• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Jackson exerpts on Kobe...long

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DarienA

The black man everyone at Activision can agree on
We didn't wonder for too long: we recently received word from Kobe's people that he intended to treat the upcoming season like any other.
Click to expand...

WTF? Kobe didn't call his own coach? He has his 'people' get word to him? Damn.

and then later...

"Shaq didn't call me this summer," Kobe told Mitch.

"Kobe, I gave you a message from him," Mitch responded. "He invited you to Orlando to get away from everything."

"Shaq didn't have to leave a message through you," he said. "He knew how to reach me."

So let's see.. Shaq should call him direct... but he can't call his coach direct....


Am I baiting Konex? No... or am I?


EDIT: <after reading more>Oh man I am SO buying this book....


EDIT2:

"If Kobe was interested in taking along a player who would defer to him, Slava Medvedenko was the worst choice imaginable. He hasn't passed up a shot since November."

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAH
 
E

EekTheKat

Member
A few hours later, during dinner in Key Biscayne with the staff, Vitti told us that Kobe has been threatening again to opt out of his contract, vowing "to take Slava [Medvedenko] with me."
Click to expand...

LOL
 
B

BojTrek

Banned
I love it... Kobe is a joke... he is a little kid that never grew up and will learn the hard way for some of life biggest challenges.

KOBE=JOKE!
 
D

Dilbert

Member
Wow. WOW. That book will be a must-read. Kobe IS a little bitch -- hopefully this will kill off what little positive vibes remain for the guy.
 
L

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
"He popped off," Kobe said. I did not have to ask who "he" was.

"You're kidding me," I said. "What did he say?"

"Did you read the paper? It's in the paper," he said.

It was in the paper, all right, Shaq suggesting that for the Lakers to be successful this season, Kobe, who played in only two exhibition contests, needed to rely more on his teammates until he regained his full strength.

"Is this what you're talking about?" I asked Kobe.

"Yeah," he said.
Click to expand...

Bigger bitch than I ever imagined.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
:lol

So Kobe's ego drove Shaq and Phil away from the Lakers! Can't say you won't deserve what is coming Kobe! :lol
 
D

Dilbert

Member
Cloudy said:
It's gonna be sweet seeing the Lakers win it all this year. Screw you haters!!! :D
Click to expand...
Would you be willing to bet a permaban against the prospects of a Lakers championship this year?
 
R

Rorschach

Member
For the record, I've hated Kobe since before it was cool.

"I won't coach this team next year if he is still here," I said emphatically. "He won't listen to anyone. I've had it with this kid."
Click to expand...

This was one day I will certainly never forget. In the morning I met with Kobe. In the afternoon I saw [Lakers owner] Dr. [Jerry] Buss. By the evening I no longer had a job.
Click to expand...

This time the same tension between us wasn't there. We both knew I would never coach him again
Click to expand...

"Will Shaq's presence on this team color your decision to come back or not?" I asked him.
"Yes, it does," he said.
"There's no doubt about that," he said. "I've done that for eight years with him, but I'm tired of being a sidekick."
Click to expand...

Is there still any doubt as to the reason why Phil and Shaq were forced out? History shows that anyone that takes attention away from Kobe gets the shaft in the end.
 
D

DMczaf

Member
Harold Minor?

myth_bestathlete.jpg


Penny Hardaway?

iverson50999.jpg


Grant Hill?

tmac_0311_20a.jpg


"See that? He said my name! Im still on the public's mind!"

<T-Mac> ...

Vince Carter?

capt.cpt10810060008.raptors_training_camp__cpt108.jpg


"Say what?"

and now Kobe Bryant...

kobe_the_story_of_the_nbas_rising_young_star.jpg


Michael_Jordan.jpg


"Who's next?"
 
D

DarienA

The black man everyone at Activision can agree on
DMczaf said:
Harold Minor?

myth_bestathlete.jpg


Penny Hardaway?

iverson50999.jpg


Grant Hill?

tmac_0311_20a.jpg


"See that? He said my name! Im still on the public's mind!"

<T-Mac> ...

