LOS ANGELES -- We arrived at Staples Center not on a mission of simple healing but with the goal of complete resuscitation.
We were going to perform CPR on a story marked RIP, doing so PDQ.
But Chicago coach Scott Skiles first performed a little action of his own, and it wasn't mouth-to-mouth. It was foot-to-throat.
"It's over," he announced with the certainty of a coroner's inked signature. "It's dead. It's a dead story."
Dead? Dead doesn't work in the rumor business. Dead is the absolute last way to go. Dead is a killer.
Truth is Kobe Bryant-to-the-Bulls has been bull for a while now. Any trade wind in that direction is just hot air circulating. If Chicago is going to get a Kobe from the Lakers any time soon it will be Coby Karl.
But something that isn't going to happen — at least until further notice — is still more interesting than what did happen Sunday, specifically a mid-November NBA game decided by 28 points.
(This is particularly true when the Lakers produce a first quarter as they did against the Bulls, with nine turnovers compared to six field goals, with no one capable of stopping Andres Nocioni, with Kwame Brown going down to knee and ankle injuries.
Said Coach Phil Jackson afterward: "That first half was really a difficult half for us. I'm surprised the crowd was still there when we started the second half.")
Anyway, deaths have been declared prematurely before, so we pressed on, knowing a column on anything Kobe would be read more than a column on everything anybody else.
Face it, if the Lakers trade Bryant, they immediately become as intriguing as the Utah Jazz, a franchise as sterile as the state it plays in. Depending on the deal, they actually could be a better team. No way, though, are they as fun a team.
And this game was a layup for us, Bryant's current team against his former future one. This was Jackson then and now. This was Bryant as — more literally than ever — the second coming of Michael Jordan.
"We haven't talked about it in several days now," Skiles said. "But we talked about it incessantly for weeks. Even within the team we talked about every day."
The Lakers talked about it, too, in case you forgot about Bryant's radio rants and Jerry Buss' lulu in Honolulu.
They talked about it more Sunday, during the morning shootaround. Jackson said he discussed with Bryant the need to avoid trying to do too much right at the start.
In response, Bryant did nothing. At halftime, he had two field goals and eight points despite being guarded by Adrian Griffin, Thomas Gardner and Thabo Sefolosha. And not all at the same time.
The Bulls were without injured forward Luol Deng, a development Skiles said robbed his team of its "small chance to do something against Kobe." He started Griffin and assigned him to Bryant, calling the move "a little bit unfair to Griff."
So given a half in which he disappeared almost as well as Lamar Odom regularly does, Bryant was making himself a viable story here. He was misplaying right into our eager hands.
But then the third quarter arrived, Bryant awoke to do enough to blend into the rest of the night and the Lakers buried the Bulls with their bench for goodness sakes.
At the end, Bryant wasn't playing for either team, instead sitting for the Lakers, laughing it up while something named Aaron Gray was scoring perhaps the least significant layup in NBA history.
It was garbage time, the trash being where all this Kobe-versus-Chicago hype and anticipation ended up Sunday.
"As far as I'm concerned," Odom said, "he's happy here now."
Following the game, all everyone wanted to talk about was the Lakers bench, and reserve players generally are as interesting as tire ads. Immediately afterward, they interviewed Jordan Farmar on the television and Chris Mihm on the radio, while Bryant exited silently.
Later, in the locker room, Mihm said something about the Lakers subs "stepping up," about the fact this is "a very deep team," about how this sort of bench production is possible "on any given night."
Nearby, Odom said: "Everybody's confident in here. Everybody's ready to play at any given time."
Finally, Bryant emerged and was asked four consecutive questions about the Lakers reserves.
When he was asked if he had anything to say concerning the Bulls, Bryant responded, "No, I don't."
Dead? Put it this way, by the end of the night, doornails were sending their condolences.
The Bulls have departed town and Bryant will leave today — on the Lakers' flight to Indianapolis.
We failed to breathe life back into the beast. For now, the Lakers are just about basketball.
Can't have that, no way. So how about this? Just for your ears, Mihm-to-the-Bulls.
