2014-15 Official Lakers Season Thread, Vol: We Love Each Other

How Many Wins This Season?

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thats my sg
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Some Kobe stories throughout the internet.

Kobe Bryant and the 40-mile bike ride
Interesting tidbit from an article on the Clippers’ Blake Griffin, by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne:
Blake Griffin needs to know if the story is true. Ever since he first heard it last July, he’s been obsessed with it.
"The first night we all got into Las Vegas last summer for the USA Basketball camp, I heard Kobe went on some 40-mile bike ride at night through the desert," Griffin says. "Forty miles? At night? You think it’s true?"
Before I can answer, Griffin continues:
"When I found out about that bike ride, I was so tempted to ask him if I could go next time."
This is my favorite part about Kobe: you assume this story is true. Forty miles in the desert? You don’t even question it.
…in this moment, all Griffin wants to talk about is whether or not Kobe Bryant really got on a bike and rode 40 miles through the desert last July.
"I love that stuff," Griffin says. "I love all those stories."
The story Griffin heard turns out to be true. And it goes something like this: Bryant told his longtime trainer, Tim Grover, that he wanted to add in bike training to his summer conditioning. Grover researched a trail in Las Vegas, rented three bikes — one for Bryant, one for himself and one for Bryant’s security guard — and on the night before the first day of practice, they each put on headlamps and headed out to the trail and rode.
"We finished up around 2 a.m." Grover said. "And we were back in the gym working out by 7:30 in the morning."
And that’s just it. To Blake Griffin, and most of the NBA, these are just stories.
To Kobe Bryant, that’s a Tuesday night.

He decided to lose 16 lbs for the Olympics in 2012
Kobe has never been out of shape, but he decided to change himself as a precautionary measure. He told the Guardian: "With summer basketball leading directly into the season — and I'm expecting to play until next June — I have to take some load off my knees. I've got to shave some of this weight."

He'd make high school teammates play one-on-one games to 100
Kobe played a bench warmer to 100 multiple times when he was in high school. In Kobe's worst game, he still won 100-12.

He used to practice by himself without a ball, says Shaq
Shaq wrote in his book: "You'd walk in there and he'd be cutting and grunting and motioning like he was dribbling and shooting — except there was no ball. I thought it was weird, but I'm pretty sure it helped him."

He goes through super intense workouts on game days
From ESPN's Rick Reilly: "Among a dozen other drills, Bryant does suicide push-ups. At the top of the pushup, he launches himself off the mat so hard that both his feet come off the ground and his hands slap his pecs. He does three sets of seven of these. This makes me turn away and whimper softly."

He watches film of himself at halftime
According to ESPN's Jackie McMullen in 2010:
"He often corrals teammates, fires up the laptop, and shows them precisely how they can carve out easier shots for themselves."

Caron Butler
Caron Butler says he's grateful he spent a year in Los Angeles as Kobe Bryant's teammate and work out partner.
"I say that's the best thing that ever could have happened for me personally for my career," Butler said. "To play alongside a guy like that, see his preparation, see what it takes to get to that level, that's why I was able to be so good in Washington because I took everything I learned from him under his wing."
Butler played in 77 games in 2004-05 with the Lakers. He averaged a then career-high (by a tick) 15.5 points and then career-high 5.8 rebounds. His free throw shooting improved, too.
"Work ethic," Butler said. "He comes to the gym 6:30, 7 in the morning, gets shots every day, a rhythm. Afterward hits the weight room, works out in the summer, studying film, critiquing guys, watching their tendencies, picking things up ... Just studying the game with him taught me a lot."
Butler and Bryant talk every couple of weeks, and when Butler was traded to Dallas, Bryant was quick with a call.
"He told me he was happy for me and happy to see me in a situation to be able to legitimately compete for a title," Butler said.
But Wednesday will be a different conversation.
"You always hear that he's ready to compete," Butler said. "He's happy but at the same time once we get on the court all bets are off with Kobe. He's going to bring it, then hug me afterwards. That's how it is. It's business."

Kevin Durant
"We had the day off, but they said we could get some shots up if we wanted, so I decided to head over to the gym with [Oklahoma City teammate] Jeff Green.
"Kobe [Bryant] was the only guy on the bus to the gym, and that spoke volumes to me -- he's the best player in the game, yet he's always willing to come work on his game, so that kind of motivated me and Jeff," Durant said. "He went by himself, he got a lot of shots up, and by the time he was done you could see he had gotten better over that hour. Like I said, it was a big inspiration to me and Jeff."

