So this is why Byron Scott doesn’t have Kobe Bryant practice regularly.
Here we all were thinking it was to offset the minutes that the 36-year-old Bryant is playing, yet totally shouldn’t be playing. Kobe leads the league in minutes played. At 36. Nineteen years into his career. For a six-win Los Angeles Lakers team. The least Byron Scott could do is let him sit out practice. It’s not like the Lakers are running complicated offensive sets the Mamba needs to learn anyway. It’s pretty much give the ball to Kobe, hope he occasionally passes and let things play out. Holding him out of meaningless, intra-squad exhibitions, then, makes sense. Too much sense.
Especially if it’s also to protect Kobe’s teammates.
See, No. 24 returned to the practice floor on Thursday and shit got real, really quick.
Here’s what happened first, per ESPN.com’s Arash Markazi:
Kobe Bryant returned to practice for the first time this month and called his teammates “soft” during a heated 5-on-5 scrimmage between the starters and reserves Thursday.
When practice was opened to the media, Bryant and Nick Young were already trading barbs during the scrimmage with Young telling Bryant, “Nobody in the world can guard me one-on-one,” and Bryant telling Young, “You’re going exactly where I want you to go.”
Innocent fun, yes? Maybe a little cliche-ic and mundane as far as trash talking goes, but nothing worth writing abo—KOBE SAID WHAT????
From the Los Angeles Times‘ Mike Bresnahan:
Kobe yelled to Kupchak while leaving practice court: "These (expletives) aren't doing (expletive) for me." Didn't think team practiced hard.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) December 11, 2014
There was also this preceding that:
Kobe extremely unhappy on the practice court. "Now I see why we've lost so many games. We're soft like Charmin!"
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) December 11, 2014
Welllllll, I’ll be damned. It’s almost like Kobe’s a demanding teammate or something. Wish we would have known that before—like, been warned over and over and over again since, say, 2000 or something that Kobe is a crazed competitor with a truculent personality who would sooner swim in an infinity pool brimming with his own urine and feces than dole out a hug, complete with a “Good job, good effort.”
Oh, wait. We have been told that before. Many times before. This, really, isn’t anything new.
It also wasn’t that big of a deal, according to people close to the situation—as in Kobe and Nick Young, per Markazi:
“No, I was just being myself,” Bryant said. “I don’t know if it helps them, but it obviously raises the intensity level. It was a tough practice for them … It’s really good for Nick, aside from the fun of bantering back and forth and the trash talk, just fundamentally some of the techniques and things that I use. He gets a chance to really see up close those little tricks.” …
… “You can’t back down from a challenge, no matter who it is,” Young said. “Me and Kobe are always going to talk trash and get into it. When he talks to everybody else, some people tend to shy away and I was telling them you have to have some cojones in this league. It doesn’t matter who it is. Play your game. Don’t get any less confident out there. Talk trash right back to him.”
That means everybody’s still friends, right?
Right?
GUYS?
Fractured friendships aside, this was just Kobe being Kobe. Perhaps winning five NBA titles has enabled this demanding, asshole persona, but he was a hard-nosed, vociferous, shit-talking, ego-eviscerating competitor long before he was a champion.
Naturally, then, I leave you with this:
You know, in terms of toilet paper, saying you're as soft as Charmin is a good thing. In basketball? Not so much. #tweetfromtheseat
— Charmin (@Charmin) December 11, 2014
Stay purple and gold, folks.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
