The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kobe makes final Q stop; Love leaves with injury
Kobe Bryant’s 2015-16 Farewell Tour, which made a stop at Quicken Loans Arena on Feb. 10, is a sobering reminder LeBron James won’t play forever.
As with James, Bryant entered the NBA straight from high school. Bryant was the 13th pick of the 1996 draft and has played his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is 37 and has been an NBA All-Star 18 times. He played on five NBA championship teams in his 20 years in the league. The Lakers this season have the second-worst record in the NBA – 11- 43 at the opening tip.
James is 31. He is in his 13th season and headed to his 12th All-Star game.
He won two NBA championships with the Miami Heat and is looking for his first with the Cavaliers in his ninth year with Cleveland. He is running out of time to match ring totals with Bryant and the six owned by Michael Jordan.
“It’s crazy to think about it,” Bryant said two hours before tipoff. “Is this his 10th year, 11th year? (A reporter corrected Bryant) I mean he’s a vet. He’s a true, true vet. And it’s strange. To me, it still seems like he just got into the league. Thirteen years — he might retire soon, too. Enjoy the process of it all now, enjoy it when it comes.”
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue played three seasons with the Lakers during the Bryant era. If anyone is qualified to talk expertly about both superstars it is Lue.
Lue was asked which player he would choose if he had to pick between James and Bryant in their primes to start a team. He made the politically correct answer by not answering.
“I’m not picking,” he said. “I’ll take either one. It’s a great start.”
The competitive nature of Br yant and James is part of what separates them f rom their peers. Lue recalled Br yant being in the g ym at 5:30 a.m. and already sweating, working on his shot, when he and the other Lakers would show up for practice.
“I think Kobe is more ready to fight you,” Lue said. “He’ll cuss you out. LeBron is more by example. Kobe is by example, also, but LeBron shows his teammates how you should be, how you should act professionally on and off the court.”
It is fair to wonder whether Bryant should have had his farewell tour a couple of years ago. He played in only six games in 2013-14 and in 35 games last season. He has missed 10 games with injuries this season.
Bryant leads the Lakers in scoring at 16.9 points a game, but he is shooting only 35 percent. He had taken 735 shots before the game with the Cavaliers — 33 more than Jordan Clarkson, despite playing eight fewer games.
Bryant isn’t deluding himself. He knows he isn’t the Kobe of old. But he still has those special nights, as he did against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 2 when he scored 38 points while hitting 10 of 21 shots, including seven of 11 three-point attempts.
“I’m comfortable personally with it in the sense I’ve done everything I possibly could to get ready,” Bryant said. “I mean everything. If I come out and I’m not playing as well as I’d like to play, I’m not happy about it, but at the same time I know there is literally nothing else I can possibly give to change the way I’m performing so I continue to stay at it.”
Bryant’s accomplishments were recognized in a video tribute in pregame introductions. Fans chanted “Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!” Bryant hugged Lue then hugged James and Cavs guard J.R. Smith before the opening tip.
Fans cheered Bryant’s first basket, a 15-foot pullup jumper to tie the game 2-2, so loudly that anyone listening on radio might have thought the game was being played in Los Angeles.
James and Bryant have the same universal appeal. In another seven years or so, NBA fans in Boston, Los Angeles and even Miami will be chanting “LeBron! LeBron! LeBron!” the same way.