Vince Carter?

capt.cpt10810060008.raptors_training_camp__cpt108.jpg


"Say what?"

and now Kobe Bryant...

kobe_the_story_of_the_nbas_rising_young_star.jpg


Michael_Jordan.jpg


"Who's next?"
Click to expand...

Penny was once considered Jordan's Air Apparent? Geez.....
 
All Hail C-Webb

All Hail C-Webb

Hailing from the Chill-Web
Vitti told us that Kobe has been threatening again to opt out of his contract, vowing "to take Slava [Medvedenko] with me." Slava? Was this an indication of Kobe's being totally out of touch with reality? If Kobe was interested in taking along a player who would defer to him, Slava Medvedenko was the worst choice imaginable. He hasn't passed up a shot since November.
Click to expand...


The theory being tossed around is that Kobe, stung by criticism for his shot selection in recent games, decided to show the Lakers how stagnant the offense can become when he doesn't assert himself. "I don't know how we can forgive him," one anonymous teammate was quoted as saying in today's Times.
Today at practice, Kobe went from player to player, shoving the article with the anonymous quote in their faces. I have rarely seen him that incensed. "Did you say this?" he demanded of each player. Later, during a team gathering, he pursued the interrogation. "Right here and right now," he said, raising his voice, "I want to know who said this shit."
Nobody said a word, until Karl finally broke the silence. "Obviously, Kobe, no one said it or no one wants to admit they said it," Karl said. "You've just got to let it go now." Karl and Kobe, who have become buddies, launched into a shouting match that I had to stop.
Click to expand...

I nodded. The next subject was Shaquille. "Will Shaq's presence on this team color your decision to come back or not?" I asked him.

"Yes, it does," he said.

"There's no doubt about that," he said. "I've done that for eight years with him, but I'm tired of being a sidekick."
Click to expand...

He gave his press conference at Staples with our blessing, and we have agreed -- once we attained permission from the league to make sure the funds wouldn't be applied to the salary cap -- to cover a percentage of his private plane expenses to and from Colorado for court hearings. This will cost thousands of dollars. Kobe was unhappy with the type of plane that was selected; he wanted one with higher status.
Click to expand...

What a douche.
 
B

bionic77

Member
etiolate said:
Kobe is an ass, but come on PHILLLLLLLLLLLl you must have tons of stories on Jordan. Now there's an asshole!
Click to expand...

Of course he does, but Jordan is his boy so he isn't going to release negative stuff about him. There are quite a few negative books about Jordan anyways, these books don't change anyones opinion they just reinforce what people already believe.

The book sounds pretty mild to me anyways, could have been much worse. The Kobe/Shaq books will be much more interesting.
 
D

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
This is a must buy for me just because I want to know exactly what was going on last season. I am sure GP is not going to be spared either.
 
V

vangace

Member
This whole thing is from a percepective of Phil who has never liked Kobe, infact he wanted to trade him before the start of the 99-00" season, the year he was hired as Lakers coach. So its no secret that Phil already had a preconceived notion about Bryant.
 
T

Triumph

Banned
Kotex, this is reality calling.

I really don't give a shit about the NBA at all, but I must say that I take time out of my busy schedule to actively hate Kobe and the Lakers. I wouldn't do that if Kobe hadn't proven himself to be a prissy little bitch time after time. On Christmas day, Kobe is going to get a present from Shaq he'll never forget when the big fella rips his pretty little head off and shits down his throat.

Air apparent? Puh-leeeeeze.
 
R

retardboy

Member
Oh goodness you guys are such tools. You believe everything Phil says. Here's some stuff from a book about Phil Jackson called Mindgames with quotes from people that don't just hate Kobe. Especially Tex Winter who I love cuz he coached at my school.

Still, Jackson's initial disappointment over not getting Pippen led him to forecast a 5-5 start for his team in November. And that came before an October 13 injury forced Bryant to miss the first 15 games on the schedule. Yet even a setback such as Bryant's broken wrist proved to be a blessing. It allowed the coaches to mold the team indentity, then to add Bryant's frenetic energy to the equation in December, like some sort of super-octane fuel.

