Surprising ally for Warriors — Kobe
Golden State players tell how Laker great is generous with advice
OAKLAND >> Before the backlash filled his inbox with hateful messages and cupcake photos, Kevin Durant was surprised by what he had just seen on his phone.
Durant had just announced in a Players Tribune article that he would leave the Oklahoma
City Thunder for the Warriors in the 2016 offseason. Before he had time to absorb the eventual backlash, Durant was struck by who first reached out to him. Nearly three months after retiring from a storied 20-year NBA career, former Lakers guard Kobe Bryant contacted Durant to offer a message worth more than just his two cents.
“‘It’s to quiet the noise,’ ” Bryant, in an interview with Bay Area News Group, recalled telling Durant. “‘At the end of day, what people say is inconsequential.’ ”
Durant found Bryant’s words important. After all, Bryant’s credentials are obvious: five NBA championships and third place on the league’s all-time scoring list. He will have his No. 8 and No. 24 jerseys retired at halftime when the Warriors (23-6) play the Los Angeles Lakers (10-17) on Monday at Staples Center.
“Having Kobe there to support me through that situation, it felt like him telling me, ‘All right, your skills are good enough to be among some of the best,’ ” Durant told the Bay Area News Group. “‘You just have to keep working to stay there.’ ”
Bryant’s work ethic partly explains why he will represent one of several Lakers luminaries to have their jerseys retired, including Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Shaquille O’Neal, Gail Goodrich, Elgin Baylor and Jamaal Wilkes. And it only seems fitting this will take place against the Warriors.
Bryant’s moment might temporarily move the Warriors off center stage after winning two NBA championships in the past three years. Their presence, though,
provides a visible reminder of Bryant’s varying sources of influence on the Warriors’ star players, including Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
“I’ve always had a great amount of respect for all those players,” Bryant said.
And with that respect, Bryant has offered them plenty of advice and lessons derived from his own career path. With Warriors coach Steve Kerr planning to have his players watch Bryant’s jersey retirement ceremony from the court, the former Lakers star even viewed that moment as another learning opportunity.
“If there’s something for them to pull out of it, it’s how quickly careers go by. So it makes it extremely important to seize the moment when you have it and capitalize on the opportunities when they are right there in front of you and not waste a single day,” Bryant said. “You’re blinking, and all of a sudden, you’re going to be back there at a new arena in San Francisco retiring Steph’s jersey and all the others. So hopefully they see it as that.”
Dealing with pain
Since he retired about 20 months ago, Bryant remains entrenched with his multimedia storytelling company, Kobe Inc. His short film, “Dear Basketball” has gained Oscar buzz. Bryant partnered with tech entrepreneur and investor Jeff Stibel to launch Bryant Stibel. Regarding the Bay Area’s tech scene, Bryant added, “There’s a lot of things out there from a technological perspective that we’re certainly interested in and want to take advantage of one way or another.”
Therefore, Bryant has not exactly spent his post-NBA career glued to the television, monitoring every game on NBA League Pass. He remains a phone call or text message away, though, from talking to any NBA player about basketball.
And only two months into the 2017-18 season, Curry has already found a need to consult Bryant. After suffering a right-hand contusion that significantly affected his right ring finger in late November, Curry asked for Bryant’s feedback on how to manage the injury.
Bryant was more than willing to help. He said he had developed a “healthy admiration” for Curry for reasons beyond their star status. Bryant said he felt like an underdog after overcoming some initial skepticism he could thrive entering the NBA out of high
school. Curry has said he felt like an underdog after fielding doubts about his size, defense and durability when he entered the league.
So, Bryant shared his secrets on how he played through a fractured right index finger (2009-10) and torn ligaments in his right wrist (2011-12), among many other injuries.
“You just kind of shoot through it a little bit,” Bryant said, matter-of-factly. “If you can’t shoot through it, you figure out what the different release point on the ball is going to be.”
As he wore varying splints to protect his right index finger in 2009-10, Bryant shifted the ball’s release point from his right index and middle finger to his middle and ring finger. Curry said he did not make any adjustments to his mechanics. But Curry found the feedback helpful on how to play with a bandage on his ring finger, while dealing with pain. Bryant has found that challenge to be “more mental than physical.”
Dealing with emotions
Bryant became universally admired for managing to play through those injuries. Bryant became divisive, though, for his demanding leadership style.
So when Green reached out to Bryant during the 2015 NBA Finals on how he should handle his emotions, Bryant did not tell him to calm down. He encouraged Green to embrace having an edge, both with his teammates
and opponents. To hell with public perception, Bryant added.
“It rubs people the wrong way quite a lot. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is trying to win championships,” Bryant said. “Everybody has a role to play. For better and for worse, that’s his. I know he struggled with it over time because he feels like people misunderstand who he is. But that is a sacrifice you have to make when you’re in that leadership position.”
