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Lights go out on showtime
Kobe Bryant fails to steer storied Lakers to playoffs
By Sam Amick -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 15, 2005
The Los Angeles Lakers, as it turns out, will be in the NBA playoff picture.
Kobe Bryant, specifically, won't be taking May off. He'll come to work as always, ready to flex his muscles and show his stuff during that special time when champions are made.
Except that he'll be lifting weights instead of Larry O'Brien trophies, watching instead of dominating. Three televisions hang in the Lakers' workout room, where Bryant will spend his next five months, the postseason in clear view but outside his grasp.
"After that last game, I'll be back in the gym doing my weight program, my shooting program, doing the same thing I used to do when I first came in the league," Bryant said. "Back in the gym, watching the games on TV, hoping to be there next year."
Bryant got what he wanted this season - to be the man, the face of the franchise, the player with expectations and acclaim heaped upon his shoulders. All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, a calculated sacrifice by Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak in an effort to retain the younger Bryant.
Nine months later, the Heat is tops in the Eastern Conference, and the Lakers are left out in the West, having lost 15 of their last 17 games and guaranteed to miss the postseason for just the second time in the last 27 seasons.
Suddenly, Bryant's grand plan has failed in the short term, his place in Lakers history taking an unexpected turn. Lakers greats never missed the playoffs, save for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1975-76 season, his Los Angeles debut. Magic Johnson never missed the playoffs. Neither did Jerry West, Elgin Baylor or O'Neal.
But the thing even Bryant couldn't see coming, after O'Neal leaving or former coach Phil Jackson retiring, was the part where Plan B flopped, too. The Lakers lured Vlade Divac from the Kings to give Bryant the selfless center he had always wanted, only to see the veteran's back give out. Divac then spent most of the season in fancy suits while the Lakers weren't quite so snazzy.
"Vlade would've made life a whole lot easier for everybody," said Bryant, who added he will lobby for the Lakers to pick up Divac's $5.4 million contract option if management asks his opinion. "We could throw him the ball in the triangle, have everybody cut around him. All he wants to do is pass and find the open man."
Instead, the Lakers had to find a new coach. First-year coach Rudy Tomjanovich relinquished his duties Feb. 2 to focus on his health, taking his long-standing good reputation and two NBA championship rings with him. The Lakers were 24-19 then, a competitive squad that - had it continued at that pace - would have ninth place and a playoff pulse today.
Interim coaching duties went to Frank Hamblen, a former sidekick of Jackson's and a 35-year NBA assistant who was openly disinterested in upward movement. Some players say Hamblen made the transition even tougher by swapping offenses, reinstalling the infamous triangle sets in midseason.
Hamblen, in turn, accused his team of quitting on him, although first-year Lakers guard Tierre Brown says it was more a case of collective confusion.
"For an offense that complex, to change in the middle of the season was difficult," Brown said. "I think you need a training camp to learn that, and we did it in the middle of the regular season. Our regular-season games became like preseason games."
Having youth on their side hasn't helped. The Lakers, whose veteran unit last season reached the NBA Finals, are now inexperienced, a fragile young group with 10 new players who can't run with adversity. When Bryant sprained his right ankle in mid-January and missed a month, the Lakers went 6-8.
"We had the talent to be a playoff team," Divac said. "But this is a young team, and we played in one system, and then when (Tomjanovich) stepped down, we played in a new system, and that takes time to adjust. It's a young, talented team, and you have to be careful with that."
And a once-untouchable star finds himself picking up the pieces again. It's estimated Bryant lost $4 million to $6 million in endorsement contracts because he was accused of sexual assault almost two years ago. The matter came to a close just last month, when his accuser received an undisclosed civil settlement from Bryant after the criminal case was dropped last summer.
Bryant's basketball losses pale in comparison, except that restoring his name is somewhat dependent on winning. More NBA titles would be nice, but he couldn't even beat O'Neal and his Miami team in hyped-up head-to-heads. The Lakers lost both Shaq-Kobe rematches, giving O'Neal the last, or at least the latest, laugh.
Bryant and Lamar Odom, who came from Miami in the O'Neal deal, never provided the punch as planned. Even with O'Neal gone, the on-court criticisms that previously dogged Bryant, like the notion he dominates the ball and lacks faith in his teammates, remained.
"He doesn't have a choice but to (change his style)," Brown said. "If you're trying it one way and it's not working, then you have to make an adjustment. I think he'll do anything to win."
Like spend the offseason lifting weights, shooting, working toward a time when he's part of title talk again. He's only 26, remember, meaning this story isn't over yet.
"Everything I hear, everything we hear, we just register, keep it, use it as fuel for the fire," Bryant said. "This organization's track record speaks for itself, so now it's just about how to get back to the top. God willing, we'll get back up there one day and prove people wrong." Just not this season.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/12729209p-13581072c.html
Kobe Bryant fails to steer storied Lakers to playoffs
By Sam Amick -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 15, 2005
The Los Angeles Lakers, as it turns out, will be in the NBA playoff picture.