It would also allow time for the rift between Bryant and O'Neal to begin healing. On that issue, Jackson wasted little time. "I'm going to stop some of the gossiping, stop some of the rumormongering among the personnel here," he promised that first day.

At the time, Jackson and his coaches didn't realize just how deep a divide they faced. After the season, Winter would confide that he was shocked by the level of hatred O'Neal expressed for Bryant when the coaches first arrived on the scene. "There was alot of hatred in his heart," Winter said, adding that O'Neal didn't hesitate to vent his feelings in team meetings. "He was saying really hateful things," Winter explained. "Kobe just took it and kept going."

O'Neal's main message to anyone who would listen, including management, was that the team could not win a championship with Bryant. West had been strong in pushing aside O'Neal's desire to remove Bryant from the team, but there were signs that management had heard the message so often that they, too, entertained doubts. During the offseason, former O'Neal teammate Penny Hardaway had contacted O'Neal about joining the Lakers. The center jumped at the opportunity and phoned management. The implied message was that Bryant should be traded, but management declined that move.

During the season, as the coaches worked to heal the rift between the players, Winter explained that it had been clear that if the coaches' efforts didn't work that "a move would have to be made if they can't play together." The team wasn't about to trade the massive O'Neal, which meant that Bryant would have to go. Like West, though, the coaching staff saw Bryant as a Jordan-like player. His hands were smaller than Jordan's, but the athletic ability, the intelligence, the desire, were prodigious. What wasn't clear was whether Bryant would grow to possess the alpha male nature that made Jordan so dominant in his late twenties. Bryant was still so young, it was hard to evaluate him for that. He certainly possessed the work ethic and drive.

But Jackson put off the temptation to form a close relationship with Bryant. The coach correctly read that O'Neal's nature craved such a relationship, and Jackson turned just about all of his undivided attention to his relationship with O'Neal. The coach would later explain that the center did not have the same inquisitiveness as Jordan, and the conversations he had with O'Neal were not as expansive. Still, they spent much time talking. Early in the season, Bryant would point out that he had yet to sit down for an in-depth conversation with Jackson. Bryant kept expecting that conversation to occur. But it never would. Jackson kept his time for O'Neal. Some of the coaching staff pointed out that Bryant could have approached the coach about such a talk, but the young guard had such a strong sense of team issues that he seemed happy to let Jackson focus his efforts on soothing the center's harsh feelings.

For much of the healing between the center and the guard, Jackson and Winter relied on their triangle. The main idea was that because the offense was so structured, it would make the relationship between O'Neal and Bryant smoother on the court. Still, the coaches found there was so much residual anger on the part of O'Neal and other veterans against Bryant that Jackson had to spend months counseling O'Neal on how to get over it. The danger, said Winter, was that O'Neal seemed to influence the entire team against Bryant. So he and Jackson worked regularly on changing that attitude. "The coaches voiced to us that they weren't seeing the same things we were seeing when they watched film and when they watched what was going on," Derek Fisher explained. "They didn't see the same selfishness or one-on-one play that we saw. What I tried to tell some of the other guys is that this is our fourth year now- me, Shaq, Robert, Rick, Travis- so we still had issues that we had dealt with before this year."

And those issues were still cooking on the team agenda, Fisher said. "It was kind of similar to a relationship between a man and a woman where you get upset with all of these things from the past that come up. That's really where alot of this stuff stemmed from. The coaches saw that alot of this stuff would come in due time. But we were so impatient because we felt we had dealt with it before." For a time, it seemed that no matter what Bryant did, O'Neal and other teammates wanted to find fault with it. Winter revealed that he finally put together a videotape to prove to O'Neal that Bryant was doing just what he was supposed to do. "I think Kobe is bending over backwards to get the ball in to Shaq," Winter would confide as the season progressed. "If there's a problem there- and I think we'll work it out- it's that I don't think Shaq appreciates what Kobe is trying to do to help his game."

