Kobe Bryant - FishbowlLA

Sportswriters Running Out of Words to Describe Kobe Bryant’s Senior NBA Citizen Feats

Richard Horgan — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 06:40:19 +0000

Last fall, Sports Illustrated and most other experts promised us a 2012-13 Lakers rose garden. Last night, at the end of a season that has turned out instead to be all about the thorns, Kobe Bryant willed his team to victory at Portland’s Rose Garden.

Bryant is doing things at age 34 that most NBA players ten years younger can only dream of. Even Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe, who just turned 85, is probably shaking his head over last night’s 113-106 one-man show.

So how are sportswriters describing Bryant’s season-high draining of 47 points in a place where the team usually gets stomped? Take your pick: “implausible” (LA Times); “epic” (ESPN Los Angeles); “thrilling” (Yahoo)…

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Kevin Frazier Sits Down with Kobe Bryant

Richard Horgan — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:45:10 +0000

Glad we’re not alone. Looking over the teaser announcement for Wednesday night’s debut of Connected With… Kobe Bryant on Time Warner Cable SportsNet, we were immediately struck by the following excerpt:

On retiring: “I could play another five years. That’s not to say I will.”

Say what!? Veteran Laker watchers have all bandied about the time frame of two to three years. This latest reminder of Bryant’s super-human physical specimen qualities, from the specimen himself, is new and as also noted at Lakers Nation by Daniel Buerge, jaw-dropping. Maybe this is Bryant’s way of letting interested Chinese parties know that he will be ready and able to suit up over there around the fall of 2015.

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Kobe Bryant Vents About Ankle Injury

Marcus Vanderberg — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:00:56 +0000

17yrs. Countless fades. This has happened TWICE. Jalen and Now Ankle still very swollen. Treatment all day #focus twitter.com/kobebryant/sta…

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) March 14, 2013

Just when you thought this season couldn’t get any worse for the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant suffered a sprained left ankle in the final seconds of Wednesday’s 96-92 loss to the Atlanta Hawks and is out indefinitely.

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Kobe Bryant Wins on the Court and Twitter

Marcus Vanderberg — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:00:26 +0000

Before Sunday’s Lakers-Mavericks game, Dallas owner Mark Cuban suggested that Los Angeles should use their amnesty clause (fancy way of saying release) on Kobe Bryant in the offseason.

Kobe Bryant being Kobe Bryant, took Cuban’s comments to heart and carried the Lakers on his back in a 103-99 victory with 38 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists.

If that wasn’t bad enough for Cuban to swallow, Bryant tweeted the following after the game:

Amnesty THAT

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 24, 2013

Welp.

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Magic Johnson Gets Emotional After Buss Tribute

Marcus Vanderberg — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:00:57 +0000

It’s been quite the emotional week for the Los Angeles Lakers family following the death of owner Dr. Jerry Buss.

Returning to the court for the first time since his death on Monday, the Lakers paid tribute to Buss prior to Wednesday’s game vs. the Boston Celtics.

The NBA scheduling Gods delivered as the Lakers-Celtics game was on ESPN, which meant Magic Johnson was able to reflect throughout the night on the impact Buss had on his life in the 30-plus years since he was drafted from Michigan State.

To Johnson, Buss was not just an owner. He was a friend and mentor who Johnson would routinely call for advice. You can truly get the sense how important Buss was to Johnson by his reaction following Kobe Bryant‘s speech to the crowd.

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Now You See @ShiaLabeouf, Now You Don’t

Richard Horgan — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:30:18 +0000

A day after a verified Twitter account for Shia Labeouf popped up on Twitter, it has been de-activated. In its wake, the best place to get a sense of what transpired are the tweets of next-door-actor @JamesUrbaniak.

Twitter Labeouf – or someone posting on the account’s behalf – got things rolling Monday with a couple of very straightforward greetings, only to then quickly delete them. This being Twitter, the disappearing act was grounds for all sorts of musings.

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Kobe Bryant Joins Twitter Again

Marcus Vanderberg — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:00:19 +0000

The antisocial has become social #mambatweets

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) January 4, 2013

Well, well, well.

Look who decided to rejoin Twitter finally.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has finally caved in and joined the social media platform again. A source close to Bryant confirmed to Mark Medina of the Daily News that the account was legit and No. 24 was the man behind it.

Medina also points out that Bryant was on the ropes about returning to Twitter as recently as last week:

“Maybe,” Bryant said on Dec. 30. “The one thing about me is when I’m doing it, I enjoy doing it myself and putting the time into it. I don’t know if I have the time available to give the fans the attention they deserve.”

Bryant’s first time on Twitter was in September 2011 before suspending his account shortly thereafter.

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Jim Rome Going All Out for Showtime Debut

Marcus Vanderberg — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 09:00:05 +0000

Looking to make a splash in his Showtime debut, Jim Rome is digging deep in his athlete and celebrity Rolodex for the one-hour premiere of Jim Rome on Showtime.

Kobe Bryant, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Perry and Peter Guber will all sit down with Rome on Wednesday to discuss a wide variety of topics within the sports and entertainment industry.

Not bad, Rome. Not bad.

He will complete his move to the CBS family when his nationally syndicated radio show makes the move to CBS Radio starting in January.

