Lakers 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.
The first question asked of Phil Jackson in Monday’s pregame presser was, of course, regarding the status of Kobe Bryant for the evening’s game against the San Antonio Spurs.
“Kobe’s not going to play tonight,” said Jackson.
On Saturday night in Portland, Bryant had missed his first game since Dec. 8, 2006, due to injury because of a sprained left ankle upon which he had an MRI on Monday morning. Jackson said that he was “not informed enough to talk about” the results of the exam, but said that Bryant wants to play in Utah on Wednesday.
“I think if he feels like he can play, he’s going to play,” said Jackson. “He’s not going to sit out just because that might extend the duration (for) which he doesn’t have to play.”
As such, Bryant will be re-evaluated on Tuesday morning, and again on Wednesday prior to the game in Salt Lake City, L.A.’s last before the All-Star break.
Kobe Bryant, who on Saturday in Portland missed his first game since Dec. 8, 2006, had an MRI exam on his sprained ankle Monday morning and is a game-time decision for the San Antonio game.
Phil Jackson said after Monday’s shootaround that the results of the exam would not be available until later on in the evening. Jackson will likely address the issue during his pregame media session at STAPLES Center.
Despite aggravating his ankle sprain against Charlotte on Wednesday, Kobe Bryant is expected to play against Denver on Friday.
Phil Jackson confirmed as much subsequent to Friday morning’s shootaround at L.A.’s practice facility, saying that Bryant participated in limited fashion, though he received treatment during some of the drills.
That Bryant would again battle through an injury comes as no surprise, of course; in fact, Kobe has not missed a game due to injury since Dec. 8, 2006 against Atlanta, when he sat with a newly sprained ankle before returning two days later.
Denver is dealing with its own ankle injury, as All-Star Carmelo Anthony has missed six consecutive games with a sprained ankle, and told Yahoo! Sports that he would not play until it was 100 percent.
The Lakers won’t officially know Anthony’s status until game time, however, and Phil Jackson said that L.A. would prepare for both his inclusion and his exclusion from the contest.
Kobe Bryant, who on Wednesday aggravated a sprained left ankle that he originally suffered in Philadelphia last Friday, spent Thursday afternoon’s practice in full rehabilitation mode.
“He’s working with it,” said Phil Jackson. “He didn’t come out on the court and practice. He’s trying a variety of therapies on it right now to see what will work for him.”
Jackson said he’s sure that Bryant wants to play on Friday against Denver, as he always does, but that the team will have to wait and see how he feels before the game.
A regular question this season regarding Bryant - who’s played through a motley crew of injuries - has been whether or not Jackson has thought about shutting him down.
“It occurred to me yesterday during (L.A.’s win over Charlotte), but I told him he really did quite well during the game,” the head coach responded. “His shooting was 2-for-12, (but) a lot of those balls were dropped on him as the 24-second clock was running out.”
Jackson explained that Bryant kept the team running its offense, played good defense and generally did good things for the Lakers, and as long as that is the case, Jackson has maintained that he won’t keep Kobe off the floor.
Bryant uncharacteristically admitted that he was hurting in his postgame address to the media on Wednesday, but he wasn’t available for comment on Thursday. Yet and still, it certainly wouldn’t surprise Bryant’s teammates to see him in the starting lineup on Friday.
“He usually plays 82 games,” said Lamar Odom. “That wheel is going to really have to hurt for him not to play.”
While winning three straight games has made the road a bit less weary for the Lakers*, the team was nonetheless a bit on the tired side after a morning flight out of Philadelphia to Boston prior to the team’s first full practice since the current trip began on January 20. *Eleven of 13 days and seven of eight cities: check.
We took some notes during pre-practice interviews with Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to make sure you didn’t miss anything important:
PHIL JACKSON
- Jackson explained that the Lakers - Celtics rivalry is still alive, even if it’s different from how it was back in the 1960’s and 1980’s. “It’s a more civilized crowd,” he said, after referencing old fighting in the stands, beer throwing and the like.
- To Phil, Ron Artest can certainly continue to play as well as he did in Philadelphia. Jackson quipped that perhaps it was due to the presence of Artest’s father, though we learned last night that Artest is simply feeling healthy, finally.
- Jackson failed to attribute too much to Boston’s two-game losing streak through Orlando and Atlanta. “They’re still a team to be reckoned with in the playoffs,” he said.
- Kevin Garnett missed the first nine games in January with a knee injury and may not be back to 100 percent, but Jackson said that L.A. will still approach him as if he were. “He’s still a rover defensively, and he’s still a guy that’s going to hit those shots from 20 feet - you have to account for that.”
KOBE BRYANT
- Bryant said that he’s feeling OK after tweaking his knee and ankle in Friday evening’s win at Philly. He explained that it was his knee that hurt at first, but he simply walked it off until the pain was gone about five minutes later. His ankle began to get sore as the game wore on, but is not an issue for Bryant, who said he’s looking forward to trading blows with the Celtics.
- To Bryant, L.A. simply needs to match Boston’s intensity and energy on Sunday. It’s not so much about playing a specific style (i.e. a physical style), but bringing effort.
