It was 1996 and I was in Honolulu covering the Lakers’ training camp.
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Overall, it has been Kobe Bryant’s will that has carried him through adversity and his body breaking down over the years. Those who do not make it to the team will have to wait until 2019 when the FIBA World Cup tournament takes place. On the court it was a lot different. It is not that simple to judge the greatness of players.
“Now he’s completing a remarkable career”. That, combined with his skill has made him so outstanding. “It’s going to be talked about viewed, analyzed, overanalyzed for a long time”. Referring to the Lakers Organization as “family”, Bryant states, ” we will always be tied at the hip”. But it was only for the 13th pick. “The good and the bad, we have given each other all that we have”, Bryant said.
That was the player the Pistons fans honored Sunday night – the Kobe Bryant they cheered in the Olympics and took so much pride in beating in 2004, not the ghost who struggled to hit a jumper in a 20-point loss.
Were just getting off to awful starts, Lakers coach Byron Scott said. “So just recently, with his announcement of retirement, some people have come back to me (on the topic)”.
He had a stomach illness leading up to the game, and there was doubt whether he would play. As a result, Kobe had often been around the National Basketball Association scene in Philadelphia. In the spring of 1993, he played in Magic Johnsons Roundball Classic a high school All-Star game…. But anyway, the camera guy asked the former National Basketball Association big man which number he thinks Kobe should retire with. That was the Los Angeles dream team, with Karl Malone and Gary Payton joining Kobe, Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson. But I loved watching it. I was drawn to the game. “If anything, it helped me realize how fortunate I’ve been to play for so long”. I have rarely attended a sporting event and not cared who won or lost, but by the middle of the fourth quarter, I, along with the sellout crowd of over 20,000 fans, knew we were witnessing history.
“If it wasn’t my last season, I probably wouldn’t have played”, Bryant said.
One emerging star is the Pistons’ Andre Drummond, who has the personality and social media awareness to become one of the more popular players in the league. Russell scored 12, as the team shot 40.0% from the field, 27.8% (five for 18) from three-point range and 75.9% from the line (22 for 29). Twenty seasons with the Lakers. It is a shame.
When I heard the news that he was retiring after this year, I couldn’t help but feel sad. That would have provided a foundation that prevented their dismal downfall. And the more he shoots, the more they are likely to lose.
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Instead, Kobe is trying to salvage something from an embarrassing final season. He shoots too much and he can’t get enough lift from his legs on jump shots. It was quite a battle to avoid nodding off in front of my laptop during the second half – after being unable to sleep more than an hour in L.A., following the extraordinary feat and then catching an early-morning flight to Colorado.
