No rest for gym rat Kobe after league farewell

LOS ANGELES - Just a few hours after producing a Hollywood-style script to end his 20-year career in the NBA with an astonishing 60-point display, Kobe Bryant was preparing to head back to the gym to stay in tip-top shape.

Aged 37, the five-time NBA champion is renowned for his extraordinary work ethic and though his competitive days with the Los Angeles Lakers are over, he was determined to stick to much of the same gym routine he has followed with such discipline.

"I have to," Bryant, still wearing his beloved No. 24 jersey, told a packed news conference at Staples Center after engineering an exciting, come-from-behind 101-96 win over the Utah Jazz on his much anticipated league farewell on Wednesday.

"That's a slippery slope. I've done some research from players post-career, and it goes, 'Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.' Then all of a sudden it's, 'Uh oh.' The important thing is to get into a routine, to maintain discipline.

"I have been in a certain routine my entire career. The worst thing I can possibly do is not have one because then you wake up without a sense of purpose, a sense of direction. I have to find a routine, get into it and be comfortable with it."

Bryant had a crystal-clear sense of purpose during his stellar career with the Lakers, lighting up the league with a stunning ability to close out games as he helped the Los Angeles franchise to seven NBA Finals and five titles.

Stunningly, that same closing ability was front and center for his league farewell as he almost single-handedly guided his team back from a 15-point deficit at halftime to a mind-boggling win over the Jazz as he poured in shots from everywhere.

"This is kind of crazy to me," said the 18-times All-Star, who made 22 of 50 shots in 42 minutes to end his career with 33,643 career points, the third highest total ever in the NBA.

"It's hard for me to believe that it happened this way. I'm still in shock about it."

Bryant, watched at a sellout Staples Center by several of his former team mates including Shaquille O'Neal, Lamar Odom, Robert Horry, Rick Fox and Derek Fisher, was highly amused that his longtime reputation of being a ball-hog was now forgotten.

"My team mates were just continuing to encourage me, continuing to say, 'Dude, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot'," Bryant grinned. "It's like reverse.

"Go from being the villain to now being some type of a hero. And go from everybody saying, 'Pass the ball!' to saying, 'Shoot the ball!'."

Lakers coach Byron Scott, who won three NBA titles with the LA franchise as a player and has seen pretty much everything in the league over the years, was stunned by Bryant's ending to his career.

"It was incredible," said Scott. "I've never witnessed anything like it. Kind of put everybody on his back and carried them, carried the game and took it over. It's mind boggling."
(Editing by Andrew Both)

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Clarkson scores 30 against Nuggets, but Lakers lose

Jordan Clarkson matched his career high with 30 points when the LA Lakers battled Denver Nuggets at the Staples Center.

This, however, was not enough to lift Los Angeles as the Lakers lost 120-109 to the Nuggets, according to LA Times.

It was the lack of defense that kept on bugging the Lakers, who has yet to win a game in four starts, all at home.

"Basically, they averaged 30 points each quarter," Lakers coach Byron Scott said. "We're just not reacting like we need to. We've just got to continue to harp on it."



Kobe Bryant struggled from the field, connecting only four out of his 11 attempts to finish with 11 points. He also missed four of five from beyond the arc.

Scott believes the 37-year-old Bryant will be able to get his old game back as the season goes on.

"It's just a matter of time," Scott said.

The last time Clarkson churned out 30 points was when the Lakers lost to Oklahoma City Thunder, 127-117, last March.

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Healthy Bryant seeks to silence critics

LOS ANGELES - All eyes will be on Kobe Bryant as he enters his 19th NBA campaign after injuries kept the league's highest paid player sidelined for all but six contests last season.

But even a healthy Bryant -- and his iron will to win -- might not be enough to rescue the once proud Los Angeles Lakers franchise that has fallen on hard times.

Bryant is eager to prove he can once again be a dominant force, but unlike previous seasons when he had fellow stars like Shaquille O'Neal and Pau Gasol at his side, he no longer has a supporting cast that translates into winning championships.