And so it became easy for the coaches to take Bryant's early injury as a blessing. The guard's absence allowed the team's entire focus to fall upon O'Neal, which worked nicely into Jackson's plans. He had named O'Neal capatain and spent considerable time talking through a new approach to the game. Jackson wanted more leadership, conditioning, and defense out of O'Neal. As Winter explained, Jackson knew that O'Neal was motivated by scoring points, so he gave the ceneter more scoring opportunities as long as he fulfilled the rest of his obligations. Jackson also regularly called O'Neal's hand if hew failed to do the right thing.
Click to expand...


The Lakers would soon find that they didn't need Rodman. With the addition of Bryant, they would instead soar off to a winning streak. They would continue to show surprising poise over the coming weeks, losing a game to Sacramento before ripping off 16 straight wins that would carry them well into January. Finally they lost a January 14 game at Indiana's Conseco Fieldhouse - and just like that, the Lakers became unglued. Suddenly they found themselves in a 3-7 free fall, and all the old panic resurfaced. O'Neal's feelings against Bryant gained strength. Soon the players were again pointing fingers and blaming Bryant's desire for stardom as their problem. "We can't win with Kobe" was O'Neal's insistent message.

Winter though, saw the problem as nothing more than bad defense and maybe a touch of self-satisfaction in O'Neal. "We're getting broken down," the seventy-eight-year-old assistant coach said. "We've been vulnerable to penetration all year long, the high screen and roll. Kobe has a real tough time with it. So does Derek Fisher. And the side screen and rolls. That's most everybody's offense this day and age, especially against us." As for the chemistry issue, Winter said that the coaches were treading softly. "Most coaches, Phil included, have always sort of had a whipping boy," Winter explained. "And I think he's very careful not to have that become Kobe, because he realizes that he's got a great young player here and he doesn't want to squelch him too much. And yet he wants to control him."

The players had admired Jackson for sitting back and letting Bryant learn from his mistakes. But it soon became apparent to the coaches that many of the Lakers were also demanding that Bryant be disciplined. As for O'Neal, Winter said, "My main concern is that I don't want him to be satisfied with where he is. I want him to realize what he's doing wrong, even on the freethrows.......He's not easy to coach. He has kind of a resentment for anybody to tell him anything that he's doing wrong. He's not an easy guy to coach. I think Phil treads very softly on Shaq, Winter said. "I think he still is trying to read the situation as to what is the best way to motivate Shaq. I don't think he knows yet. And I certainly don't know."

Mainly, Jackson focused on encouraging O'Neal to put away his anger. The harsh feelings against Bryant could surge through the entire roster. It was an old problem, Rick Fox said. "The times that we've become frazzled and unraveled as a team it's been around situations where we embarrass ourselves." For so many years the Lakers had been screwing up in the playoffs. Swept by Utah. Dismissed by Utah. Swept by San Antonio. It became a part of their personality. But Jackson had helped them to a 67-win regular season. Suddenly hopes surged that their playoff troubles were behind them. The Lakers' coaches though wern't so sure. They were uneasy about how this fragile team would perform in the playoffs.

Sure enough, they struggled to put away Sacramento and Phoenix and Portland. A key win came in game 2 of their second-round series with Phoenix. Bryant hit a last-second shot to seal the victory. Nothing had to be said; the message had been clearly sent that this team could win a title with Bryant. As his first round film selection, Jackson showed his team "American History X", a dramatic rejection of hatred that ended by quoting Abraham Lincoln's call for healing parties to choose the better angels of their nature, clearly a message to O'Neal about the futility of deep dislike.
Click to expand...


Here's some from a book called Mad Game

Perhaps the most telling factor in Kobe Bryant's first few weeks in pro basketball was the nickname affixed to him by Shaquille O'Neal, his seven-foot-one, 330 pound teammate. O'Neal had watched Bryant dunk in his early practices and had seen him basking in the media glow as reporters gravitated to him in the Lakers' locker room. So the big center had decided to call him "Showboat." Bryant sensed that it was not entirely a term of affection.......