- The 2008 Finals loss isn’t something Bryant really thinks about; he focuses more on the fact that Boston simply plays very well at home.
- Bryant said that his finger is feeling about 80 percent better than it was at its worst point, and demonstrated to reporters that he has a bit better range of motion. Of course, it still looked pretty swollen, but to Bryant it had undergone “an improvement.”
PAU GASOL
- On the affect of losing in the Finals: “Last season we played the way we were supposed to. We played hard, and we carried the frustration from the year before. Hopefully we’ll do the same (on Sunday). It’s a game we look forward to, a game that’s going to be extremely hard.”
- Gasol said that while this is certainly a game L.A. would like to win, it’s not something that’s going to define a season one way or the other. Jackson and Bryant have echoed that sentiment as well.
- On attacking Kevin Garnett: “My understanding is that his leg is not completely healthy. I’ve seen him play, and I don’t know how much he’s struggling and hurting with it, because his injury was never clear to the public. But I’m just going to try and be aggressive with him no matter how his leg is doing. He’s playing, he’s a competitor and he wants to help out his team; I think he’s a good leader, and his team needs him.”
SHANNON BROWN
- Since Brown was traded just a few days after the team’s win in Boston last season, he’s yet to face the Celtics while wearing a Lakers jersey. Yet he already realizes that the stakes are different: “I never had the chance to play in this matchup, but I’m definitely excited to be apart of it. You still have to take the approach of respective them as a basketball team while just playing our own game. But maybe a little bit more focused.”
So maybe rapper Maino’s “All The Above” featuring T-Pain came out over a year ago, but it still makes regular appearances in my top rotation.
In fact, during the team’s flight from Washington D.C. to Indiana after Tuesday night’s 115-103 victory over the Wizards - Kobe Bryant posted 26 points and eight assists - I couldn’t help but think of No. 24 when this T-Pain verse came up:
Now if I’m up in the spot (spot)
Or if I’m out on the block (block)
I hustle hard cause it’s all the same
And you know that grind don’t stop
Just ’cause I rose to the top
And everybody knows my name
Still grindin’ (still grindin’),
Still hustlin’ (still hustlin’)
No more pain (no more pain),
No more sufferin’ (no more sufferin’)
For my ladies and my shorties and my thugs,
keep that task, and the shine, and the love
That works, right? Who else but Kobe is “still hustling and grinding” after reaching the top, after all?
Despite numerous injuries, including his current broken finger, Bryant has not missed a single Lakers game since the 2006-07 season, when he was forced to skip a March 7 tilt against Milwaukee due to a suspension after a tussle with then Timberwolves guard Marko Jaric.
The last time Bryant didn’t play in a game due to an injury was in 2006 against Atlanta on Dec. 9, when he sat with a sprained ankle on which he couldn’t run. Of course, he returned for the next game.
Since Bryant played in all 82 Lakers games during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, and all 45 this season, when you take the 20 games after that Milwaukee contest, he’s played in 229 straight (not to mention his supreme effort en route to two straight trips to the Finals and an Olympic gold medal).
On February 3, 2009, Kobe Bryant scored a Madison Square Garden record 61 points in a vintage performance, nearly a full calendar year before he became one of 15 players in NBA history to score 25,000 points.
Take a look back at what we wrote last year, including a running diary of that 126-117 Lakers win, the postgame story, a bucket-by-bucket review in addition to the point-by-point video:
So, how’d he do it?
How did Kobe Bryant become the only player to ever score 61 points in Madison Square Garden?
We’ve gone over his motivation in the postgame article* from L.A.’s 126-117 win and posted reactions from* Trevor Ariza, Luke Walton and Kobe himself*. *In case you missed it, those underlines are all links to the videos and articles, so simply click on the word to read or watch.
But to keep throwing fuel on the Mamba fire, we spent a few minutes with Lakers assistant coach Jim Cleamons** to see what his great basketball mind was thinking about during Kobe’s offensive barrage. **Same story
Just in case you need more from Kobe’s 61, what follows is every pertinent Kobe entry from the running diary of the game, so that you can trace a relative play-by-play in narrative form:
First Quarter 10:41 After canning a deep jumper, Bryant pulled up for a deep three to make it 6-2 Lakers.
9:52 Kobe again with a deep jumper. Swish. In related news, Kobe likes to play in New York.
6:35 After a driving layup off Pau’s feed and an open jumper, Bryant had 13 points in 5:30 of play. The Knicks then missed another jumper (5-of-16, 31 percent from the field) and Gasol capitalized on a nice Odom pass to put L.A. up 18-11. Meanwhile, for better or worse, New York’s PA announcer is easily the most informative of any I’ve heard around the league this year.
2:24 BIG MVP chant for Kobe as he made two more free throws to get to 15 points. That’s probably the loudest road arena Kobe chant this year.
0:48.1 Wilson Chandler dropped a three on Kobe … Which didn’t sit well with Mamba, so he decided to put one on the Knicks 10 seconds later for a five-point lead.
