, Real Madrid, in order to join the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. In doing so, Beckham put an entire league on the map, earned himself an astronomical sum of money and generated heated discussion about the pros and cons of his shock relocation.

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