NBA regular season 2012/2013

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Lakers' Kobe Bryant tells critics to ‘shut up'

Ben Golliver, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Mike Brown, Steve Nash | Comments

Kobe Bryant would appreciate it if Lakers critics would be silent for the time being. (Sam Forencich/Getty Images)


By Ben Golliver

What do they say about the best-laid plans? Right, that they often go awry.
The Lakers, after acquiring Steve Nash and Dwight Howard for relative peanuts this summer, were supposed to cruise; so much so that forward Metta World Peace even hinted that his team could set the NBA record for most regular season victories. Lakers coach Mike Brown would settle for a single victory right now, after his team went 0-8 during the preseason and has started the regular season 0-2, with losses to the Mavericks and Trail Blazers earlier this week. Brown has come under immediate fire for his offensive philosophy and the Lakers played without focus or much effort during Wednesday night's loss in Portland.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that All-Star guard Kobe Bryant is already sick of the panicking and criticism, suggesting that any outside voices with doomsday scenarios or strategic critiques should pipe down pronto.

"Now you have Mike Brown telling everybody to be patient," Bryant said. "Back then, it was Phil Jackson telling everybody to shut up.
"The critics are more likely to take runs at him [Brown] than they would at Phil Jackson."
Now Bryant can be the one to ask for silence. "Yeah because I've won, so I can," Bryant said. "Mike, it would be a little tougher for him to say that. So I'll say it for him: Everybody shut up. Let us work."
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Bryant, who was hit with a frustration technical foul against the Blazers, also reportedly used the words "dumb,""stupid" and "idiotic," directly and indirectly, to describe the attacks on L.A.'s offensive approach and slow start.

Howard expressed a similar call for patience following Wednesday night's loss, although he did so a bit more pleasantly.

"We'll get better with time," Howard said. "L.A. wasn't built in a day. … We need to stay patient. We need all of our fans to stay patient with us. This is a process. Dynasties weren't built in a day."

"We didn't just expect for us to come together and be awesome, just like that," Howard said. "It doesn't work like that. I don't remember any team that did that. Even the titles that [Michael] Jordan won, it took him years to get there."
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Side-by-side, Howard's defense of the Lakers is a little bit cleaner than Bryant's. While Howard seems to forget that the clock is ticking on much of the Lakers core, at least he didn't reference Brown's credentials - or lack of championship credentials - as Bryant did. It's nice for Bryant to step up and take bullets for his coach, but perhaps he didn't need to make it quite so clear that that was what he was doing.

The situation only got more difficult for Brown, who had attempted to explain his Princeton offense approach on Wednedsay by pointing out that it made life easier on Nash, who is 38.

"Steve Nash has said it himself," Brown asserted. "They can call him if they want, he's said it himself. He doesn't feel like he's as burdened because he doesn't have to make every play for everybody all the time with what we are trying to do. He can give it up and get it back. He says he's felt as fresh as he's ever felt in his career because he doesn't feel the pressure of making every single play."
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Reporters did ask Nash, and he didn't exactly stand by Brown's explanation, ESPNLA.com noted.

Asked whether that was indeed the case, Nash said, "It's not that it wears me out. It's that I'm not sure right now that should be the focus right now.

"I'm very reluctant to worry about myself. I want to learn, I want to build this team up and then if I need to be more proactive and a bigger part of things, that'll come. But right now, I want to try to get the offense going, get the guys going, get everyone's confidence up and we'll find a happy medium sometime down the road. I'm not worried about myself."
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To make matters worse, Nash suffered a lower leg contusion that has left him "doubtful" for the Lakers' next game, against the Clippers on Friday. That will leave the less-than-desirable duo of Steve Blake and Chris Duhon to handle the point duties for Brown against All-Star Chris Paul, who tallied 12 points, 12 assists, four rebounds and four steals in a win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. Lose this crosstown showdown, and Bryant's hopes for the critics won't be fulfilled. A win, though, would buy some welcome, if temporary, relief.

 

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NEW ORLEANS -- Kobe Bryant's ultimate place among basketball's greats may be up for debate. But there is no denying Bryant's spot as one of the all-time best scorers after he became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points Wednesday.

