On the Court With... Kobe Bryant (13 page)

Soon after the 2006 postseason ended, Kobe Bryant underwent surgery to correct problems with his right knee. He was still
recovering from the operation when the Lakers’ regular season began on October 31. He watched from the sidelines as his team
beat the Phoenix Suns, 114-106, and then won again the next night against the Golden State Warriors. Two nights later, he
rejoined the starting lineup.

When he first took to the floor, spectators noticed a difference even before he touched a basketball. His jersey number was
no longer number 8; it was number 24, his original number in high school. His reasons for making the switch were never clear,
but some believed it was his way of acknowledging that he was entering a new phase of his career, one that saw him passing
as much as shooting.

The next thing watchful observers saw was that the knee surgery had been a success. While he wasn’t the
team’s high scorer—that honor went to Lamar Odom—he did drain 23 points, rip down 4 rebounds, and help out with 6 assists
in the 118-112 win over the Seattle SuperSonics. Sure, it wasn’t his best game ever, but it
felt
good to Bryant.

“In the first half I jumped off the leg for a reverse lay-up,” he said later. “That was something I didn’t do at all last
year.”

What also felt good was the fact that the Lakers won ten of their first fifteen games. The last of those, a 132-102 pasting
of the Utah Jazz, saw Kobe exploding for a high of 52 points!

Bryant and the Lakers continued to play well through the rest of 2006, although Kobe was forced to sit out one game early
in December after spraining his right ankle. The injury didn’t slow him down that much, however. Three times that month, he
posted games of 40 or more points. He was undoubtedly pleased to have performed so well—and just as undoubtedly, would have
wished the final results of those games were better, for two of the three ended in losses.

Fortunately, Los Angeles was winning more than they were losing. Going into 2007, their record stood at 20 wins, 11 losses.
Bryant was the team’s scoring
machine, but other Lakers were equally important. 20-year-old center Andrew Bynum was steadily improving under the basket.
Small forward Luke Walton regularly posted double digits in points and high figures in rebounds and assists, as did point
guard Smush Parker. Under Phil Jackson’s careful coaching, the team appeared to be moving ahead at full steam.

Kobe had another terrific month in January. With the exception of one single-digit-scoring game early on, he chalked up 20-,
30-, and 40-plus point totals night after night. Those points added up to yet another milestone for the superstar. On January
26, 2007, he tossed in his 18,000th point. At 28 years, 156 days old, he beat out Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan to become
the youngest player ever to reach that number.

“It’s always special,” Bryant said of the achievement. “Things like that really don’t sink in until the end of your career.”

But not every game was to find Bryant earning top marks for his playing. Two nights after hitting that milestone, he hit something
else—another player.

The game was between Los Angeles and San Antonio. Late in the fourth quarter, the Lakers had a nine-point lead. But as the
clock ticked down, they
saw that lead dwindle as the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili swished two three-pointers and his teammates added four more. The Lakers
responded with five of their own, but the Spurs matched them point for point, until the score was tied at 80 apiece.

Then, with 2.7 seconds left on the clock, Bryant got his hands on the ball 20 feet from the hoop. He drew up and jumped for
the game-winning shot.

Manu Ginobili jumped too. As Kobe released the ball, Manu blocked the shot. At the same moment, Kobe’s arm slashed in an odd
motion. His elbow caught Manu right in the face!

When Kobe’s shot missed, the game went into overtime. The Spurs eventually won, 96 – 94. Kobe was disappointed at the outcome.
But that disappointment was nothing compared to what he felt two days later. That’s when league officials ruled that that
Kobe’s elbow motion was “unnatural;” in their view, he had hit Ginobili on purpose.

Bryant vehemently denied that he had meant to hurt his opponent. But it didn’t make a difference. He was suspended for one
game.

“I’m surprised. Shocked, by it, actually,” Bryant said. “You unintentionally catch people with elbows every once in a while.”

Interestingly, Kobe connected with two. other players with similar arm motions later in the season. The first also resulted
in another single game suspension. The second was ruled a flagrant foul. Whether Bryant had meant any or all of the blows
remains unclear, but regrettably, those incidents made some people consider him a dirty player.

If Bryant was having his share of problems, so too were the Lakers. After a promising start to the season, they suddenly went
into a tailspin. February saw them losing six games in a row. In March, they were defeated seven consecutive times, including
one game that found them losing by 36 points! By the end of that month, their record stood at 38-34.

Kobe was doing everything he could to get his team back on top. In one stretch at the end of March, he became the second player
in NBA history after Wilt Chamberlain to post point totals of 50 or more in four consecutive games, with 65, 50, 60, and 50.
All those games resulted in wins.

Other times, such as the match on April 2, he backed off from the basket and worked on helping his teammates rack up the points
instead.

“I like seeing my teammates being in a rhythm. I like seeing their confidence. I like seeing them smile,” Bryant
said after that night’s 126-103 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

The next game, it was Kobe who was smiling. Halfway into the third quarter, he sank a free throw to make his 26th point of
the game. To his surprise, the crowd erupted into cheers.

“I didn’t know what the people were clapping about until I got in the trainer’s room,” he said later. What he didn’t realize
was that that shot brought his career total to 19,000 points, boosting him over Michael Jordan as the youngest player to reach
that mark!

