On the Court With... Kobe Bryant (10 page)

When a reporter asked Bryant how he planned to spend his off-season, he responded simply, “Basketball. That’s all.”

Unfortunately, much of his work was in vain. The 1998-99 NBA season was a disaster from the very beginning. The players’ union’s
contract with the owners had expired and the owners enforced a “lockout.” When it finally ended in January, the Lakers were
in disarray, out of shape, and unprepared. The result was turmoil.

Practices were a mess. Bryant was accustomed to playing hard and went all out, an approach that angered many of his teammates,
who felt he was trying to show them up. During one two-on-two session with O’Neal, Corie Blount, and Derek Fisher, O’Neal
and Bryant had a confrontation that resulted in a brief scuffle. Although the altercation took place because each player was
tired at the end of the long scrimmage,
it revealed a problem between the two. While neither player cared to talk about it, observers hinted that O’Neal was jealous
of Bryant’s tendency to take over on offense, which he felt left him out far too often and cost him shots. Bryant, on the
other hand, thought that O’Neal’s work ethic didn’t match his incredible physical skills. In short, neither player really
respected the other.

O’Neal and Bryant stopped talking and people wondered if it would ever be possible for the two stars to learn to play with
one another. If they didn’t, they would never win a championship together.

The ill feeling between the two spilled over into the regular season, as did the Lakers’ disorganized play In reality, both
players were at fault, for each had always been the focus of every team he had played on. Added to that was the fact that
at age nineteen, Bryant didn’t have much in common with his teammates, who went out together after the game and forged friendships
off the court. Bryant’s best friends were still members of his own family and old friends from high school.

The club got off to a rocky start, and after only eleven games Del Harris was fired and replaced by the club signed controversial
forward and master
rebounder Dennis Rodman. Although Rodman was incredibly valuable on the court, his flamboyant lifestyle had often been a distraction.

But the changes made little difference, and after another twelve games the Lakers decided to retool, trading Eddie Jones and
Elden Campbell to Charlotte for long-range shooter Glen Rice and forward J. R. Reid. Then Rodman, in a dizzying week of controversy,
retired, unretired, and was released. Some pundits suggested the team install a revolving door leading to the locker room.

The team split into several cliques, each of which blamed the others for the club’s erratic performance. O’Neal still wanted
the offense to revolve around him, and Rice had a hard time adjusting to a system where he was usually the second or third
option. In Charlotte, he had been his team’s go-to guy, the player who got the ball at crunch time. In Los Angeles, that player
was O’Neal.

Bryant felt frustrated. He thought the Laker offense held him back and kept him from playing his game and using all his skills.

On the court, the team’s internal troubles became obvious. Everyone was still trying to learn what was expected of him, but
they weren’t really playing
together. When the Lakers struggled or the offense broke down, Bryant looked to score, which only increased the feeling of
friction of the team. Too often, Bryant had the ball twenty or twenty-five feet from the basket, juking and faking and dribbling
while his teammates just stood around unsure of what he was going to do next. And when Coach Rambis tried to initiate some
changes in the club’s offense to accommodate both O’Neal and Bryant, the team often ignored him.

But even as the club continued to struggle, Bryant’s playing time increased. He moved into the starting lineup, splitting
time between the guard and forward positions. As he got the opportunity to play, he cut loose and wowed fans at L.A.’s Great
Western Forum with his stunning athleticism and leaping ability. Bryant often played to the crowd, trying to top each spectacular
shot with an even better one.

It was entertaining, but did nothing to help team chemistry. O’Neal and other veteran players felt left out, and Bryant was
estranged from his teammates. The local media went wild reporting on the Lakers’ ongoing soap opera, as O’Neal intimated that
he thought Bryant alone was the cause of the team’s problems. After each game or practice, Bryant went
one way and the rest of the team went another. In an understatement, Joe Bryant said, “It’s been a difficult year for my son.”

Yet somehow, despite everything, the Lakers had enough talent to win more than they lost. But critics noted that the Lakers
didn’t appear to have a coherent plan on offense. When their jump shots fell, which opened up the inside for O’Neal, they
won. But when they didn’t, the opposition could double-team O’Neal and pick off rebounds, often holding the Lakers to just
a single shot. When that happened, the Lakers had a hard time scoring and usually lost.

Bryant finished the regular season with a scoring average of nearly 20 points per game. Los Angeles faced the Houston Rockets,
a team in even more disarray than the Lakers, in the first round of the playoffs.

In the first two games of the series, the Lakers looked like a team that had finally learned to play together. Bryant shut
down Rocket star Scottie Pippen, and the Lakers swept the first two games.

But when Bryant got in foul trouble in game three, Pippen went wild, scoring 37 points as the Rockets won. Then the Lakers
pulled a surprise in game four.

Bryant and O’Neal spent much of the first half
passing to each other for easy baskets, and the Lakers jumped out way ahead and won with ease, eliminating the Rockets. It
was the way it was supposed to be, and gave everyone a glimpse of just how good the Lakers could be if O’Neal and Bryant learned
to play together, just as Jerry West had once learned to play with Wilt Chamberlain, and Magic Johnson with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“All those stories about me and Shaq, you can throw in the garbage,” said Bryant afterward. “Look at us. We play great together.”