O'Neal was a huge fun-loving man yet surpisingly sensitive to any criticism. After Del Harris was fired, the coach would tell associates that the center was perhaps too fun-loving, too much of a comedian , to be an effective team leader. He had a great sense of humor and loved to amuse himself and others with it. In his first season in Los Angeles, O'Neal used that humor to nudge Kobe toward being more of a team player. the center even composed a ditty, set to the tune of Greatest Love of All," aimed at Bryant. In the locker room, Shaq would croon: "I believe that Showboat is the future/Call the play and let that motherf*****r shoot......" He'd sing a verse, then come back with the next a little louder: "I BELIEVE THAT SHOWBOAT IS THE FUTURE......" Kobe wouldn't exactly fall in stitches at the derisive performance, but he wasn't thin-skinned about it either. they were simply different in their approach to life......."

Kobe saw how hard Fisher was working on his shooting and his conditioning. The one standard by which Bryant measured other players was how hard they worked. He had little regard for the people, no matter how talented, who refused to make the effort to get better. His first year in the league he had something of a phone relationship with Portland's Jermaine O'Neal, another teenage rookie, but Bryant soon cooled that friendship when he concluded that Jermaine O'Neal lacked work ethic as a player. Brynat himself liked to shoot 1,500 jumpshots each day. When he saw Fisher working hard, he was quick to encourage his effort and to compliment his improved shooting.

And that in turn led him to feel more comfortable in January 1999 when the opprotunity arose to play two-on-two with Fisher and Shaquille O'Neal and Blount. Since his days as a youngster battking with his father in one-on-one battles, Kobe had always been an extremely physical practice player, the kind of guy to use elbows, hip checks, hard box-outs or any other advantage to challenge opponents. After all, he and his father, who loved each other very much, could battle furiously yet remain emotionally detached after the conflict and even laugh about it. Kobe's Lakers teammates didn't approach the game the same way. The only one capable of battling Kobe and not getting upset was Eddie Jones, which meant that he and Kobe would have furious battles in practice yet never feel the need to carry it beyond that. "I'm gonna bust your a**," Kobe would tell Jones during their battles, which only drove the intensity higher. Other Lakers, however, harbored an intense dislike for Kobe because of the way he attacked practices.

Ideally, every Laker should have had Kobe's attitude toward competing and being physical in practice, Fisher said. "That really was the way we all should have been competing. With Kobe's spirit." It didn't work out that way, though. And the Lakers troubles in 1999 would begin with that January pickup session. More than five weeks later word would leak into the L.A. newspapers that Shaq had slapped Kobe during practice. the reports didn't detail when the incident happened or what was involved, butit would be cited as a sign of their growing dislike for each other. Fisher remember being amazed at tthose newspaper reports, because they came so long after the incident and because there had only been four people in the gyn at the time. Who had leaked news of the incident, he wondered.

"It had just been physical," Fisher recalled. "Both guys had gotten tired. Neither guy started it. It started from them both being physical." And the altercation itself didn't last long, but the repercussions did. "Some true feelings came out," Fisher said. "They didn't really sat all that much, but it was done in an extremely negative way. You could tell the guys had negative thoughts for each other." Worse yet, it was clear those feelings weren't going away any time soon, Fisher said. "It would always be remembered." One member of the Lakers staff said the situation happened because O'Neal wanted to make a point. "It sent a message but Kobe didn't receive it," the staffer said
Click to expand...

Wilt Chamberlain, who proved his strong Philly roots by phoning the Los Angeles Times to complain that O'Neal was unfairly blaming the situation on Kobe. "He needs to get down the court and play defense, instead of cherry picking by the basket for all those dunks," Chamberlain said. "Too often the other team is on offense and Shaq is not even at half court. Everybody talks about his points when we should be looking closer at his rebounds and blocked shots and defense."