The Lakers finished out their regular season schedule two weeks later. Kobe’s final point average of 31.6 was the highest
in the NBA, the second year in a row he was the league’s top scorer. He was proud of the achievement, as well as the fact
that with ten 50-plus point games he had tied Wilt Chamberlain’s single-season record.

But of course, those records didn’t add up to the ultimate goal: another NBA championship.

With a record of 40 wins and 42 losses, the Lakers just squeaked into the playoffs. Their opponents? The Phoenix Suns.

The Suns had beaten the Lakers ten times in their last twelve regular season meetings. In the previous
year’s postseason, the Lakers had jumped ahead in the first round three games to one, only to be routed by the Suns in the
final three games. This year, Los Angeles hoped the results would be much different.

They weren’t. The Suns took the first game 95-87. They took the second by an even bigger margin, 126-98. The third game—a
45-point, 6-rebound, 6-assist effort by Kobe Bryant—ended in the Lakers’ only victory of the series. Phoenix rode roughshod
over Los Angeles in the final two matches to advance to the next round.

Soon after the final loss, Kobe Bryant made a public plea to the Lakers’ front office. The team was solid, but changes to
the roster needed to be made if they were to regain their championship status. “Do it and do it now,” he said, adding that
he was “beyond frustration” with the year’s results.

He didn’t know it then, but things were about to get much, much worse.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
2007-2008

On Tuesday, May 29, 2007, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a report in their newspaper about Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
The article quoted an anonymous source inside the Los Angeles organization as saying that “it was Bryant’s insistence on getting
away from Shaquille O’Neal [in 2004]” that ultimately lead to Shaq being traded.

When Kobe learned of the article, he was infuriated. The reason why was simple: the source was dead wrong. The next day, he
set the record straight by doing an interview with radio personality Stephen A. Smith.

Bryant told listeners of a meeting he’d had with team owner Dr. Jerry Buss midway through the 2004 season. The meeting was
between Buss and Bryant only and included some news that shocked Bryant.

“I am not going to re-sign Shaq,” Buss said. He believed Shaq was too expensive and too old. Then he
reassured Bryant that the decision had nothing to do with the supposed feud between the two players. “This is my decision.
It’s independent of you. My mind is made up.”

According to Kobe, Buss also stated that he planned to focus the team’s efforts around Bryant, and that he wasn’t thinking
of rebuilding. That latter statement proved to be false, for in the years afterward, rebuilding is just what the team had
set out do.

Kobe had never told anyone of this meeting mainly because he didn’t want to add to the media’s obsession with the troubles
between himself and Shaq. But when the 2007 article appeared, he felt he had no choice but to come forward with the real story—a
story that Shaq himself said he believed one hundred percent.

Smith must have heard the bitterness in Kobe’s voice in the interview for he took the conversation in a new direction. “What
are your feelings about the Los Angeles Lakers organization right now?” Smith asked.

Kobe answered by saying how much he had always loved the Lakers as a kid growing up and as a player. But now he felt he had
been betrayed.

“I just don’t see how you can rebuild that trust,” he
said wearily. “I just don’t know how you can move forward in that type of situation.”

“Are you saying… that you want to be traded?” Smith asked.

Kobe didn’t hesitate with his answer. “Yeah, I would like to be traded, yeah.”

That reply sent shock waves through the basketball world. Bryant was barraged with questions from reporters. At times, he
seemed to back away from his statement; other times, he seemed to confirm it. In the end, one message came through loud and
clear: Kobe wanted to remain a Laker, but unless the organization was willing to make some changes, he would go.

Rumors of trade talks circulated wildly in the following weeks. The Los Angeles Clippers and the Chicago Bulls were the teams
most often mentioned. But by mid-summer, the story had begun to fade. Kobe himself said that he had put it out of his mind
in order to focus on his play for Team USA and their drive to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics. With Kobe setting the
pace, the squad reached that goal by winning the qualifying tournament in Las Vegas on September 2.

Then it was on to the Lakers’ preseason—and the
rumor mill began pumping out speculation about a Bryant trade once again. Dr. Buss added to those rumors by saying in mid-October
that he would listen to any offers for his star player. But as nothing came of such talk, Kobe remained with Los Angeles.

The preseason found Bryant plagued with other difficulties besides trade talks. He had been bothered with tendonitis in his
knee, for one thing. Then, a week before the regular season began, he was forced to the sidelines with a wrist injury.

The wrist healed quickly, however, and Kobe was cleared to play in the team’s opening day game against the Houston Rockets.
He was loudly booed by the home crowd when he first took to the floor. But he quickly turned those jeers into cheers with
an amazing 45-point performance. Those points added up to almost half of the team’s total score. Unfortunately for Laker fans,
that total was two less than the points racked up by the Rockets.

Los Angeles played Phoenix in their next outing— and embarrassed the team that had embarrassed them in the playoffs by winning
119-98. That game, Kobe demonstrated his new role of team facilitator, or the player who spurs on the action with crisp passes,
able assists, aggressive rebounds, and pinpoint shooting.
For his efforts, he posted 16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in 28 minutes of play.