The Pandas Friend (formerly known as Metta World Peace who was formerly Ron Artest)
He reported Thursday that he arrived at the gym early, early in the morning for a hard workout,but once inside, he discovered he wasn't alone.
"3rd workout done. Let me tell why I LOVE KOBE JELLY BEAN BRYANT! I get to the gym at 6:45 am, the Black Mamba is there since 5:30! Go Lakers!!!"

John Celestand
“The first time I began to understand why he was the best was in the pre-season. In a game against the Wizards, Kobe broke the wrist on his shooting hand. He was always the first person to practice every day, arriving at least an hour and a half early. This would infuriate me because I wanted to be the first person to practice, just as I had always been at Villanova and Piscataway High in New Jersey. To add insult to injury, I lived only 10 minutes from the practice facility — while Kobe was at least 35 minutes away.
“I am ashamed to say that I was excited the day after his injury because I knew that there was no way that No. 8 (as former Laker point guard Tyronn Lue called him) would be the first to practice, if he would even be there at all.
“As I walked through the training room, I became stricken with fear when I heard a ball bouncing. No, no, it couldn’t be! Yes it could. Kobe was already in a full sweat with a cast on his right arm and dribbling and shooting with his left.”

Laron Profit
“You know it was so funny, my first experience when I was out in LA, me and Kwame Brown got traded to the Lakers [in Summer of 2005]. We were playing a pick-up game before the season started, we were playing 3-on-3, and it was game point.
“Kobe had the ball and it came off, Kwame knocked the ball away from him.
“Again [this was] a pick-up game, September, nothing on the line. And the ball rolled to half court.
“Kobe then ran to half-court, dived under Kwame’s legs with the ball for about 10 feet, picked the ball up, came back down, made some incredible move, then hit the game-winning shot to end the pick-up game.
“I walked off the court, and I called my mom, and I said, “I think I’ve just seen the second best player ever [behind Jordan].”
“But then around him, you understand that nothing he does is by accident, that all this is a result of hours and hours and hours of preparation. So that when he gets into a situation in a game, in a playoffs game, in a Finals game, his confidence comes from his prepration.
“He once told me at a halftime of a game, he was struggling, I think we were playing Seattle [Sonics] and he was struggling, and I asked him, “How do you feel?” and he said, “I feel great! The second half… the second half. Hey Prof, I work too hard. These shots HAVE to fall eventually because I’ve worked too hard, I’ve shot too many shots.”
“So his belief in himself… when we look at it and see it as arrogance, some people see as may have too much confidence. It’s really just a result of how hard he works, of how much preparation time he puts in his game. That once he steps on the court, he really believes that he will be successful. And that’s what I think I took away from him more than anything else, it’s that your belief in yourself has to come from your confidence and your preparation.

Chris Douglas-Roberts
A lot of ppl wondered why Bean spoke so highly of me last yr. First day of camp Mike Brown tried to throw me in the fire right away. Made me & Bean 1 on 1 partners for the whole first practice. What Mike Brown didn’t know is that’s what I was waiting for. That whole day we went head up. At one point it damn near came to blows bc Bean will do anything for an edge. So he was elbowing me on the low for separation & I couldn’t let that go as a competitor. As a man. The refs were too scared to call the foul bc he was intimidating them all practice. But at then end it was all love. The respect is mutual. Gave me some pointers that are priceless. It’s a misconception on Bean. Ppl think he’s a sucker…hard to play with. It’s just that he expects the most of his teammates bc he works so hard. Easily realist hooper I’ve met. He never lies and I respect that. #ClosestThingtoJordan #HeNeverSleepsEither#ImOut

Robert (The USA Trainer)
The night before the first scrimmage I remember I was just watched “Casablanca” for the first time and it was about 3:30 AM. I lay in bed, slowly fading away when I hear my cell ring. It was Kobe. I nervously picked up.
“Hey, uhh Rob, I hope I’m not disturbing anything right?”
“Uhh no, what’s up Kob?”
“Just wondering if you could just help me out with some conditioning work, that’s all.”
I checked my clock. 4:15 AM.
“Yeah sure, I’ll see you in the facility in a bit.”
It took me about twenty minutes to get my gear and out of the hotel. When I arrived and opened the room to the main practice floor I saw Kobe. Alone. He was drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn’t even 5AM.
We did some conditioning work for the next hour and fifteen minutes. Then we entered the weight room, where he would do a multitude of strength training exercises for the next 45 minutes. After that we parted ways and he went back to the practice floor to shoot. I went back to the hotel and crashed. Wow.
I was expected to be at the floor again at about 11 AM. I woke up feeling sleepy, drowsy, and almost pretty much every side effect of sleep deprivation. Thanks, Kobe. I had a bagel and headed to the practice facility.
This next part I remember very vividly. All the Team USA players were there, feeling good for the first scrimmage. LeBron was talking to Carmelo if I remember correctly and Coach Krzyzewski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant. On the right side of the practice facility was Kobe by himself shooting jumpers. And this is how our next conversation went — I went over to him, patted him on the back and said, “Good work this morning.”
“Huh?”
“Like, the conditioning. Good work.”
“Oh. Yeah, thanks Rob. I really appreciate it.”
“So when did you finish?”
“Finish what?”
“Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility?”
“Oh just now. I wanted 800 makes so yeah, just now.”
My jaw dropped. Mother of holy God. It was then that I realized that there’s no surprise to why he’s been as effective as he was last season. Every story about his dedication, every quote that he’s said about hard work all came together and hit me like a train. It’s no surprise to me now that he’s dunking on players ten years younger than him and it wasn’t a surprise to me earlier this year when he led the league in scoring.