Hmm, fascinating indeed. Let's switch it up a bit shall we? I hear much too often than I care to about how the team won more without Kobe and that Kobe's effectiveness/successes were only dictated by Shaq's presence on the floor. I think that deserves introspection, let's flash back to June 2000, NBA Finals. I think the saying "How quickly they forget" is appropriate for the following excerpt:

To make matters worse for Los Angeles, Bryant had injured his ankle early in the contest. but the late streches of the game became Shaw's hour to shine, just as he had down the stretch in Game 7 against the Blazers. His shooting and O'Neals overpowering presence were enough for Jackson's group to take a 2-0 series lead, 111-104. Hobbled and on crutches, Bryant was unable to play in game 3, which created immediate speculation that the Lakers' coaching staff would turn to Glen Rice as a second major scoring option. Jackson, however, had watched Indiana's Jalen Rose take advantage of Rice's defensive weaknesses. He continued to award chunks of playing time to Rick Fox. Rice, Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, and other Lakers had been troubled by the intuitive nature of Jackson's substitution patterns. Some had adjusted to the coach's whims better than others.

Rice had struggled and finally spoke out after Game 3, a game he finished with only 7 points on 3 for 9 shooting in 27 minutes. He also hadn't seen much action in the final quarter of Game 2 with Bryant injured. "I just don't think that it was a great effort of getting myself involved a little bit more," Rice told reporters. "I spent a little bit too much time on the bench. If you sit on the bench for 12 minutes and then go in the game with a minute and something left. it's hard to get going," Rice said of the late stages of Game 3, when the Lakers struggled and Indiana finally got a win to pull within 2-1 in the series.

The issue disappeared briefly in Game 4, which will be remembered as Bryant's moment. He returned from injury and joined O'Neal in matching the Pacers bucket for bucket down the stretch. The battle went to overtime, O'Neal fouled out, and Bryant was faced with leading the Lakers by himself in a key moment. In a gesture brimming with more meaning than fans could understand, Bryant went over to the center who had questioned him for so long and told him not to worry, that we would deliver. In the past in Chicago, Jackson and Winter had spread the floor in such moments and allowed Jordan to go to work. But with the Lakers, spreading the floor had never worked, Winter explained, because opposing teams would never leave O'Neal and kept the defense packed in. The spread floor might have worked if O'Neal had been willing to develop a 10- to 15- foot shot, allowing him to move away from the basket. But he had resisted it at every turn.

Now though, he was off the floor, and Jackson ordered the Lakers to spread the formation wide to confuse the defenders. This allowed Bryant the room to work, and it was further aided by his sore ankle, which meant that he pulled up for midrange jumpers rather than trying to drive all the way to the hole. Observers would later describe the performance as Jordanesque. In overtime, Bryant delivered the Lakers a series of key baskets and offered irrefutable evidence that O'Neal had been wrong. the victory gave them a 3-1 lead in the series.
Click to expand...

"When Kobe makes a turnover, it's different than when Derek Fisher makes a turnover," said a team employee who was close to O'Neal and summed up his view. "When Kobe makes a turnover it totally deflates the entire team. All 12 heads drop. Because he doesn't make a turnover while trying to help the team win. He amkes a turnover out of selfishness. And it's never Kobe's fault. Kobe always has an excuse. It's somebody else's fault. That's why I think he belongs on a playground. He doesn't belong in the NBA."

Not addressing the issue directly, I asked Kobe about his turnovers. Was his youth a factor? "To me that's not an excuse," he replied quickly. " If you turn it over, you turn it over, that's all. I'm making bad decisions with the basketball. But that's gonna stop, and it will stop."

While it wouldn't stop (no one's perfect), his number of turnovers would decline over the spring. Essentially, though, the coaches understood that most of Kobe's turnovers came as he attempted to create offense for himself and for his teammates. On one hand he was being criticized for not sharing the ball. On the other hand, when he tried to pass and missed, that just brought more criticism.

" The way I look at it, sometimes I see a lot of things on the court," he explained. "Sometimes I'll see a little too much. I'll see a lane or a gap in the defense that's open. I feel like I can zip a pass through there. Sometime it will get through there. Sometimes it won't. Sometimes when it does get through there, my teammates are not ready for it. So I just have to understand when it's there and when it's not there."

When it did get through and everything worked beautifully?

"Then nobody talkes about it," he said and laughed.

