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Bench Warmer
The first step towards recovery is admittance.
Despite the Lakers having the best record in the league through the first 41 games on the season, there were danger signs that the team wasn't as dominant as all those wins indicated.
They kept getting tripped up in big games and coming up with some way to rationalize their insignificance. It was Pau's hamstrings, Ron's head, Kobe's back and finger.
But, the home wins kept mounting and the minimal road challenges were met. On the nights when Bryant didn't put Los Angeles on the right side of history by nailing a dagger to lift the Lakers and his team lost to the challengers of their throne, he shrugged it off in his postgame press conference with "stay the course" type jargon.
There's a certain patience that comes with the experience of winning four rings. There's no need to jump off a bridge after a regular-season loss when you're playing for June. I get all that.
But Bryant also gets that it's about time his team wakes up and rises to meet these challenges before it's too late.
That's why he chose the first game of the second half of the season, a 93-87 road loss to the Cavaliers, to address what's not being said by the team before they continue on the remaining seven games of their road slate that just about everybody on the Lakers said will be the chance to define their season.
"I think last year we probably were a little hungrier and played a little harder," Bryant admitted to, finally.
He said he first knew something was lacking all the way back on Nov. 13, Game No. 9 of the year, when the Denver Nuggets sought revenge for their playoff ousting at the hands of L.A. and the Lakers didn't respond.
"They steamrolled us with physical play," Bryant remembered.
The same uneasy feeling popped up again on Christmas, when Cleveland came into Staples Center and clobbered them.
Three times was enough. Bryant didn't mix words.
"[The Cavaliers] were the hungrier team and I think that they sense that they want to win a championship, they want to go after it, so they're playing with a sense of urgency that we played with last year," he said.
There was a focus about him as he spoke, processing every question that came his way until he said everything he needed to say in his own personal state of the team address.
"We have to make some adjustments, we have to make some improvements," he continued. "Our mentality has to change a little bit playing against these teams. These teams are physical, tough-minded and hard-nosed type of teams and we need to make some decisions."
His solution?
"Go to practice and I'm going to strangle every one of them," Bryant said, clearly joking, but clearly getting the point across that he will be the initiator behind the change in intensity.
"You just got to go to work every day," Bryant said. "Hard. Work hard. Practice hard. Have physical practices.
"If this is the type of game we're going to face, we have to prepare for that and it starts in practice."
Satisfaction leads to complacency. The most successful people are never satisfied.
Even Bryant, a workaholic revered throughout the game as having one of the most legendary work ethics of anybody ever to play, stepped away from basketball this past summer for a little while for the first time as a professional to revel in the afterglow of his first Finals MVP.
He's ready to return, full throttle.
"We have to step up and match that [natural hunger]," Bryant said. "It's not part of our DNA. We have to step up and match that and still play skillful basketball [...] As you go through the season, you have to try to develop it, nourish and grow it so when playoffs come around you're ready to go."
The last question Bryant was posed before he left the locker room wondered if he was going to speak to the team.
"They know I'm ****ed. I don't have to say anything right now."
Oh, but he already did.
The Lakers are admitting their flaws and that can only make them better.
Dave McMenamin writes about the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com
Despite the Lakers having the best record in the league through the first 41 games on the season, there were danger signs that the team wasn't as dominant as all those wins indicated.
They kept getting tripped up in big games and coming up with some way to rationalize their insignificance. It was Pau's hamstrings, Ron's head, Kobe's back and finger.
But, the home wins kept mounting and the minimal road challenges were met. On the nights when Bryant didn't put Los Angeles on the right side of history by nailing a dagger to lift the Lakers and his team lost to the challengers of their throne, he shrugged it off in his postgame press conference with "stay the course" type jargon.
There's a certain patience that comes with the experience of winning four rings. There's no need to jump off a bridge after a regular-season loss when you're playing for June. I get all that.
But Bryant also gets that it's about time his team wakes up and rises to meet these challenges before it's too late.
That's why he chose the first game of the second half of the season, a 93-87 road loss to the Cavaliers, to address what's not being said by the team before they continue on the remaining seven games of their road slate that just about everybody on the Lakers said will be the chance to define their season.
"I think last year we probably were a little hungrier and played a little harder," Bryant admitted to, finally.
He said he first knew something was lacking all the way back on Nov. 13, Game No. 9 of the year, when the Denver Nuggets sought revenge for their playoff ousting at the hands of L.A. and the Lakers didn't respond.
"They steamrolled us with physical play," Bryant remembered.
The same uneasy feeling popped up again on Christmas, when Cleveland came into Staples Center and clobbered them.
Three times was enough. Bryant didn't mix words.
"[The Cavaliers] were the hungrier team and I think that they sense that they want to win a championship, they want to go after it, so they're playing with a sense of urgency that we played with last year," he said.
There was a focus about him as he spoke, processing every question that came his way until he said everything he needed to say in his own personal state of the team address.
"We have to make some adjustments, we have to make some improvements," he continued. "Our mentality has to change a little bit playing against these teams. These teams are physical, tough-minded and hard-nosed type of teams and we need to make some decisions."
His solution?
"Go to practice and I'm going to strangle every one of them," Bryant said, clearly joking, but clearly getting the point across that he will be the initiator behind the change in intensity.
"You just got to go to work every day," Bryant said. "Hard. Work hard. Practice hard. Have physical practices.
"If this is the type of game we're going to face, we have to prepare for that and it starts in practice."
Satisfaction leads to complacency. The most successful people are never satisfied.
Even Bryant, a workaholic revered throughout the game as having one of the most legendary work ethics of anybody ever to play, stepped away from basketball this past summer for a little while for the first time as a professional to revel in the afterglow of his first Finals MVP.
He's ready to return, full throttle.
"We have to step up and match that [natural hunger]," Bryant said. "It's not part of our DNA. We have to step up and match that and still play skillful basketball [...] As you go through the season, you have to try to develop it, nourish and grow it so when playoffs come around you're ready to go."
The last question Bryant was posed before he left the locker room wondered if he was going to speak to the team.
"They know I'm ****ed. I don't have to say anything right now."
Oh, but he already did.
The Lakers are admitting their flaws and that can only make them better.
Dave McMenamin writes about the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com
