CHAPTER FIFTEEN 2006-2007
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Soon after the 2006 postseason ended, Kobe Bryant underwent surgery to correct problems with his right knee. He was still recovering from the operation when the Lakers’ regular season began on October 31. He watched from the sidelines as his team beat the Phoenix Suns, 114-106, and then won again the next night against the Golden State Warriors. Two nights later, he rejoined the starting lineup.
When he first took to the floor, spectators noticed a difference even before he touched a basketball. His jersey number was no longer number 8; it was number 24, his original number in high school. His reasons for making the switch were never clear, but some believed it was his way of acknowledging that he was entering a new phase of his career, one that saw him passing as much as shooting.
The next thing watchful observers saw was that the knee surgery had been a success. While he wasn’t the team’s high scorer—that honor went to Lamar Odom—he did drain 23 points, rip down 4 rebounds, and help out with 6 assists in the 118-112 win over the Seattle SuperSonics. Sure, it wasn’t his best game ever, but it felt good to Bryant.
“In the first half I jumped off the leg for a reverse lay-up,” he said later. “That was something I didn’t do at all last year.”
What also felt good was the fact that the Lakers won ten of their first fifteen games. The last of those, a 132-102 pasting of the Utah Jazz, saw Kobe exploding for a high of 52 points!
Bryant and the Lakers continued to play well through the rest of 2006, although Kobe was forced to sit out one game early in December after spraining his right ankle. The injury didn’t slow him down that much, however. Three times that month, he posted games of 40 or more points. He was undoubtedly pleased to have performed so well—and just as undoubtedly, would have wished the final results of those games were better, for two of the three ended in losses.
Fortunately, Los Angeles was winning more than they were losing. Going into 2007, their record stood at 20 wins, 11 losses. Bryant was the team’s scoring machine, but other Lakers were equally important. 20-year-old center Andrew Bynum was steadily improving under the basket. Small forward Luke Walton regularly posted double digits in points and high figures in rebounds and assists, as did point guard Smush Parker. Under Phil Jackson’s careful coaching, the team appeared to be moving ahead at full steam.
Kobe had another terrific month in January. With the exception of one single-digit-scoring game early on, he chalked up 20-, 30-, and 40-plus point totals night after night. Those points added up to yet another milestone for the superstar. On January 26, 2007, he tossed in his 18,000th point. At 28 years, 156 days old, he beat out Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan to become the youngest player ever to reach that number.
“It’s always special,” Bryant said of the achievement. “Things like that really don’t sink in until the end of your career.”
But not every game was to find Bryant earning top marks for his playing. Two nights after hitting that milestone, he hit something else—another player.
The game was between Los Angeles and San Antonio. Late in the fourth quarter, the Lakers had a nine-point lead. But as the clock ticked down, they saw that lead dwindle as the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili swished two three-pointers and his teammates added four more. The Lakers responded with five of their own, but the Spurs matched them point for point, until the score was tied at 80 apiece.
Then, with 2.7 seconds left on the clock, Bryant got his hands on the ball 20 feet from the hoop. He drew up and jumped for the game-winning shot.
Manu Ginobili jumped too. As Kobe released the ball, Manu blocked the shot. At the same moment, Kobe’s arm slashed in an odd motion. His elbow caught Manu right in the face!
When Kobe’s shot missed, the game went into overtime. The Spurs eventually won, 96 – 94. Kobe was disappointed at the outcome. But that disappointment was nothing compared to what he felt two days later. That’s when league officials ruled that that Kobe’s elbow motion was “unnatural;” in their view, he had hit Ginobili on purpose.
Bryant vehemently denied that he had meant to hurt his opponent. But it didn’t make a difference. He was suspended for one game.
“I’m surprised. Shocked, by it, actually,” Bryant said. “You unintentionally catch people with elbows every once in a while.”
Interestingly, Kobe connected with two. other players with similar arm motions later in the season. The first also resulted in another single game suspension. The second was ruled a flagrant foul. Whether Bryant had meant any or all of the blows remains unclear, but regrettably, those incidents made some people consider him a dirty player.
If Bryant was having his share of problems, so too were the Lakers. After a promising start to the season, they suddenly went into a tailspin. February saw them losing six games in a row. In March, they were defeated seven consecutive times, including one game that found them losing by 36 points! By the end of that month, their record stood at 38-34.
Kobe was doing everything he could to get his team back on top. In one stretch at the end of March, he became the second player in NBA history after Wilt Chamberlain to post point totals of 50 or more in four consecutive games, with 65, 50, 60, and 50. All those games resulted in wins.
Other times, such as the match on April 2, he backed off from the basket and worked on helping his teammates rack up the points instead.
“I like seeing my teammates being in a rhythm. I like seeing their confidence. I like seeing them smile,” Bryant said after that night’s 126-103 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
The next game, it was Kobe who was smiling. Halfway into the third quarter, he sank a free throw to make his 26th point of the game. To his surprise, the crowd erupted into cheers.
“I didn’t know what the people were clapping about until I got in the trainer’s room,” he said later. What he didn’t realize was that that shot brought his career total to 19,000 points, boosting him over Michael Jordan as the youngest player to reach that mark!
The Lakers finished out their regular season schedule two weeks later. Kobe’s final point average of 31.6 was the highest in the NBA, the second year in a row he was the league’s top scorer. He was proud of the achievement, as well as the fact that with ten 50-plus point games he had tied Wilt Chamberlain’s single-season record.
But of course, those records didn’t add up to the ultimate goal: another NBA championship.
With a record of 40 wins and 42 losses, the Lakers just squeaked into the playoffs. Their opponents? The Phoenix Suns.
The Suns had beaten the Lakers ten times in their last twelve regular season meetings. In the previous year’s postseason, the Lakers had jumped ahead in the first round three games to one, only to be routed by the Suns in the final three games. This year, Los Angeles hoped the results would be much different.
They weren’t. The Suns took the first game 95-87. They took the second by an even bigger margin, 126-98. The third game—a 45-point, 6-rebound, 6-assist effort by Kobe Bryant—ended in the Lakers’ only victory of the series. Phoenix rode roughshod over Los Angeles in the final two matches to advance to the next round.
Soon after the final loss, Kobe Bryant made a public plea to the Lakers’ front office. The team was solid, but changes to the roster needed to be made if they were to regain their championship status. “Do it and do it now,” he said, adding that he was “beyond frustration” with the year’s results.
He didn’t know it then, but things were about to get much, much worse.