Excerpt from Shaq Uncut
"Kobe stands up and goes face-to-face with me and says, "You always said you're my big brother, you'd do anything for me, and then this Colorado thing happens and you never even called me." I did call him. ... So here we are now, and we find out he really was hurt that we didn't stand behind him. That was something new. I didn't think he gave a rat's *** about us either way. "Well, I thought you'd publicly support me, at least," Kobe said. "You're supposed to be my friend." Brian Shaw chimed in with "Kobe, why would you think that? Shaq had all these parties and you never showed up for any of them. We invited you to dinner on the road and you didn't come. Shaq invited you to his wedding and you weren't there. Then you got married and didn't invite any of us. And now you are in the middle of this problem, this sensitive situation, and now you want all of us to step up for you. We don't even know you." ...

Kobe Goes to the Movies (from Lee Jenkins/SI)
Years ago, upon returning from the horror flick Saw II, Bryant described for Lakers trainer Gary Vitti a scene in which a victim awakens to find a contraption locked around his neck lined with nails pointed at his head. A videotape explains that the victim can unlock the device with a key, but it has been surgically implanted behind his right eye, and he can only extract it with a scalpel. He has a minute before it closes over his face and kills him. "I think I could get that key," Bryant said.

SHAQ
He was so young and so immature in some ways, but I can tell you this: everything Kobe is doing now, he told me all the way back then he was going to do it. We were sitting on the bus once and he told me, "I'm going to be the number one scorer for the Lakers, I'm going to win five or six championships, and I'm going to be the best player in the game." I was like, "Okay, whatever." Then he looked me right in the eye and said, "I'm going to be the Will Smith of the NBA."

Dawgs
Kobe is a scientific dawg. He works out every day, practices every day. Most of the other stars are just dawgs, not scientific dawgs.
Me, I’m a freak-of-nature dawg because of my size. LeBron could be a scientific dawg like Kobe, but he’s not, he's got a lot going on like I did, so that’s preventing him from being one.

The Pandas Friend
What are your thoughts on Kobe?
I thought you'd never ask. We'll be on the plane, playing cards. Kobe will walk up, stop the game and say, "Ron, come to the back of the plane." Then, he'll show me some tape and say, "Look at this. Here's what you need to do." I'll go back to my seat, and then he'll walk up to Shannon Brown, stop the card game and do the same thing. And it doesn't matter if you're sleeping. He'll wake you up and show you things you've never thought about. He puts so much time and passion into the game. I have no problem following somebody who's worth being followed, who works as hard as me. I will follow Kobe anywhere.

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Those stories are why I backed Kobe for 17 years. :hat


His contract should have rewarded me, not angered me, but oh well. :lol
 
From the NBA thread, this vid is just insane.





I brought it up a few weeks back, how when he went into that zone, it was disgusting. Like Toronto, Dallas, etc.

Dude had 40, with 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, on 14 of 16 shooting, with 8 3's, and he didn't even really push it early in the game. :lol :rollin :x :hat


I mean, this EASILY could have been an 80. Easy.


And I remember perfectly the 81, he "should" have had 88. LO missed him on a cherry pick, he missed 2 FT's, and he had an and 1 called a charge. That's 7 points he could, and should have had, with ease in that game. And he sat 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter, and the final minute of the game. :lol :lol :lol

He would have needed 12 points in about 6 minutes, he coulda dropped a C-Note that night. I will forever remember that moreso than the actual 81. How absolutely close he came to 100, in the NBA, against a playoff team. (I'm an idiot) :lol :{
 
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The Raptors weren't a playoff team that year. They got the #1 pick that June. :lol
 
Whuuuuuuuu? For reals? Bargs?

Well, ****. I honestly never knew that, I thought that was the 50 win Raps with Bosh, Rose, etc.
 
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