Archive for the 'Kobe Bryant' Category

Kobe Comes Early to Oakland

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on March 15, 2010
in Kobe Bryant
. Closed

kobe_warriorsLakers guard Kobe Bryant arrived early to ORACLE Arena in Oakland in preparation for L.A.’s Monday night contest against Golden State, running through a variety of shooting drills with assistant coach Brian Shaw.

An hour after Bryant completed his shooting regimen and started his stretching routine in the locker room, Derek Fisher said that Kobe’s various injuries throughout the season (broken finger, sprained ankle among others) have affected No. 24’s preferred routine.

“He hasn’t been able to practice as much as he (could) in the past,” said Fisher. “Working out before and after the game and things like that … but he’s been getting (to the arena) at 4:30 (p.m.) to try and ramp himself up for 7:30.”

This season, Bryant has put up 44 and 20 points in two games against Golden State, missing the third match up while recovering from his ankle injury. He added 11 and six assists, respectively, in those two Lakers wins, and is looking for a season sweep of the Warriors.

Phil Jackson Pregame
Some notes from Jackson’s pregame session:
- Jackson noted the edge that he expects Golden State to play with since this is the fourth meeting between the teams and that L.A. has won the first three. Clearly, no team ever wants to lose, but four times is a different beast.

- While of course pounding the ball down low is a key, Jackson said it’s not so much about what Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol do, but how L.A.’s guards manage to control the game and how well they’re able to feed the post. Golden State is a small, active team that tries to disrupt passing angles and prevent easy entry passes, of which Jackson is aware.

- Jackson mentioned the fluky nature of the Lakers having such a multitude of hand injuries, the roll call reading: Kobe, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown.

- L.A.’s head coach isn’t so much watching the scoreboard to see how far behind Denver or Dallas is, but instead simply keeping an eye on all teams that the Lakers might face.

Happy Couple: Kobe and Game Winners

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on March 10, 2010
in Kobe Bryant
. Closed

If you missed Tuesday night’s game-winning fadeaway jumper from Kobe Bryant, you can head over to our Gameday page as always, or just watch below:

As for the other six game winners he’s nailed*, against Miami, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Dallas, Boston and Memphis? Head HERE, or just watch below:
*ESPN’s Ryen Rusillo reported on his NBA Today podcast that Bryant’s six field goal makes in the final 10 seconds of a game are the most in the NBA in the last 10 seasons (Carmelo Anthony had five in 2005-06).

Bryant Passes Miller For 13th on NBA Scoring List

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on February 24, 2010
in Kobe Bryant
. Closed

59720393With a baseline jumper in the second quarter of L.A’s Wednesday evening contest, Kobe Bryant surpassed Reggie Miller for 13th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 25,280 points.

Bryant, who passed Jerry West for 14th in Memphis earlier this month, is within reach of Alex English (25,613), John Havlicek (26,395) and Dominique Wilkins (26,668).

Among the names Bryant has passed in the last few years: Larry Bird, Gary Payton, Clyde Drexler, Elgin Baylor, Adrian Dantley, Robert Parish, Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson and Patrick Ewing.

Bryant Expected to Miss Celtics Game

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on February 18, 2010
in Injury News and Kobe Bryant
. Closed

After Wednesday’s practice, Kobe Bryant said that his strained peroneal tendon would have to improve drastically overnight for him to play against Boston on Thursday night, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, as we learned after Thursday morning’s shootaround.

When asked if he expected Bryant to play, Phil Jackson said: “Not that I know of.” Assistant coach Frank Hamblen then told us that LA had prepared its scouting report under the assumption that Bryant would not play.

Since the Lakers don’t play their next game until Tuesday in Memphis, it appears that Bryant will have gone 18 days since last playing against Denver on February 5.

Bryant Likely Out Against Boston

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on February 17, 2010
in Injury News and Kobe Bryant
. Closed

While wearing a pair of sandals that signified his lack of participation in Wednesday’s practice, Kobe Bryant said that he doubted he would be able to play in Thursday’s game against Boston.

“Right now it’s a no,” he said. “(It’s*) still sore … Can’t push off enough to play, so I’ll take my time.”
*UPDATE: Bryant was referring not to his ankle sprain, but a strained peroneal tendon in his lower left leg suffered on Feb. 3 against Charlotte.

Bryant conceded that if he wakes up tomorrow and feels drastically different, he’ll play, but doubts that will happen. On the other hand, he has been very pleased with how his teammates have played without him - they’ve gone 4-0 - and said that’s made it easier on him to take his time recovering fully.

“I think they’re playing with a great sense of urgency,” he said. “They’re playing extremely well at both ends of the floor.”

If Bryant does not play on Thursday, he will have four more full days to recover until L.A.’s two-game road stretch through Memphis and Dallas that takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 23-24, 18 days removed from his last game (Friday, Feb. 5).

That, however, does not affect his playing status, as his injury philosophy remains the same.

“If you’re healthy, you play, it doesn’t matter what the upcoming schedule is,” he concluded.

