Bryant looms large for LeBron, Lakers at NBA restart
LOS ANGELES: LeBron James said on Monday memories of Kobe Bryant are still looming large for the Los Angeles Lakers as the team steps up preparations for the NBA’s relaunched season in Florida.
Six months after Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people died in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles, James said he still thinks of the late Lakers legend every day.
“A day doesn’t go by where I don’t think about him,” James said when asked about Bryant. “A day doesn’t go by where our organisation does not remember him and think about not only Kobe, but Gigi, [wife] Vanessa, and the other girls.
“They’re part of this family. Just as big as anybody in this organisation’s history, so we still wear 24 and 8 and No.2 with pride and remembrance of how great they were.”
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said he believed Bryant’s death, which sent shockwaves around the world of sport, had bound his team closer together.
“Any time a group like ours goes through something so emotionally deep, I just think it forms bonds, strengthened our group,” Vogel told reporters in Orlando.
“You never want something like that to happen, but I do think that’s the effect of something like that.
“We always, even prior to this happening, we wanted to embody what he stood for and even more so now with what happened. We want to honour his memory.”
Vogel said the sense of shared purpose amongst the Lakers squad could serve the team well once they enter the play-offs determined to honour Bryant’s legacy.
“I think there’s going to be a daily mindset of honouring the work and having that toughness about us,” Vogel said.
“When we get into the play-offs, there will be opportunities and situations where we’ll refresh our mindset of things that he stood for and what his approach was from a competitive spirit standpoint.
“I think will help us in our mission this year.”
The Lakers enter the NBA restart having already assured themselves of a play-off berth.
When the season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 11, the Lakers led the Western Conference standings with 49 wins against 14 losses, 5.5 games ahead of the second-placed Los Angeles Clippers.
James meanwhile said he was unfazed by news that this year’s NBA Most Valuable Players award would be decided before the league restarts on July 30.
That decision by the league leaves Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in pole position to claim MVP honours.
“I’m not disappointed because things happen,” James said on Monday. “Control what you can control, and I can’t control that.”
ZERO POSITIVES
The latest round of Covid-19 testing at the NBA’s campus in Orlando found zero positive cases out of 346 players tested, the NBA said on Monday.
In a brief statement, the NBA said the latest figures related to testing carried out since July 13, when results of the last wave of tests were announced.
“In the event that a player on the NBA campus returns a confirmed positive test in the future, he will be isolated until he is cleared for leaving isolation under the rules established by the NBA and the Players Association,” the NBA said in a statement.
On July 13, the NBA said two players had tested positive for Covid-19 since arriving in Orlando, where the league is gearing up for its season restart later this month.
However neither player had fully cleared quarantine and had not been admitted to the NBA’s “bubble” at Disney World.
The NBA has been in shutdown since March.
The league is relaunching its season with teams based in Orlando for the remainder of the regular season and the play-offs.