Big Pete
Years ago
Mike's 'Air' apparent is flying solo - Advertiser
Mike's 'Air' apparent is flying solo
By Robert Lusetich
13dec04
THERE is hubris, and then there is Kobe Bryant.
Long ago, when he leapt straight from Pennsylvania high school gyms to the NBA hardwood, the Los Angeles Lakers guard with astonishing talent was anointed as the Air apparent to Michael Jordan.
But, at 26, it is clear that Bryant is not interested in merely being the next Jordan. Like Tiger Woods stalking Jack Nicklaus's golf majors record, Bryant is intent on eclipsing Jordan, and all those who came before him.
But how to outshine Michael Jordan? Bryant appears to have a plan. It goes something like this: run out of town every great player and coach until there is only Bryant and a chorus of role players and then try to win a championship single-handedly. Because even Jordan had Scottie Pippen.
Sound crazy? It's already happening.
Bryant is certainly not content with just winning championships if he has to share the glory - he already has three, half of Jordan's haul. No, he wants to win by himself.
"I'm tired of being a sidekick," Bryant said after last season.
And so we had the spectacle of Bryant forcing the Lakers to choose between himself and centre Shaquille O'Neal, arguably the most dominant force ever in basketball. And then between him and Jordan's old coach, Phil Jackson, who some call the greatest the game has known.
The Lakers - frightened of becoming the woeful post-Jordan Bulls, keeping players until they were too old and then having no young blood to replace them - chose Bryant, opting at the start of this season not to offer O'Neal a contract and to show the door to Jackson and his nine NBA championship rings.
Then there was the not insignificant matter of Gary Payton and Karl Malone. O'Neal was instrumental in bringing the two perennial all-stars and future Hall of Famers to the Lakers last season.
This time last year, they were called the Dream Team and some wondered whether they would ever lose a game. Not only did they lose some games, but they were embarrassed by the hard-working Detroit Pistons in the championship series in one of the biggest upsets in US sports history.
Payton didn't need to ask for whom the bells tolled; the point guard got on the first flight out of Los Angeles, landing in Boston.
Malone, who is 41 and needed knee surgery, stuck around ... until a few days ago.
That was when Bryant effectively got rid of the only player who publicly stood up for him during the traumatic months in which Bryant faced a rape trial in Colorado - the charges have since been dropped, although the victim is pursuing a civil case.
Malone, the second-highest scorer in NBA history, had long been unhappy with what he perceived as a lack of support from Bryant.
After Malone, who took a $US17 million-a-year pay cut to come to Los Angeles last season, did not renew his contract with the Lakers, saying he wanted to see whether his knee would allow him to play one more year, Bryant hardly encouraged him to come back.
The straw which broke the Mailman's back came last week, when Bryant suggested Malone wouldn't be returning to the Lakers, even though Malone himself was leaning toward a comeback.
"It's not really fair to hold (Malone's situation) over the guys' heads that are here," Bryant said in a radio interview. "They are here giving me 110 per cent. I mean, you can't sit up here and speculate for the remainder of the season whether or not he is going to come back."
Malone told The Los Angeles Times that he didn't need to hear any more. "When your star player doesn't want you there, I take hints easily," he said. "The bottom line is, Kobe doesn't want me to play for him, and it's his team."
Malone's agent, Dwight Manley, was more forthcoming. "Karl is furious and irate and said this is unacceptable, coupled with some personal comments Kobe made to Karl recently in private that have eliminated the Lakers from his choice, which is counter to what the owner, general manager and several stars on the team have been hoping for, as well as some of the fans," Manley said.
"It's pretty obvious with what happened with Phil (Jackson), Shaq (O'Neal) and now Karl, there's a pattern of tearing people down. This was a clear statement."
Malone, who will now likely try to find an elusive championship with the San Antonio Spurs, has always been a class act. He tried to act as mediator last year as the feud between Bryant and O'Neal was tearing the team apart. But even he could not resist one last parting jab at what has happened to the once-great Lakers.
"I don't want to throw daggers at anyone, but I would have quit my job before I traded Shaquille O'Neal," Malone said.
"I would have been unemployed before I would trade him, and that's all I'll say."
After the Lakers issued an unprecedented media release saying that Bryant was not speaking for the organisation, Bryant himself backpedalled, saying he was shocked by Malone's reaction.
"If I offended him, I apologise for that," Bryant said. "I'm sorry for that, really. I meant nothing by it. I didn't think it was anything directed toward him or anything like that.
"I would love to have him here. I'm sure we would too, everybody would. If he still wants to come back and play, the door's always open here.
"It was in no way intended as an attack toward Karl or anything like that. I just wanted to make sure my players know that I believe in them and I believe in what we have.
"If Karl comes back, it's going to be a tremendous addition to our ball club, but if he doesn't, I'm fine with rolling with the guys that we have here because I have confidence in them too."
Kobe's main sidekick nowadays, Lamar Odom, also tried to smooth things over. "Best power forward of all time, we could have had him on this team," Odom said. "He wouldn't have done nothing but help this team. But if he decides not to come back, then I wish him all the best.
"I don't think (Bryant) meant anything personal. I don't think he meant to do anything to offend him.
"He was just probably sticking up for some of his guys and somebody took it the wrong way, I guess."
But Bryant revealed that all between him and Malone - as Manley suggested - was not well.
"You've always got little things that you don't see eye to eye on, but it's not big enough for me to sit up here and say, 'You can't come back and play here for the Lakers because blah blah blah blah blah blah blah'. I wouldn't do that."
Even though he did.
It is little wonder that last season, Jackson, who, to be fair, has shortcomings of his own, hired a therapist who specialised in narcissistic behaviour to try to deal with a dysfunctional team.
"He'll be right at home here," Jackson wrote in his tell-all book published this year.