"You gotta take risks," he said, still laughing. "But I want to minimize the trouble. you have to have more times where the ball gets through."

He knew that transition turnovers, where the other team got the ball in the open court and scored easily, were killers. "They can cost your basketball team a game," he said. "When we played Seattle in Seattle, I had a lot of turnovers because I left my feet. It turned out to be a six- to eight-point swing."

He did not sound like someone making excuses or blaming other people. But that impression deepened with O'Neal and his teammates as the season came apart in their faces. "He's a nice kid," said the team employee close to O'Neal at the height of the frustration. "He's a clean-cut kid, he's the golden boy, he's MJ reincarnated, he's management's chosen one. He's a little prick is what he is. Talented, but still a little prick. The kid has talent and he is competitive and he works hard. That's why management is so committed to him. The parts are there but not the whole."

This frustration would twice boil over into players-only meetings with the sole agenda of calling Kobe out on his selfishness on the court; only the players continued to address the issue in code. "Everybody knew what was being said," explained one witness.

What amazed Derek Fisher was Kobe's measured, low-key response, marked by few comments and no apparent anger. "He never really stepped up and said what he thought was the problem," Fisher confided later. "I always thought that was strange, that he never stepped up and said anything. I knew that he was competitive and that he wanted to win badly. I thought he would maybe even take control of the meeting because he has that ability."

But Kobe chose to leave so much unsaid, Fisher said, which left the fellings between him and his teammates perhaps worse.

Part of the explanation came from his parents. They cautioned him to proceed carefully, not to challenge O'Neal and get into arguments and make things worse. Kobe raised his eyebrows. They didn't have to tell him that, he said. He understood how to conduct himself. The secret was to build chemistry through tough times.

There are those who would look back on the circumstances and be struck by Kobe's maturity and mental strength in responding to the sitution. Clearly, just about any other young player would have been crushed by the circumstances. Between hsi faith, his parents, and his unbendable will, he made his way through it without getting lost.

It was no wonder, Rick Fox would say as the season wound to a close, that Kobe chose to internalize the matter rather than resorting to fighting and fussing.

" I think it would be hard for him not to internalize it," Fox said, " if you feel that you're being singled out as the guy that everyone's waiting around for."
Click to expand...


credit goes to an old lakerstalk thread
 
All Hail C-Webb

All Hail C-Webb

Hailing from the Chill-Web
HalfPastNoon said:
rofl. ihave that book.

kobe rocks. second best guard in the west behind ray-ray. this is just a ploy to sell copies.
Click to expand...

The Supersonics are garbage.
The Bucks were garbage.
He Got Game was garbage.

Ray Allen is garbage, and so is anything associated with him.
 
B

bionic77

Member
HalfPastNoon said:
I AM GONNA CRY!!

when chris webber is remembered for something other than his infamous timeout, let me know.
Click to expand...

He is also remembered for being convicted of a felony and blaming Peja for their early exit.

Personally I think his biggest accomplishment is landing Tyra. He may not have ever won anything on the court, but he did come out a winner off of it.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
yeah, this book isn't gonna be one sided coming from Phil :rolleyes Kobe didn't force anyone out. Phil himself even says that he tells Kobe that he is gonna retire just after the season. Forced out? Its been known for years that the split in the Laker locker room was Phil and Shaq versus Kobe, so why is it a suprise that Phil is bashing Kobe and taking Shaq's side? I'll buy this book, and it'll be interesting to see if Col. Sanders puts any of the blame on the Lakers not winning a title the last 2 years on Shaq's poor conditioning and work ethic? Of course, that couldn't be a factor, right :rolleyes part 2. This is just what happens when you have three MASSIVE egos on one team. Shit like this is bound to happen. Phil is just mad cause his stupid mind games didn't work on Kobe. Kobe is a jedi master, he's not some weak minded fool like Jordan ;)
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Azwethinkweiz said:
God I hate Kobe. Ever since that little bitch was drafted by Charlotte and refused to play for them.
Click to expand...


