Celebrating Kobe...

[LkrsOvrMia]

It's a celebration of Bryant at All-Star festivities
Players, media, fans laud Lakers superstar for first-half performance
By Ross Siler, Staff Writer

HOUSTON - Just when Kobe Bryant thought he had heard every question about the possibility of a 100-point game, a foreign reporter surprised him with a new one Friday at the NBA All-Star Game media session.

The writer told Bryant about a trend no one had noticed. He scored 43 points Nov. 20, 62 points Dec. 20 and 81 points Jan. 22. At the same time every month, it seems, Bryant draws closer to Wilt Chamberlain and Hershey, Pa.

Then the man pulled out an article in which he predicted that Bryant would score 100 on Tuesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center. What else could he expect for a game Feb. 21?

"Is it in the stars? Is that what you're telling me?" Bryant said. "That's the most compelling case I've ever heard for 100 points."

So much for Bryant's new love-me-or-hate-me Nike commercial, filmed almost entirely in black and white. He has been greeted but nothing short of adulation at the All-Star Game from his fans, the media and fellow players.

There has been a celebration of Bryant - maybe not as the league's MVP with the Lakers struggling to stay above .500 - but as its unquestioned best player and reborn superstar in the wake of 81.

"I'm starting Phase 2 of my career," Bryant told his audience at a Nike event Thursday night. "I've already lived once."

It has been a transformative year for Bryant, scoring like no one since Michael Jordan, making peace with Phil Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal, and delivering a game for the ages last month against the Toronto Raptors.

Even O'Neal, who offered only one-word answers to questions about Bryant in this session a year ago, acknowledged Friday watching the 81-point game.

"He played a fantastic game," O'Neal said. "I actually saw it. He shot the ball well and he was feeling it. Whenever a player is feeling it, he should go for it. It was a fantastic, historical performance."

Asked about it Friday, Bryant said, "I had a night where I got hot and went to a place where not too many people had been before."

There were stories from Bryant's fellow All-Stars about watching him score 81. Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas (Grant High of Van Nuys) said he had the team's video coordinator make him a copy of the broadcast late that night.

"I was the first person with the DVD," Arenas bragged.

Arenas also said the NBA needs to find an adversary for Bryant, like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson had in one another, to make the All-Star Game meaningful again.

"I think if you have another player who had that same mentality that'll go at Kobe, it'll be the same way," Arenas said. "He wants to win so bad, he'll make the intensity

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go up."

Hall of Fame center Bill Walton, meanwhile, listed Chauncey Billups, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash atop his midseason MVP ballot. He drew a special distinction, however, for Bryant as the game's best player.

"Kobe is so good that 35 draws a big yawn," Walton said. "I still think he's going to get 100."

The first two days of All-Star weekend have been a coming out for Bryant, whose new Nike signature shoe went on sale earlier this month. The company played host to a Bryant event at a Houston nightclub, complete with samurai swords on the tables. (Bryant's Nike logo, which he called his "sheath," is a design inspired by the Japanese warriors.)

The party included Bryant taking part in a question-and-answer session with some of his fans and having six boutique sneaker stores from around the country compete to customize a pair of shoes that he will wear in a game.

"After you dropped the 81 points," one fan asked Bryant, "am I the only one who played (the video game) 'NBA Live' and tried to do the same thing?"

As much as he has been celebrated, Bryant also has faced some questions (though not many) about the state of the Lakers, who stumbled into the All-Star break with a 26-26 record.

Bryant's answer Friday was telling, especially when asked about the Lakers' aspirations to free salary cap space as early as summer 2007. He also said he gets calls every day from players who want to come to Los Angeles.

"When Phil and I have talked about the future of this team, we both feel like we're not that far away," Bryant said. "One piece, two pieces, maybe. The vision we have for the team may be a little different than the direction other people may see us going in. As long as we're on the same page, we're fine."

The All-Star Game scoring record, for what it's worth, is 42, set by Chamberlain in 1962. There was that name ... that year ... again Friday.

"Some of the records," Bryant said, back on the subject of 100, "should just be known as Wilt."

Ross Siler, (818) 713-3610

ross.siler _at_ dailynews.com
_________________
I recall a day when being a fan of the most storied franchise was a feeling of community. At the end of a day it (LG) should be a "For 'em!!!!!!!!!"

Go Lakers!

[KobeButler]

[Luke]

[KingKobe8thWonder]

"Is it in the stars? Is that what you're telling me?" Bryant said. "That's the most compelling case I've ever heard for 100 points."


FUnniest thing Kobe has said all year!
_________________
"To me he is the best player in the world right now. That guy doesn't know fear at all. He doesn't care. He would have won it for the Americans single-handedly." Dirk Nowitzki

[LkrsOvrMia]

From CL.com

A nice article on Kobe from an unlikely source.

Bryant is reborn star

By John N. Mitchell
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 18, 2006

HOUSTON -- Think Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is hard on his fellow NBA players? Think again, because it's nothing compared to Bryant's approach to games with his 3-year-old daughter, Natalia.
Whenever he can, Bryant, the NBA's leading scorer, balls up pieces of paper and shoots them into a wastepaper basket, challenging his daughter to keep up.

"I try to show my daughter that you have to compete at everything," Bryant said with a serious look on his face yesterday. "You can't back down. I want my kids to understand that so when somebody puts an obstacle in front of you and says you can't do something, you don't back down. You push through that to get something accomplished. I tried to set that tone for her even at an early age. She's competitive already at the age of 3. Seriously."

It's that competitive nature that has Bryant as the center of attention at the All-Star Game once again. Slowly but surely, he is winning back the fans he lost after a messy stretch of his career that saw him accused of sexual assault and blamed for breaking up the Lakers' dynasty that won three consecutive championships.

The sexual assault case was dismissed, he has mended what looked like a broken relationship with former Lakers teammate Shaquille O'Neal and his dip in popularity -- typified by slumping sales of his jersey (out of the top 20 but now No. 5) -- appears to be behind him, so much so that for this All-Star Game only Houston center Yao Ming totaled more votes than Bryant's 2,271,631.

Go Kobe! Go Lakers!!
_________________
I recall a day when being a fan of the most storied franchise was a feeling of community. At the end of a day it (LG) should be a "For 'em!!!!!!!!!"

Go Lakers!

[tw-lakbfan]

Mitchell? That guy wrote as many anti-Kobe articles before as Mike Ventre.

[OshadowO]

man this is good to hear. I just hope these guys can start the celebrating the phil and kobe lakers again real soon like they are celebrating Kobe right now. loosing hurts