Kobe Bryant Nets GQ Cover

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on February 17, 2010
in Kobe Bryant
. Closed

Kobe Bryant has nabbed the March cover of GQ for an extended feature story, detailed below by the magazine:

For fourteen grueling seasons, Kobe Bryant has cracked, fractured, strained, torn, cut, bruised, nicked, and risked every party of his finely tuned self. And he’s got the rings – and the scars – to show for it. In the March issue of GQ (on newsstands nationwide February 23), J.R. Moehringer sits down with the notoriously private, Lakers co-captain to discuss his many injuries, going to the Olympics, and his famously volatile relationship with Shaq.

Here’s the cover:

kobegqcover500

Kobe Bryant Doubtful for Warriors

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on February 16, 2010
in Injury News and Kobe Bryant
. Closed

58932081Kobe Bryant (left ankle), who has missed LA’s last three regular season games in addition to Sunday’s All-Star Game, is doubtful to play in Tuesday’s game against Golden State.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise considering that Bryant participated fully in Monday’s practice, leading to these comments from Phil Jackson.

“He said he didn’t have the normal strength he’d like to have, but it’ll come back,” Jackson said. “That is just getting back in the flow and getting some strength there again, reconditioning it. He hasn’t played in two weeks, so there’s a lot of things that he was trying out and trying to figure out … but he’ll come (around).”

At Tuesday morning’s shootaround, however, the team was disappointed with how Bryant’s ankle responded to Monday’s practice, according to Lakers spokesman John Black.

Bryant will continue to be evaluated on a day-to-day basis.

Kidd to Replace Kobe in All-Star Game

Published
by
Nick Kioski
on February 11, 2010
in All-Star 2010 and Kobe Bryant
. Closed

DALLAS, Feb. 11, 2010 – Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd and New York Knicks forward David Lee have been named by NBA commissioner David Stern to Kobe Bryantreplace injured West All-Star guard Kobe Bryant (ankle) of the Los Angeles Lakers and East All-Star guard Allen Iverson (personal reasons) of the Philadelphia 76ers, respectively, in the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Dallas.

Kidd, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time All-NBA First Team selection, will be making his 10th NBA All-Star Game appearance. Lee, in his fifth NBA season, has recorded 30 double-doubles on the season for the Knicks and will be making his first NBA All-Star appearance.

West All-Star head coach George Karl and East All-Star head coach Stan Van Gundy will determine which players will replace Bryant and Iverson in the starting lineup.

The NBA All-Star Game will air live on TNT, ESPN Radio and in 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages worldwide at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 14.

Lakers.com All-Star Central

Fisher Beats Bryant to 1,000 … By a Game

Published
by
Mike Trudell
on February 10, 2010
in Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant
. Closed

Derek FisherThe Lakers acquired Kobe Bryant, the 13th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft, by trading Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets. Eleven picks later, they selected Derek Fisher.

Fast forward to February 10, 2010, and both players entered a Wednesday evening game in Utah with 999 career games played.

How about that?

“I didn’t realize it until someone told me today,” said Fisher. “I probably won’t say anything to Kobe just yet … but at some point, I’m definitely going to give him a hard time about it.”

Bryant would have become the first to 1,000 had he played in Portland or against San Antonio, but a sprained ankle kept him out of both contests, the first he had missed since Dec. 8, 2006.

All Fisher had to do to catch up was play in literally every game since April 13 of the 2004-05 season, when he missed a game for the Golden State Warriors with knee inflammation. Since then, he’s appeared in 384 consecutive games, and finally Fisher has one up on Kobe.

“It’s one thing I can say I did before him,” said Fisher. “He’s been the fastest to everything else.”

Dedication
How has Fisher done it? Lakers Director of Athletic Performance Chip Schaefer needed just one word to describe it: “Dedication.”

Then he added a few more.

“He’s dedicated to a set of principals and a way to live his life that include proper rest and recovery, proper nutrition, hydration and a nutrient-based diet, training and preparing mentally,” said Schaefer. “For a trainer, he’s just the best. It’s all you can ask for.”

Bryant, Odom on Team USA’s Initial Roster

Published
by
Ty Nowell
on February 10, 2010
in Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom
. Closed

blog_100210bryantodom_teamusaLakers Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom have been named to USA Basketball’s initial 27-man roster that will compete in various events between 2010-2012 leading up to the 2012 London Olympic games.

Bryant joins eight other returning members of the 2008 team that captured gold in Beijing.

“This is another important step in the reassembling of the USA National Team for the next three years of competitions that will include the FIBA World Championship in 2010, and if we qualify, the 2012 Olympics in London. Unlike 2006-08 when we were first starting the program, this time we have the benefit of including players who were members of the last national team, while also incorporating players who were involved in our pipeline the last couple of summers,” said Jerry Colangelo, who also served as Managing Director of the 2006-08 USA National Team.

Odom is no stranger to international competition as he was a member of the 2004 team that played in Greece.

For the full roster visit USAbasketball.com