LOS ANGELES -- The debate about the defending NBA champion
Lakers is whether the emergence of Kobe Bryant as the league's
scoring leader has hurt the team chemistry that featured Shaquille
O'Neal through their championship run last year.
| |  | |
| Bryant |
Bryant is quoted in the January issue of "ESPN the Magazine"
as saying: "Turn my game down? I need to turn it up. I've
improved. How are you going to bottle me up? I'd be better off
playing someplace else."
But Bryant said after practice Tuesday that his comments do not
mean he wants to be traded.
"I'm the type of person who likes to make things work," he
said. "Whatever cards have been dealt, I'm a loyal person. I'm
with the Lakers and I'm going to be a Laker for life. But just out
of curiosity you wonder what it would be like in another
situation."
Bryant has elevated his game to a league-leading 29.6 points per
game this season and is making 47.5 percent of his shots, well
above his career average. Some of those numbers have come at the
expense of O'Neal, last season's scoring leader and most valuable
player, who is averaging 25.8 points.
"It's not about points. We're not an outside team. We're an
inside-out team," O'Neal said Tuesday. "You have to get me into
the game. ... It doesn't get done if I don't get it. I'm a scoring
big man. I'm dominant offensively. I can do things defensively.
When you feed the big dog, the dog will be happy."
O'Neal's comments seem to support the argument that the team
concept is to get the ball inside to his 7-foot, 320-pound frame,
and if he is double- and triple-teamed, he'll pass to an open
teammate.
O'Neal added: "I wasn't brought here to rebound and do that
stuff. Jerry West (former Laker general manager) brought me in here
because he wanted me to play. I can put numbers on the board."
General manager Mitch Kupchak said Tuesday he wouldn't seriously
consider a trade.
"There's nothing to it," he told the Los Angeles Times.
"Nobody's going anywhere. Nobody wants to go anywhere. It's absurd
to think Kobe would go anywhere."
Coach Phil Jackson said of his emphasis on getting the ball
inside to O'Neal before launching outside shots: "Kobe knows
that's the deal I have as a coach, that I want my players to be
happy and I want them to coexist and those two guys are doing fine
now."
Jackson treated the Bryant trade comments as a joke, shouting to
some reporters: "I'll be back to talk to you guys about where
we're trading Kobe."
An hour later Bryant asked the coach about the trade. Jackson,
smiling, replied: "I'm not giving you a choice. Vancouver looks
pretty good right now."
Bryant laughed and told reporters: "When I first got here I
wondered what it would be like to be on another team, but it was
nothing serious. Really, it's nothing serious."
|
|
ALSO SEE
ESPN The Magazine: The One: Part 1
AUDIO VIDEO
 Kobe Bryant isn't planning on leaving Los Angeles anytime soon.
wav: 234 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Does Kobe Bryant want to leave the Lakers? Not according to ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher.
wav: 908 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher talks about the friction between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
wav: 1020 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
|