We were going to perform CPR on a story marked RIP, doing so PDQ.
But Chicago coach Scott Skiles first performed a little action of his own, and it wasn't mouth-to-mouth. It was foot-to-throat.
"It's over," he announced with the certainty of a coroner's inked signature. "It's dead. It's a dead story."
Dead? Dead doesn't work in the rumor business. Dead is the absolute last way to go. Dead is a killer.
Truth is Kobe Bryant-to-the-Bulls has been bull for a while now. Any trade wind in that direction is just hot air circulating. If Chicago is going to get a Kobe from the Lakers any time soon it will be Coby Karl.
But something that isn't going to happen — at least until further notice — is still more interesting than what did happen Sunday, specifically a mid-November NBA game decided by 28 points.
(This is particularly true when the Lakers produce a first quarter as they did against the Bulls, with nine turnovers compared to six field goals, with no one capable of stopping Andres Nocioni, with Kwame Brown going down to knee and ankle injuries.
Said Coach Phil Jackson afterward: "That first half was really a difficult half for us. I'm surprised the crowd was still there when we started the second half.")
Anyway, deaths have been declared prematurely before, so we pressed on, knowing a column on anything Kobe would be read more than a column on everything anybody else.
Face it, if the Lakers trade Bryant, they immediately become as intriguing as the Utah Jazz, a franchise as sterile as the state it plays in. Depending on the deal, they actually could be a better team. No way, though, are they as fun a team.
And this game was a layup for us, Bryant's current team against his former future one. This was Jackson then and now. This was Bryant as — more literally than ever — the second coming of Michael Jordan.
"We haven't talked about it in several days now," Skiles said. "But we talked about it incessantly for weeks. Even within the team we talked about every day."
The Lakers talked about it, too, in case you forgot about Bryant's radio rants and Jerry Buss' lulu in Honolulu.
They talked about it more Sunday, during the morning shootaround. Jackson said he discussed with Bryant the need to avoid trying to do too much right at the start.
In response, Bryant did nothing. At halftime, he had two field goals and eight points despite being guarded by Adrian Griffin, Thomas Gardner and Thabo Sefolosha. And not all at the same time.
The Bulls were without injured forward Luol Deng, a development Skiles said robbed his team of its "small chance to do something against Kobe." He started Griffin and assigned him to Bryant, calling the move "a little bit unfair to Griff."
So given a half in which he disappeared almost as well as Lamar Odom regularly does, Bryant was making himself a viable story here. He was misplaying right into our eager hands.
But then the third quarter arrived, Bryant awoke to do enough to blend into the rest of the night and the Lakers buried the Bulls with their bench for goodness sakes.
At the end, Bryant wasn't playing for either team, instead sitting for the Lakers, laughing it up while something named Aaron Gray was scoring perhaps the least significant layup in NBA history.
It was garbage time, the trash being where all this Kobe-versus-Chicago hype and anticipation ended up Sunday.
"As far as I'm concerned," Odom said, "he's happy here now."
Following the game, all everyone wanted to talk about was the Lakers bench, and reserve players generally are as interesting as tire ads. Immediately afterward, they interviewed Jordan Farmar on the television and Chris Mihm on the radio, while Bryant exited silently.
Later, in the locker room, Mihm said something about the Lakers subs "stepping up," about the fact this is "a very deep team," about how this sort of bench production is possible "on any given night."
Nearby, Odom said: "Everybody's confident in here. Everybody's ready to play at any given time."
Finally, Bryant emerged and was asked four consecutive questions about the Lakers reserves.
When he was asked if he had anything to say concerning the Bulls, Bryant responded, "No, I don't."
Dead? Put it this way, by the end of the night, doornails were sending their condolences.
The Bulls have departed town and Bryant will leave today — on the Lakers' flight to Indianapolis.
We failed to breathe life back into the beast. For now, the Lakers are just about basketball.
Can't have that, no way. So how about this? Just for your ears, Mihm-to-the-Bulls.
by Jeff Miller
OCRegister
No comments:
Post a Comment