he didn't refuse to play for them. Charlotte drafted him for Jerry West. There was a planned trade the whole time. The only hangup was that Vlade was threatening to retire rather than leave LA, but eventually he went to the Hornets. West had his eye on Kobe since before the draft. Nice try though.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Azwethinkweiz said:
Yeah because a Kobe for Vlade trade would seem fair to me too.
Click to expand...


yeah, because every trade in the history of the NBA has been completely 100% fair in hindsight. Vlade was a 7 footer in his prime with some decent game. Not a bad swap for the number 13 overall pick with which you could take some skinny shooting guard straight out of high school. Hell, the Mavs just got the number FIVE overall pick in the draft for friggin Antawn Jamison. Tell me thats not gonna look stupid in 5 years if Devin Harris turns out to be the next Jason Kidd?



oh, and i noticed nobody churned out this quot, from Phillip himself:

But another incident showed Jackson how much of the battle was his own doing. In March, Bryant was late for a bus to the airport, by Jackson's reckoning. Bryant insisted he was on time and Jackson should "get with the rest of the world" and synchronize his watch. Jackson later checked with a trainer and discovered that Bryant was right; Jackson's watch was three minutes fast.

"The incident illustrated to me how conditioned I am to find fault with this kid, after everything I've gone through with him," Jackson wrote. "I suppose the anger is deeper than I imagined."
Click to expand...

Phil was on Kobe's nuts like flys on shit, and he admits it. I like how everyone calls Kobe a bitch for ALLEGEDLY running Phil out of town, yet nobody says anything about Phil when he openly ADMITS he tried to get Kobe traded.
 
A

Azwethinkweiz

Member
There was something fishy about that trade, I just know it. I don't know why some people feel obligated to defend Kobe. He's a snotty little brat, and you can appreciate his skill at the game and still hate him as a person. Contrary to popular belief, hating a player and appreciating their skill for the game can be mutually exclusive.
 
T

Teddman

Member
I actually feel that Kobe and the Lakers have been sufficiently knocked off their high horse enough for me to root for the Lakers this year. They're almost underdogs now, and them being the hometeam and all. Kobe is one step away from Mike Tyson, I feel he's been sufficiently disgraced.

THIS IS BIG, I'M ROOTING FOR THE LAKERS.*

Last time I did that was about three-four years ago, then they just got too damn cocky and too many calls from biased refs. Never liked Kobe much to begin with anyhow. About the time they were handed that infamous game six against Sacramento, I say to Hell with them.

But anyhow, I'm tentatively back on board.

*Unless they are playing Sacramento or D.C.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Azwethinkweiz said:
There was something fishy about that trade, I just know it. I don't know why some people feel obligated to defend Kobe. He's a snotty little brat, and you can appreciate his skill at the game and still hate him as a person. Contrary to popular belief, hating a player and appreciating their skill for the game can be mutually exclusive.
Click to expand...


there's nothing fishy. Kobe's agent did REPORTEDLY tell some teams that he would only play for the Lakers, but all that proves is that West/Kobe/his agent had all this shit worked out ahead of time. Thats why, IIRC, Kobe cancelled the rest of his workouts after working out for the Lakers/West. The only team i've heard even comment on the situation that was interested in taking Kobe was the Nets, and even John Calipari (who was GM/coach of Jersey at the time) said he was tempted to take Kobe, but the rest of the people in management wanted to go with more of a sure thing in Kerry Kittles. Never said anything about Kobe "refusing" to play.

and on the same note, i still don't see why people feel obligated to hate on Kobe, when most of it is for shit that doesn't even matter on the court.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Locked
new Cyberpunk Netflix series teaser released (not much real info thou)
|OT|
3
779
HRK69 replied
Ever struggle with something?
2
57
2K
DeafTourette replied
College Football Opening Games!
12
543
DeafTourette replied
It’s good to be grateful, grateful is good. Happy Thanksgiving 🦃
2
56
2K
Liljagare replied
Phil Spencer Is Bullish On Microsoft/Disney Partnership For Indiana Jones And Blade
2
56
3K
pudel replied
Top Bottom