GOLETA - Kobe Bryant walks around without a limp and a funny look the same questions that accompanied doubt whether the Lakers will be a championship contender in the era after Dwight Howard.
That's more like Bryant Lakers fans have come to know and love. Bryant is on the road to recovery from Achilles tendon surgery and clearly is ready to move past the Howard era. He did not dissect and wonder and reeling over what the Lakers can do to keep Howard fragile here.
"You think once a guy goes someplace else I'm going to waste my time trying to figure out why that happened?" Bryant said.
Believe him. He was over Howard as fast as he could hit that unfollow link on Twitter.
On Wednesday, Bryant started a basketball camp on the campus of UC Santa Barbara announced his theme for the week: the challenge. He lived with the theme of each session restoration, and has just been through the ringer Howard independent agency with the rest of the NBA.
Young campers praising walk to midcourt at the event, a move that looks like he can dial into the sprint to the hoop and dunk with authority in the blink of an eye.
“He could shoot”, he said, but he's not yet.
"We just don't trust that the tendon is holding," Bryant said. "Typically, it's four months minimum until the tendon is holding, and it's not going to overstretch. We'll just wait until that window."
Bryant is progressing faster than was expected, he said, but we still don't have a return date. Faster is better for the Lakers, who return essentially the same team, only without Howard and with Chris Kaman. They're better off without all that Dwightmare drama.
Bryant will walk and talk with campers, but there won't be any show-and-tell drills.
"The Lakers would have a heart attack," Bryant said. "I'll just kind of be walking through showing them things."
One of the things that he wanted to emphasize to them is competition. Not afraid to be competitive. He told the camp he wanted them to work on things they do not already know how, like dribbling with their left hand, instead of doing what they already controlled.
Competing in Los Angeles is not for Howard. Howard could not hack the pressure. Why else would he walk away from $ 30 million more than he got with the Rockets and the opportunity to play with Bryant?
Asked if he didn't think Howard was mentally tough enough to be a Laker, Bryant said: "I don't really know about that. Everybody is cut differently. He has his way of leading that he feels would be most effective and works for him.
"Obviously, the way we've gone about it with this organization and the leaders we've had -- myself, Magic and Kareem -- we've done it a different way."
Bryant’s media session here is more about Howard than anything, and that's the way it should be. Especially after Bryant posted a photo snarky of himself and Pau Gasol and the Lakers heart (written in Spanish) on it, as if a fine shot at Howard. He also unfollowed Howard on Twitter, though he laughed when asked about the famous unfollow.
"Listen. It's just me. That's how I am," Bryant said. "I have a hard time following people that want to beat us. I have a hard time doing that.
"Not to say we're not friends or I don't respect him. It's just that I have a hard time doing that."
Reportedly, Bryant had challenged Howard in the Howard meeting with Lakers' brass. Steve Nash did not feel as if the Lakers had a shot and was surprised Howard did not feel his teammates had his back.
Bryant gave us a view of the meeting he walked into recently.
"I didn't know what to expect, to be honest with you," Bryant said. "I walked in there and everybody is sitting down and everybody is quiet. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Everybody was dead-ass serious. It was pretty funny to me. I didn't have a sense one way or the other. I felt it was a good conversation."
It wasn't good enough for Howard to return to the Lakers in the end.
The Lakers' public fawning over Howard -- complete with the "StayD12" billboards, both stationary and movable -- didn't appear to anger Bryant.
"It's fine. What the hell do I care?" Bryant asked. "I think it's great.
"If you want a player back, you have to do whatever you can to bring him back."
And that's why the Lakers' physical therapist, Judy Seto, is traveling with Bryant everywhere he goes, in an effort to bring Bryant back from injury sooner rather than later.
He's the important piece to the Lakers puzzle. The pieces surely won't equal a championship this year, to which Bryant responded: "I'm going to fold the tent and white flag it. We have no shot."
Bryant is progressing faster than was expected, he said, but we still don't have a return date. Faster is better for the Lakers, who return essentially the same team, only without Howard and with Chris Kaman. They're better off without all that Dwightmare drama.
Bryant will walk and talk with campers, but there won't be any show-and-tell drills.
"The Lakers would have a heart attack," Bryant said. "I'll just kind of be walking through showing them things."
One of the things that he wanted to emphasize to them is competition. Not afraid to be competitive. He told the camp he wanted them to work on things they do not already know how, like dribbling with their left hand, instead of doing what they already controlled.
Competing in Los Angeles is not for Howard. Howard could not hack the pressure. Why else would he walk away from $ 30 million more than he got with the Rockets and the opportunity to play with Bryant?
Asked if he didn't think Howard was mentally tough enough to be a Laker, Bryant said: "I don't really know about that. Everybody is cut differently. He has his way of leading that he feels would be most effective and works for him.
"Obviously, the way we've gone about it with this organization and the leaders we've had -- myself, Magic and Kareem -- we've done it a different way."
Bryant’s media session here is more about Howard than anything, and that's the way it should be. Especially after Bryant posted a photo snarky of himself and Pau Gasol and the Lakers heart (written in Spanish) on it, as if a fine shot at Howard. He also unfollowed Howard on Twitter, though he laughed when asked about the famous unfollow.
"Listen. It's just me. That's how I am," Bryant said. "I have a hard time following people that want to beat us. I have a hard time doing that.
"Not to say we're not friends or I don't respect him. It's just that I have a hard time doing that."
Reportedly, Bryant had challenged Howard in the Howard meeting with Lakers' brass. Steve Nash did not feel as if the Lakers had a shot and was surprised Howard did not feel his teammates had his back.
Bryant gave us a view of the meeting he walked into recently.
"I didn't know what to expect, to be honest with you," Bryant said. "I walked in there and everybody is sitting down and everybody is quiet. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Everybody was dead-ass serious. It was pretty funny to me. I didn't have a sense one way or the other. I felt it was a good conversation."
It wasn't good enough for Howard to return to the Lakers in the end.
The Lakers' public fawning over Howard -- complete with the "StayD12" billboards, both stationary and movable -- didn't appear to anger Bryant.
"It's fine. What the hell do I care?" Bryant asked. "I think it's great.
"If you want a player back, you have to do whatever you can to bring him back."
And that's why the Lakers' physical therapist, Judy Seto, is traveling with Bryant everywhere he goes, in an effort to bring Bryant back from injury sooner rather than later.
He's the important piece to the Lakers puzzle. The pieces surely won't equal a championship this year, to which Bryant responded: "I'm going to fold the tent and white flag it. We have no shot."
Denote heavy sarcasm.
With the salary cap freed and free agents like LeBron James available in 2014, anything is possible.
No more limp. No more Howard. With a healthy dose of Bryant's competitive talk. The Lakers star is on his way back.
News from: http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_23638099/painter-kobe-bryant-not-worried-about-dwight-howard
By: YC
No more limp. No more Howard. With a healthy dose of Bryant's competitive talk. The Lakers star is on his way back.
News from: http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_23638099/painter-kobe-bryant-not-worried-about-dwight-howard
By: YC
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