"It's a mixture of things," Bryant said. "It's a mixture of excitement, it's a mixture of a little nervousness, it's a mixture of rage.

"I'm trying to see if I can prove to myself that I can be myself. All those words and the doubts add fuel to that."

Bryant signed a two-year extension with the Lakers last year worth $48.5 million.

He played just a half dozen games last season because of an Achilles tear he suffered in April 2013. His return from that injury was cut short after he fractured his knee cap early in the 2013-14 season.

Bryant, who is arguably the greatest Laker player in history, says he is finally back to full health.

"I am past progressions," he said. "I don't know how to best say that. I'm me."

New Lakers head coach Byron Scott agrees.

"His wind is good, the rust is starting to come off," said Scott.

"He has been in the league for 18 years, is a veteran and will be a Hall of Famer. He dissects defences and knows what to do."

Others say that Father Time is catching up with the 36-year-old American, who has played all 18 seasons with the Lakers.

Bryant has come under criticism from fans and NBA observers who blame him for the Lakers' steady decline.

Owner Jeanie Buss defended Bryant this week, saying people that refuse to play with him are "losers" and not welcome in the Lakers' dressing room.

"Any free agent that would be afraid to play with Kobe Bryant is probably a loser, and I'm glad they wouldn't come to the team," Buss told ESPN.

Buss' comments come in the wake of an ESPN's magazine article in which several NBA figures and Lakers employees were critical of Bryant.

The article claimed that the Lakers have had trouble attracting free agent players because of Bryant's reputation as being hard to get along with.

"If there is somebody that's on our payroll who is saying things like that, I'll soon get to the bottom of it, and they won't be working for us anymore," Buss said.

Bryant has had a brilliant career and trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan on the NBA's all-time scoring list.

But he also owns the league record for most combined career field goal misses in regular season and playoffs.

The Lakers have won five championships with Bryant, though they haven't made a trip to the finals since 2010 and missed the playoffs entirely last season for the just the third time in their 38-year history after finishing with a 27-55 record.

They hired a new coach in Scott and brought in Carlos Boozer and backup guard Jeremy Lin but most don't believe that will be enough to offset the loss of free agents Gasol, Jordan Farmar and Jodie Meeks.

"We are all guys that put our hard hats on," said Bryant.

Scott, who is the fifth Laker coach in the past four years, has discussed with Bryant about reducing his minutes this season.

"I expect him to play 82 games and to play well," Scott said. "He's a guy who's still going to average 23, 24 points per game. The biggest thing is for him to stay healthy and keeping his minutes to a minimum where he can play those 82 games."

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Bryant ready for regular NBA season

Kobe Bryant is ready for the regular season according to Los Angeles Lakers coach Byron Scott, who shut down Bryant for the last two games of the preseason to rest him for the games that count.

Bryant sat out Wednesday as the Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers 94-86 in Ontario, Calif., and he won't play Friday when the Lakers oppose the Sacramento Kings in Las Vegas.

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The Philadelphia 76ers and point guard Michael Carter-Williams established Nov. 13 as the target date for Carter-Williams' return, ESPN.com reported Thursday.

Carter-Williams, last season's Rookie of the Year, had shoulder surgery in May.

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The Orlando Magic signed center Nikola Vucevic to a contract extension, the team announced.

The team did not provide details of the signing, but multiple media outlets reported earlier that it was a four-year extension.

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Defense the key for Lakers rebuild, says new coach Scott

LOS ANGELES - With three Los Angeles Lakers greats looking on, newly appointed head coach Byron Scott pledged Tuesday to make defense his top priority as he bids to revive the flagging fortunes of one of the NBA's most storied franchises.

Scott, a three-time NBA champion with the Lakers during their triumphant 'Showtime' era in the 1980s, also said he would look to the past as he strives to develop a "winning" mindset for a team that ended last season with a dismal 27-55 record.

