I’ve been a long-term hater of Kobe Bryant. I’m willing to admit that. But the hate has gradually eased off in last one-to-two years.
Why? Simply because he has turned his big-headedness into simple brilliance without the attitude. He has learnt to trust his teammates, to defer to them where necessary and to stop acting like the guy who made that mistake in a Colorado motel.
So finally, I can appreciate a performance like the one that Bryant put on against the Milwaukee Bucks last night. With time ticking down in overtime, the Black Mamba nailed a Jordanesque final shot to take the game 107-106 for the Lakers.
Ignoring the potentially controversial call on his three-point play prior to that, where he plowed into Andrew Bogut, the play drawn up by Phil Jackson to close out the game was particularly interesting. Kevin Ding of the OC Register has this sequence:
Even now as an old married couple, they can still surprise each other, which is pretty hard to do.
And pretty great.
Phil Jackson started drawing the diagram on his board, designing a play from the backcourt, and Kobe Bryant was baffled. He interrupted with a furrowed brow and started to point toward the scoreboard to remind his longtime coach that only 5.4 seconds remained in overtime, and the Lakers were losing by one.
“Huh?” Bryant actually said in the huddle.
Bryant turned to appeal to co-star Pau Gasol to bring Jackson to his senses. Jackson stopped drawing and just gave Bryant a dead-eyed look that basically said: “Are you going to let me do what I do or what?”
Jackson resumed drawing in the backcourt, and with that, Bryant ceased being surprised.
“Then I got it,” Bryant said later as he walked out of the visitors’ locker room, his epic resume now bulging by one more shot. “I knew exactly what he was doing.”
Jackson wanted to help Bryant by deterring Milwaukee from double-teaming him.
Bryant flashed back in the moment to the 1991 NBA Finals (yes, his basketball knowledge is that encyclopedic that he could cite the correct year): Jackson started a play in the backcourt – although 10 seconds remained in that case – and wound up getting Michael Jordan an elbow jumper over Vlade Divac’s too-late help, forcing overtime at The Forum in Game 3 against the Lakers.
As Bryant caught Jackson’s drift in the huddle, the excitement began to build in him and he picked up as soon as Jackson left off drawing the play. Bryant pointed to the clipboard and talked to Derek Fisher about what he needed to do in his corner, then Lamar Odom about what he needed to do with the inbounds pass, then Gasol as they walked in step onto the court about holding off Milwaukee shot blocker Andrew Bogut.
Bryant knew that with Jackson’s help in drawing up such a spread-open floor, if his teammates held their spots well, he’d get a shot he later said he can make “in my sleep.”
This was the shot that ensued:
Kobe, the hate is over.