Second Quarter 7:30 Two-straight turnovers from Radmanovic turned into four Knicks points, cutting L.A.’s lead to one. The first came as he dribbled off his foot, the second after a bad pass intended for Ariza. Vladi thought he was being pulled when Kobe checked in, but it was Farmar who sat, leaving Vujacic to guard Duhon. Bryant immediately took advantage of the space afforded him by a drive-wary Chandler and pulled up for his third triple. Well, it didn’t take Bryant long to get going again, huh?
6:27 It seems to be ones of those (Mamba) nights for Kobe, who first crossed Chandler over on the perimeter, rose and buried another jumper. Then he pulled up again on the next possession from deep (swish) before rising up in transition to throw down a dunk.
“MVP … MVP … MVP” chants wore on for about two minutes after the Knicks called timeout with 5:44 to play. Kobe was 10-of-14 from the field for 27 points in about 14 minutes to give L.A. a 49-42 lead. If you’re the Lakers, you’re probably cool with Kobe taking a few more heat-check jumpers, but it should be time to go back in the paint to Pau shortly.
4:21 After a great feed from Kobe to Odom for a slam, Gasol returned for Powell. When Kobe scored again on a Michael Jordan double-pump fake jumper to get to 29 points, he and Pau had combined for 43 of L.A.’s 53 points.
1:56 Bryant’s transition dunk set off a quick 5-0 Lakers run, capped by 1-of-2 (again) Odom free throws that made it 62-47. In the middle of those two plays was a nice swat of a Robinson three by Walton, plus Luke’s pull-up jumper.
0:42.2 MVP chant, again, for an all-business Kobe after a driving and-1 that gave him 34 points. The combination of latent anger over Bynum’s injury and the NYC spotlight lesson the surprise about Bryant’s burst, but still… decent stuff. His final line was 13-of-20 from the field and 5-of-5 from the line plus two assists. Harrington did answer with a three to make it a 65-54 Lakers lead at the break. Kobe almost made us forget that Andrew Bynum’s out for 8-to-12 weeks with his barrage.
Third Quarter 9:20 Kobe swatted a potential game-tying layup attempt from Richardson, and Walton scored in the lane at the other end to make it 69-65. Bynum’s presence in the lane (or lack there of) is certainly missed by the Lakers, who needed their shooting guard to clean up the paint. By the way, New York’s “center” Jeffries is guarding Kobe.
7:07 Kobe’s second tough, fade-away jumper in a minute put L.A.’s lead at 75-67, as he and Gasol had combined for 56 points. But Lee and Harrington then scored easily at L.A.’s unprotected rim. That’s 40 points for Kobe.
5:11 Kobe’s 42nd point came on a kind of ridiculous running shot that mirrored his left-to-right action late in Memphis. That’s his new season high, as he had 41 in Orlando.
3:36 As soon as Kobe finally missed back-to-back jumpers, the Knicks capitalized to get within six at 84-78. But out of a timeout, Bryant drew a foul on Duhon from the perimeter, and sunk both as L.A. was in the bonus.
6:06 And we’re at 50. Bryant hit two free throws courtesy of Josh Powell’s second offensive board in a minute.
5:50 Ouch. Peezy went down haaaard on his head and back after trying to block a Robinson runner … But obviously he got right up. He might star in the new G.I. Joe’s movie. Into a timeout out of which Kobe was set to go to the foul line, L.A. held a 112-98 lead. He made both, then stuck two more a minute later to go 15-for-15 from the charity stripe. We’re at 54 and counting with 5:12 remaining.
3:23 59. The latest came on an up-and-under spin around Chandler. It’s almost unfair, but even the Knicks fans are loving it.
2:45 N.Y. had hit back-to-back threes, the second of which Ariza countered with a three of his own. Then came an Odom steal and dish to Kobe in the frontcourt, which put Bryant back at the line. He can miss one and get to 60.
Nah, made ‘em both. He’s 19-of-31 from the field and 20-of-20 from the foul line, and the Lakers led 126-106.
1:48 Wow. When’s the last time an opposing player left the floor of a regular season game to a standing ovation from the home crowd as chants of “MVP” rang loudly through the arena? That’s what just happened for Kobe.
With a second quarter free throw in L.A.’s Thursday evening contest in Cleveland, Kobe Bryant became the 15th player in NBA history to score 25,000 career points.
Currently 31 years and 151 days old, Bryant is the youngest player in league history to reach that milestone, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain (31 years, 186 days).
Lakers 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.
While winning three straight games has made the road a bit less weary for the Lakers*, the team was nonetheless a bit on the tired side after a morning flight out of Philadelphia to Boston prior to the team’s first full practice since the current trip began on January 20.
So maybe rapper Maino’s “All The Above” featuring T-Pain came out over a year ago, but it still makes regular appearances in my top rotation.
Despite numerous injuries, including his current broken finger, Bryant has not missed a single Lakers game since the 2006-07 season, when he was forced to skip a 
First Quarter
Third Quarter
With a second quarter free throw in L.A.’s Thursday evening contest in Cleveland, Kobe Bryant became the 15th player in NBA history to score 25,000 career points.