"I am going to do everything in my power ... everything I can to bring this team back to where we know it should it be," Scott, 53, told reporters after being formally introduced as coach at the Lakers' training facility in El Segundo.

"This organisation is all about championships, period. We don't look at Western Conference Finals, Western Conference championships. We look at (NBA) championships.

"We know we have some work ahead of us but I am excited, just thrilled to death, I am eager and just ready to get to work. I know it's going to be a challenge but I look forward to it."

Scott, who coached the New Jersey Nets to consecutive NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003, fills the gap left by Mike D'Antoni, who ended an unhappy two-season tenure with the Lakers when he resigned as head coach in late April.

Well aware that he faces a daunting task in trying to restore the 16-time NBA champions to the giddy heights their players and fans once took for granted, Scott spelled out his initial agenda.

"The main thing I have to do right away is establish ourselves as a defensive basketball team," said Scott, who was introduced by the team's general manager Mitch Kupchak after former Lakers greats Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes had all paid him lavish tribute.

"The first thing that Magic taught me when I got into this league is that we win championships by defending every single night. That's the one thing that we can control. Offenses are going to come and go.

"So we have to get that back into the plans. Guys have to understand that that's what it's going to take and they have to be held accountable for that."

'WINNING' PHILOSOPHY

Scott, who has worked as a head coach in the league for 13 years in stints with the Nets, New Orleans Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers, wants the Lakers to replicate the 'winning' philosophy he remembers so well from the 'Showtime' era.

"Get them thinking like we used to think," said Scott, whose appointment as head coach was officially announced by the Lakers on Monday after a search of almost three months. "If you're winning, it's contagious. If you're losing, it's contagious.

"So you've got to change their mindset. The first day of training camp is all about winning. You don't think about losing. And when you lose games, you shouldn't be sitting in the locker room having a good time. It should hurt.

"I went through it with those gentleman," he said while looking at Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and Wilkes. "When we lost games, it was as quiet as could be in the locker room because we didn't expect to lose. We've got to get our guys thinking the same way. We've got get to back to winning."

Scott inherits a Lakers roster that he described as "a little bit of youth and some experienced guys", with the focus firmly fixed on five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant.

The inspirational Bryant, now 35, managed just six games last season while veteran point guard Steve Nash played 15 times as both players succumbed to injury.

Though the Lakers have acquired Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer, plus Julius Randle, the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, this off-season, they have lost four-time All-Star Pau Gasol, who opted to leave for the Chicago Bulls.

"I thought they (the Lakers) put a roster together that will be very competitive," Scott, who was the NBA's coach of the year in 2008 after his first winning season as head coach of the Hornets. "I am looking forward to working with them."

Scott is especially looking forward to working with Bryant, the pair having developed a close relationship since they played together for the Lakers during the 1996-97 season when Bryant made his debut in the league.

"We get along extremely well," said Scott. "I know his drive, his will and his determination. We are on the same page as far as how we think about this game and how it should be played. It's going to be a lot of fun."

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)

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Lakers mum on report Scott offered coaching job

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Lakers Friday declined to comment on reports they had offered Byron Scott their head coaching job.

Scott won three NBA titles as the Lakers' starting shooting guard in the 1980s. He played in the NBA for 14 seasons, including 11 with the Lakers.

As a coach, Scott led the then-New Jersey Nets to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003. He has also coached the New Orleans Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers, earning league Coach of the Year honors in the 2007-2008 season in New Orleans.

The Lakers have been searching for a coach since the resignation in April of Mike D'Antoni.

April resignation of Mike D'Antoni, after one of the worst seasons in the club's history.

D'Antoni's departure came less than 18 months after the Lakers brought him in to take the place of Mike Brown early in the 2012-13 campaign.

The Lakers under D'Antoni's went a total 67-87, including a 27-55 mark in the 2013-14 season with injured superstar Kobe Bryant missing all but six games.

Their .329 winning percentage was the second-lowest in the Western Conference and the Lakers' worst since the 1957-58 Minneapolis Lakers went 19-53 (.264).

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com