Bryant made a slashing right-handed runner in the lane with 1:16 remaining in the second quarter against the New Orleans Hornets, giving him 30,001 career points at just 34 years, 104 days old.
Bryant surpassed Wilt Chamberlain's previous record of 35 years, 179 days. The Los Angeles Lakers star scored 17 points in the first half against the Hornets.
Bryant joins Chamberlain (31,419 points), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928) and Michael Jordan (32,292) as the only five players in NBA history to reach the 30,000-point plateau.

"It's just a tremendous honor," Bryant told reporters after finishing with 29 points in the Lakers' 103-87 win. "I don't really know how else to put it. I've just been very, very fortunate."
NBA commissioner David Stern was present at New Orleans Arena to witness Bryant's achievement.
"I want to shake his hand. I think Kobe is, as a talent and a competitor, he's up there on the pedestal with Michael Jordan as one of the greatest," Stern told reporters before the game. "Kobe has such an extraordinary run playing at the highest level for so long with the championships to prove it in a league that is extremely competitive.
"Kobe and the Lakers have been an important part of the league, and I wish him well for this season and beyond

Lakers star Kobe Bryant became the youngest player in NBA history to score 30,000 points, reaching the milestone on a slashing right-handed runner late in the second quarter against the Hornets on Wednesday night. Here's a look at the quickest to 30,000:
Bryant spoke to the commissioner before the game.

"(Stern) said he was in (Las) Vegas when Kareem set his milestone and he just congratulated me and told me that I was one of the best competitors that he's seen in this game," Bryant said. "I really appreciated that. He's done a lot for the game and obviously this kind of being his last in the office and so forth. It really means a lot."

Bryant was the fifth-fastest player -- in terms of games played -- to reach the milestone, needing 1,179. Chamberlain was the fastest at 941 games, followed by Jordan (960), Abdul-Jabbar (1,101) and Malone (1,152). Bryant also was the youngest player to reach the 20,000-point mark.

"That just means he's old. He's played a lot," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni joked before the game. "I think it's great. Not many people can get that achievement. That's something he's earned and deservedly so. That's great."

Four of the five names on the 30,000-point list played for the Lakers at one point in their careers, a fact not lost on Bryant, who has spent all 17 years of his career suiting up for the purple and gold.

"This is a franchise, like I've said in the past, guys whose jerseys hang up in the rafters are some of the all-time greats," Bryant said earlier this week as the milestone was approaching. "Not just greats for the franchise. I don't know if there's any other organization that can say that."

The opponent was also special for Bryant, as the Hornets were the team that drafted him in 1996 before then-Lakers general manager Jerry West acquired Bryant in a deal for Vlade Divac.
"The irony," Bryant said. "It's funny how sports always seems to kind of have that connectivity in some shape, form or fashion. It just kind of always seems to come full circle."
Bryant, 34, looked younger than his years as four of his 10 field goals came on dunks the day after he played 35 minutes in a road loss to the Houston Rockets.

"Just the legs feeling fresh," he said of the dunks. "I really challenged myself to do a lot of recovery today. Even more than I normally do, to try to get ready for this back-to-back game. My legs felt great as a result."
Several players with ties to Bryant checked in with congratulations for the five-time champion via Twitter.

"Congratulations to the best scorer in the planet, mate and friend, Kobe! for joining the 30.000 points club!! Huge accomplishment!#Kobe30K," wrote Pau Gasol, who was at the game but did not play because of knee tendinitis.
"CONGRATS 2 THE GREAT KOBE "BEAN" BRYANT 4 DROPPING 30,004 POINTS OVER HIS CAREER AND STILL COUNTING," wrote Shaquille O'Neal, who teamed with Bryant to win three rings despite a tumultuous relationship with the Lakers' star.

Said Bryant: "I think now, honestly, I don't know why I'm still working as hard as I am after 17 years. I mean it's just that I enjoy what I do and I think that's the thing that I'm most proud of -- every year, every day working hard at it. That's a lot of years, a lot of work."

 

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