The victory sent the Lakers up against the San Antonio Spurs in the next round. With their twin towers of Tim Duncan and David
Robinson, the Spurs had the manpower to match up against O’Neal under the basket. When they did, the Lakers appeared confused.
Rice and Bryant both reacted by trying to go one-on-one in an attempt to generate some offense. But the Spurs continued to
dominate play underneath the basket and control the tempo of the game.

With O’Neal in constant foul trouble and the rest of the team shooting poorly, the Lakers battled hard but couldn’t manage
to overcome the Spurs. And for the second straight year Kobe Bryant missed several
important shots late in close games, including two bricks from the free throw line that cost his team a chance to win game
three. The Spurs defeated the Lakers in four straight games. The season was over.

Finally.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
1999-2000

It was obvious to everyone that the Lakers needed to change something if they were ever going to reach their potential. Some
observers speculated that either O’Neal or Bryant would be traded. Or perhaps both, players would be shipped off and the Lakers
would embark on a total rebuilding program.

But Jerry West still believed the Lakers had all the players in place to win a championship. What they needed was someone
to get it all to work together.

As coach of the Chicago Bulls, Phil Jackson had developed a reputation as a man who could get talented players with big egos
to play together. For the Bulls, despite the presence of Michael Jordan, hadn’t managed to win a championship until Jackson
became coach.

He had installed an offense known as the triangle, a strategy that took advantage of both Jordan’s skills and those of star
forward Scottie Pippen. As a result,
he had gotten the most from each player.

The triangle was new to pro basketball. Traditionally, most offenses had been designed to isolate a particular player one-on-one.
As a team moved the ball across half-court, players set up in specific positions on the court and the point guard, out on
top, called out the play and put it in motion, usually by a pass to another player. But if the defense broke up the play or
it was disrupted for another reason, the player with the ball usually had few options. The ball was sent back out and another
play was called. The role of each player was strictly defined.

But the triangle was different. Simply put, it demanded that the players react to what the defense did, depending on the motion
and movement of each player. Each player had to be able to read the defense, learn how to react, and pass to the open man.

Although the offense was demanding, it wasn’t rigid. There was plenty of room for creativity. When it worked, the ball zipped
back and forth and players ran and cut all over the floor until someone worked free and finished the play, usually with a
wide open jump shot or a layup or dunk from in close. It allowed the individual player to flourish and stay involved.

Jordan and the Bulls had worked the offense to
perfection. But that hadn’t been the only key to their success.

Jackson’s personality was much different from that of most NBA coaches. He viewed the game of basketball in human terms and
appreciated it for its capacity to bring individuals together in pursuit of a common goal. While many had first scoffed at
his approach, his record of success in Chicago was undeniable.

After Michael Jordan had retired, Jackson had resigned and sat out the 1998-99 season. Now he was ready to return to coaching.
He let the Lakers know he wanted to come to Los Angeles. In Bryant and O’Neal, he saw two players he believed would thrive
in the triangle, for each could both pass the ball and score. West believed that if anyone could get O’Neal and Bryant to
work together, it was Jackson, so he named Jackson coach. West believed that if anyone could get O’Neal and Bryant to work
together, it was Jackson.

Critics questioned the hiring, saying that the only reason reason Jackson had been so successful in Chicago was because Michael
Jordan was a member of the Bulls. Getting the Lakers to play together, they argued, would be an entirely different challenge.

But O’Neal and Bryant, for all their differences,
were actually quite similar. Each had been expected to be a star since entering the league, and each had been something of
a disappointment. Both players were still referred to in terms of their potential, as if neither had yet reached it.

At the same time, they shared a common goal. Each wanted to win very badly. Their reputations had taken a beating and each
player knew that the only way to silence his critics would be to win a championship. It helped immeasurably that Jackson already
had the respect of both players. After all, his record spoke for itself. And Bryant and O’Neal had been dissatisfied with
Harris and Rambis, neither of whom had been able to enforce any team discipline. This had led each player to feel that he
needed to take over on the court, a major cause of the friction between the two. Under Jackson, Bryant and O’Neal hoped things
would be different.

During training camp each player deferred to Coach Jackson. When the rest of the Lakers saw how intent Bryant and O’Neal were
on giving their new coach some respect, they fell in line. They listened patiently as he explained their roles in the triangle,
and they accepted criticism each time he stopped play and explained what someone had done wrong.
As Jackson explained to his players, “I have to tell you about a mistake so you know you made a mistake. But it’s not personal
criticism.”

Bryant thrived under Jackson’s instruction, saying later that Jackson’s approach had allowed him to realize when he was making
mistakes without being told. Now, he said, “I know when I mess up and I say, ’OK, hold on, I’ve got to step back.”

To everyone’s surprise, by the time the regular season opened the Lakers were running the triangle as if they had been doing
so for years. O’Neal had never been more dominant under the basket, as the offense prevented defenses from packing in around
him. When he got the ball in the low post the defense was usually still in transition, allowing him an open route to the basket
that often resulted in monstrous dunks. At times he was simply unstoppable, scoring at will and ripping down rebound after
rebound.