I think it is accurate to say that Kobe Bryant is the best basketball player on the planet. He still has the killer instinct to go along with his mad skills, and with all due respect to Lebron James and Kevin Durant, Bryant is without question the man I want to close out a tough offensive possession, in a close game with the shot clock winding down.
After watching him team with Pau Gasol to give our Pacers a beat down of 109-94 at Conseco Fieldhouse, I was indeed looking forward to picking his brain a bit about the quest for yet another NBA title and his impressions of the Pacers personnel that attempted to keep him from exploding against them.
But Bryant had other ideas and quickly showered in the allotted 10 minutes in which the media is not allowed in the locker room following the game, then took refuge in the training room area so he could sit and converse with the locker room attendants, the security guards, and even with NFL superstar Terrell Owens, who was in attendance for the game.
For the record, the training room is off limits to the media, and Owens was polite and engaging all evening.
Despite the number of beat writers on deadline, Bryant sequestered himself in a manner that allowed him to dictate the tempo of post game interviews the same way he controlled the dismantling of the Pacers earlier on the floor.
While the other Lakers were accessible and congenial, Bryant opted to make us all wait until he felt it was time to converse and then proceeded to act as if any and all questions were mundane and he was doing us all a favor by even answering the ones he chose to address.
At a time when NBA ticket prices are off the chart and with a lockout for the 2011 season clearly on the horizon, you would think his majesty would have been a little more punctual and a bit more accommodating. Such was not the case. I asked Bryant why he insisted on a private media session and what purpose it served. Despite the objections of the Lakers media staff, he simply looked at me, smiled, and said it was easier for him that way.
Excuse me, I did not realize that the cocoon of secured luxury you were traveling in, Mr. Bryant, was not enough, and you needed an individual forum to express your thoughts about how you single-handedly destroyed the Pacers in the third quarter. In some 25 years, I have never seen an individual treat the media as if they were servants dispatched to spread his gospel the way Bryant did. One Los Angeles beat writer told me, off the record, that it is like this every night. Gee, too bad he only visits Indianapolis once a year.
Merry Christmas, Kobe, and thanks for allowing me to speak to you and in the delayed process, get caught out in a snow storm to boot.
I wondered if you saw me from the warm team charter as it pulled out of the fieldhouse and passed me wading through the wind and snow on Delaware Street? Then again, why would the world’s greatest player, but arguably the most inconsiderate superstar I have ever covered, even think twice about anyone but himself? Maybe next time he can just text me from the bus.
Danny Bridges, who found the balance of Bryant’s teammates to be forthright and courteous, can be reached at (317) 578-1780.