Kobe Bryant, specifically, won't be taking May off. He'll come to work as always, ready to flex his muscles and show his stuff during that special time when champions are made.
Except that he'll be lifting weights instead of Larry O'Brien trophies, watching instead of dominating. Three televisions hang in the Lakers' workout room, where Bryant will spend his next five months, the postseason in clear view but outside his grasp.
"After that last game, I'll be back in the gym doing my weight program, my shooting program, doing the same thing I used to do when I first came in the league," Bryant said. "Back in the gym, watching the games on TV, hoping to be there next year."
Bryant got what he wanted this season - to be the man, the face of the franchise, the player with expectations and acclaim heaped upon his shoulders. All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, a calculated sacrifice by Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak in an effort to retain the younger Bryant.
Nine months later, the Heat is tops in the Eastern Conference, and the Lakers are left out in the West, having lost 15 of their last 17 games and guaranteed to miss the postseason for just the second time in the last 27 seasons.
Suddenly, Bryant's grand plan has failed in the short term, his place in Lakers history taking an unexpected turn. Lakers greats never missed the playoffs, save for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1975-76 season, his Los Angeles debut. Magic Johnson never missed the playoffs. Neither did Jerry West, Elgin Baylor or O'Neal.
But the thing even Bryant couldn't see coming, after O'Neal leaving or former coach Phil Jackson retiring, was the part where Plan B flopped, too. The Lakers lured Vlade Divac from the Kings to give Bryant the selfless center he had always wanted, only to see the veteran's back give out. Divac then spent most of the season in fancy suits while the Lakers weren't quite so snazzy.
"Vlade would've made life a whole lot easier for everybody," said Bryant, who added he will lobby for the Lakers to pick up Divac's $5.4 million contract option if management asks his opinion. "We could throw him the ball in the triangle, have everybody cut around him. All he wants to do is pass and find the open man."
Instead, the Lakers had to find a new coach. First-year coach Rudy Tomjanovich relinquished his duties Feb. 2 to focus on his health, taking his long-standing good reputation and two NBA championship rings with him. The Lakers were 24-19 then, a competitive squad that - had it continued at that pace - would have ninth place and a playoff pulse today.
Interim coaching duties went to Frank Hamblen, a former sidekick of Jackson's and a 35-year NBA assistant who was openly disinterested in upward movement. Some players say Hamblen made the transition even tougher by swapping offenses, reinstalling the infamous triangle sets in midseason.
Hamblen, in turn, accused his team of quitting on him, although first-year Lakers guard Tierre Brown says it was more a case of collective confusion.
"For an offense that complex, to change in the middle of the season was difficult," Brown said. "I think you need a training camp to learn that, and we did it in the middle of the regular season. Our regular-season games became like preseason games."
Having youth on their side hasn't helped. The Lakers, whose veteran unit last season reached the NBA Finals, are now inexperienced, a fragile young group with 10 new players who can't run with adversity. When Bryant sprained his right ankle in mid-January and missed a month, the Lakers went 6-8.
"We had the talent to be a playoff team," Divac said. "But this is a young team, and we played in one system, and then when (Tomjanovich) stepped down, we played in a new system, and that takes time to adjust. It's a young, talented team, and you have to be careful with that."
And a once-untouchable star finds himself picking up the pieces again. It's estimated Bryant lost $4 million to $6 million in endorsement contracts because he was accused of sexual assault almost two years ago. The matter came to a close just last month, when his accuser received an undisclosed civil settlement from Bryant after the criminal case was dropped last summer.
Bryant's basketball losses pale in comparison, except that restoring his name is somewhat dependent on winning. More NBA titles would be nice, but he couldn't even beat O'Neal and his Miami team in hyped-up head-to-heads. The Lakers lost both Shaq-Kobe rematches, giving O'Neal the last, or at least the latest, laugh.
Bryant and Lamar Odom, who came from Miami in the O'Neal deal, never provided the punch as planned. Even with O'Neal gone, the on-court criticisms that previously dogged Bryant, like the notion he dominates the ball and lacks faith in his teammates, remained.
"He doesn't have a choice but to (change his style)," Brown said. "If you're trying it one way and it's not working, then you have to make an adjustment. I think he'll do anything to win."
Like spend the offseason lifting weights, shooting, working toward a time when he's part of title talk again. He's only 26, remember, meaning this story isn't over yet.
"Everything I hear, everything we hear, we just register, keep it, use it as fuel for the fire," Bryant said. "This organization's track record speaks for itself, so now it's just about how to get back to the top. God willing, we'll get back up there one day and prove people wrong." Just not this season.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/12729209p-13581072c.html