That June, the Warriors overcame a 2-1 deficit against Cleveland to win the 2015 NBA championship. Bryant said that he and Green “developed a relationship since then.” And since that time has passed, Green has continued to navigate when to unleash his intensity and when to stay calm, both with opponents and with officials.
Bryant echoed what the Warriors have often said, though. They will willingly tolerate some short-term consequences with Green’s emotional outbursts because that intensity also fuels the team’s defense, toughness and playmaking.
“It’s impossible to win a championship without a team being on edge and having a chippy attitude both with each other and with the competition,” Bryant said. “In practices, scrimmages and shooting games, you have to have that player that is confrontational and is not afraid to say things that make others
a little uncomfortable. But for the betterment of the team, it’s a huge responsibility, and it’s not one a lot of people want to take on.”
Gaining respect
Bryant’s influence on the Warriors does not just involve him peppering them with advice. Thompson, for one, said he has never asked Bryant for any feedback. Instead, he simply studied Bryant from afar after growing up near Los Angeles and attending Rancho Santa Margarita High. Klay’s father, Mychal, also shared plenty of Bryant stories because of his background as a former Showtime Laker and current Lakers radio analyst for the past 14 years.
“I always wanted to play my best and challenge myself against him because I know he probably faced everybody’s best shot being on top of the game for so long,” Klay Thompson said. “So any time I was able to play him, I always tried to measure myself.”
Thompson’s 44-point game on Nov. 16, 2014 aside, Bryant won most of the head-to-head matchups. Yet, Bryant’s respect level for Thompson stemmed back to his work ethic during private workouts at UC Irvine and even in China.
When the Warriors and Lakers were in China for two exhibition games in 2013, Bryant saw a different version of China Klay. One night, Bryant went to the gym at 11:30 p.m. to rehab his injured left Achilles
tendon and lift weights for his upper body. Bryant also noticed Thompson squeezing in a workout.
“It made me smile,” Bryant said. “I knew he was going to be something special. Not too many players have the passion to do that.”
Durant did not receive the same respect right away.
“I was brutal on him,” Bryant said about Durant. “I was always talking trash to him and always needling him one way or the other.”
Said Durant: “He was hard on me. But I didn’t look at it as him being a jerk or he thought he was bigger than everybody. It was just the fact that was a natural progression. If I wanted to be who he was, it had to be hard.”
The Thunder played the Lakers well enough in their six-game first-round playoff loss in 2010 that Bryant remarked to Durant afterward that he would face him again in future postseasons. In 36 head-to-head matchups, Durant went 1719 against Bryant while averaging slightly more points per game (28) than Bryant (26). Durant often called Bryant late at night for tips on how to diversify his scoring and elevate his teammates.
“I’m trying to get the easiest shot I can shoot for myself. I learned that from Kobe,” Durant said. “It might have looked difficult for him, but that was an easy shot. Just getting into my spots and not letting anybody take me off my spots and not letting anybody dictate how I play, I learned that from him.”
He has learned enough that Bryant said Durant “has basically eliminated all weaknesses from his game, including on the defensive side of the ball.”
The next challenge
This Warriors team is encountering a season that became customary for Bryant.
During their lapses thus far, Kerr has often blamed such issues on the team nursing a “championship hangover.” Though Bryant won three consecutive NBA titles (2000-02) and secured two more (2009, 2010), he also lost twice in the NBA Finals (2004, 2008) and failed to defend his NBA title two other times (2003, 2011). Instead of chalking up those issues to complacency, Bryant performed some simple numbercrunching.
“You’re generally going to take a month longer to recover physically. But you’re starting your training a lot later than some of the other teams would,” Bryant said. “When the season starts, they tend to be more geared up and ready to go mentally and physically. Therefore, you’ll have a slower start. The key is to try to work yourself into shape and play with that sense of urgency as times goes on. It’s tough. Every championship team has that kind of second season malaise.”
The Warriors might have gotten past such issues with an eight-game winning streak. To guard against poor habits emerging, though, Bryant warned about the need “not to skip steps.” Any time a player feels tempted to skip early practice or weight training sessions because of soreness or fatigue, Bryant argues their subsequent reactions could determine the difference between hoisting another Larry O’Brien trophy or walking off the court in frustration.
“You don’t want to have regrets about ‘if I just worked a little bit harder or watched a little bit more film, or if I just had gotten in shape a little bit more,’ ” Bryant said. “‘Coulda, woulda, shoulda,’ you don’t want to have those conversations. So seizing each day means exactly that.”
And for Bryant, that means enjoying his moment back at center court where the Lakers will honor him for his greatness. Then, Bryant said he hopes to see “some of the old faces that I’ve seen for 20 years” and express gratitude. The Warriors’ stars seem likely to do the same thing to Bryant.
“To be in the building during that time is definitely an honor,” Durant said. “We look forward toward sending him off as a Laker.”