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Report: Lakers Give Mike Brown the Axe

Richard Horgan — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:55:46 +0000

Huge scoop for ESPN LA reporter Ramona Shelburne (pictured). According to her sources, the Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t even wait until the end of their first 2012-13 season homestand to see whether Mike Brown‘s Princeton offense could be salvaged. She says he was fired this morning:

After numerous discussions over the past 48 hours, Lakers management came to a unanimous decision that the team clearly wasn’t heading in the right direction and it was best to fire him now.

This speaks also to the power of a “death stare.” Even though Kobe Bryant laughed off the media’s interpretation of his Utah glare in the direction of Brown, looks like the Buss clan took it very seriously.

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Kobe is Correct: Lakers Nation Needs to…

Richard Horgan — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:00:25 +0000

Shut up.

It doesn’t matter if the Lakers lose to the Clippers tonight, just like it didn’t matter that they lost to the Mavericks and the Trail Blazers. Far beyond the first week of the 2012-13 regular season, they’re going to make the playoffs. And by that time, the team will be just fine.

Panic of this preposterous sort is what drives sports talk radio ratings. And so, if you have been listening – as we have – to ESPN 710 and KLAC 570, you are hereby forgiven for assuming the Lakers are 0-81 going into tonight rather than 0-2.

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New LA Lakers Duo Graces Sports Illustrated Cover

Marcus Vanderberg — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:00:12 +0000

Notice who’s missing from this cover?

Get used to seeing less of Kobe Bryant and more of the Los Angeles Lakers’ two newest stars in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.

Nash and Howard are on the cover of the Sports Illustrated NBA preview issue, which hits newsstands on Wednesday.

In the issue, Howard tells Lee Jenkins about the first time he had an alcoholic beverage:

On the night of Aug. 10, when Howard was dealt to the Lakers, he went to dinner at Mastro’s in Beverly Hills, and a large group of strangers invited him to their private room. “They said, ‘Dwight, we want to welcome you to L.A. and make a toast to you and your new journey here,’ ” Howard recalls. “I told them, ‘Thank you, but I don’t drink, I’ve never had a drink before.’ And then I thought about it, and I was like, You know what, I think this deserves a drink.” He clinked glasses and lifted one to his lips.

That is likely the first of many toasts in honor of Howard if the Lakers can bring home another NBA championship.

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Philly Sportswriter Recasts Andrew Bynum as the Fresh Prince

Richard Horgan — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 09:10:07 +0000

The celebrating continues in Philadelphia media circles over the arrival of Andrew Bynum as a potential 76ers franchise lynchpin. But it is Dime magazine NBA writer Freddy Lopez who wins the honors for best pop culture-flavored analysis of the big man’s time with the Lakers.

Lopez suggests that just like Will Smith in 1990, Bynum’s move from the Philadelphia/New Jersey area to the west coast was sitcom-worthy. With Phil Jackson playing the part of Philip Banks and his successor standing in on the sidelines for Carlton:

Bynum’s distinct demeanor often drew the ire of Jackson and especially, Mike Brown. He came in as a goofy-lookin’ teenager from New Jersey to the old Rolls Royce of the league, the Los Angeles Lakers. Whether it was the elbow to J.J. Barea or the blatant three-point attempt on a semi-fastbreak versus the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers weren’t going to be tolerant to what others viewed as defiance. These incidents, though, are a mere footnote to an evolved Bynum.

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Hand the 2013 NBA Title to the Los Angeles Lakers?

Marcus Vanderberg — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:34:33 +0000

Get ready for nine months of non-stop Los Angeles Lakers talk now that former Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is headed to town.

Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times has already declared the Lakers the 2013 NBA champions:

Go ahead and mark it down, with a Sharpie: The Lakers will make it back to the Finals in 2013. And they will win it.

Listen, I get why folks are excited. But we’re talking about the 2013 NBA Finals in August when we don’t know the health status of Howard and how he will fit in with Kobe Bryant, who isn’t exactly the ideal teammate.

But I guess this is what happens when we don’t have a football team to focus on in the fall.

Welcome to Los Angeles, Dwight. And no pressure next season or anything like that to win.

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Steve Nash Traded to the LA Kings?

Marcus Vanderberg — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:00:38 +0000

How big is hockey in Canada?

So big that Toronto’s CablePulse24 was under the impression that Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash was getting traded to the Los Angeles Kings — not the Los Angeles Lakers.

For the record, Nash will play alongside Kobe Bryant — not Anze Kopitar.

[H/T Jeff Elder]

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Kobe Bryant Left Off ‘NBA 2K13′ Cover

Marcus Vanderberg — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:00:56 +0000

Kobe who?

Kobe Bryant, the longtime face of the NBA, was left off the “NBA 2K13″ video game cover for Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant.

The last two versions of the wildly popular basketball game featured NBA legends, but Bryant was the sole cover boy for “NBA 2K10.”

“Kobe is a great, great friend of the NBA 2K franchise, but each year we continue to evolve and we want to do different things,” 2K Sports vice president of marketing Jason Argent told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview. “This year, it’s focused more on the young guys. But Kobe is always part of our family. We think very highly of him and what he’s done.”

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