CHAPTER SIXTEEN 2007-2008
CHAPTER SIXTEEN On Tuesday, May 29, 2007, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a report in their newspaper about Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. The article quoted an anonymous source inside the Los Angeles organization as saying that “it was Bryant’s insistence on getting away from Shaquille O’Neal [in 2004]” that ultimately lead to Shaq being traded.
When Kobe learned of the article, he was infuriated. The reason why was simple: the source was dead wrong. The next day, he set the record straight by doing an interview with radio personality Stephen A. Smith.
Bryant told listeners of a meeting he’d had with team owner Dr. Jerry Buss midway through the 2004 season. The meeting was between Buss and Bryant only and included some news that shocked Bryant.
“I am not going to re-sign Shaq,” Buss said. He believed Shaq was too expensive and too old. Then he reassured Bryant that the decision had nothing to do with the supposed feud between the two players. “This is my decision. It’s independent of you. My mind is made up.”
According to Kobe, Buss also stated that he planned to focus the team’s efforts around Bryant, and that he wasn’t thinking of rebuilding. That latter statement proved to be false, for in the years afterward, rebuilding is just what the team had set out do.
Kobe had never told anyone of this meeting mainly because he didn’t want to add to the media’s obsession with the troubles between himself and Shaq. But when the 2007 article appeared, he felt he had no choice but to come forward with the real story—a story that Shaq himself said he believed one hundred percent.
Smith must have heard the bitterness in Kobe’s voice in the interview for he took the conversation in a new direction. “What are your feelings about the Los Angeles Lakers organization right now?” Smith asked.
Kobe answered by saying how much he had always loved the Lakers as a kid growing up and as a player. But now he felt he had been betrayed.
“I just don’t see how you can rebuild that trust,” he said wearily. “I just don’t know how you can move forward in that type of situation.”
“Are you saying… that you want to be traded?” Smith asked.
Kobe didn’t hesitate with his answer. “Yeah, I would like to be traded, yeah.”
That reply sent shock waves through the basketball world. Bryant was barraged with questions from reporters. At times, he seemed to back away from his statement; other times, he seemed to confirm it. In the end, one message came through loud and clear: Kobe wanted to remain a Laker, but unless the organization was willing to make some changes, he would go.
Rumors of trade talks circulated wildly in the following weeks. The Los Angeles Clippers and the Chicago Bulls were the teams most often mentioned. But by mid-summer, the story had begun to fade. Kobe himself said that he had put it out of his mind in order to focus on his play for Team USA and their drive to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics. With Kobe setting the pace, the squad reached that goal by winning the qualifying tournament in Las Vegas on September 2.
Then it was on to the Lakers’ preseason—and the rumor mill began pumping out speculation about a Bryant trade once again. Dr. Buss added to those rumors by saying in mid-October that he would listen to any offers for his star player. But as nothing came of such talk, Kobe remained with Los Angeles.
The preseason found Bryant plagued with other difficulties besides trade talks. He had been bothered with tendonitis in his knee, for one thing. Then, a week before the regular season began, he was forced to the sidelines with a wrist injury.
The wrist healed quickly, however, and Kobe was cleared to play in the team’s opening day game against the Houston Rockets. He was loudly booed by the home crowd when he first took to the floor. But he quickly turned those jeers into cheers with an amazing 45-point performance. Those points added up to almost half of the team’s total score. Unfortunately for Laker fans, that total was two less than the points racked up by the Rockets.
Los Angeles played Phoenix in their next outing— and embarrassed the team that had embarrassed them in the playoffs by winning 119-98. That game, Kobe demonstrated his new role of team facilitator, or the player who spurs on the action with crisp passes, able assists, aggressive rebounds, and pinpoint shooting. For his efforts, he posted 16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in 28 minutes of play.
By the end of November, the Lakers had a record of 9-7. It was not their best showing in years, but it was respectable nonetheless. By the year’s end, they had bettered it to 19-11. Those wins included a December 23 match that saw Kobe Bryant earning an early Christmas present.
That night, the Los Angeles Lakers played the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden. The Lakers jumped to an early lead, and by halftime were ahead 55-37. Kobe had drained 17 of those points, including two three-pointers. Then, in the first minute of the third quarter, he hit another three-pointer.
All of a sudden, the crowd erupted with cheers. With that shot, Bryant had made his 20,000th career point! He was the thirty-first player to reach that mark and the youngest in NBA history. The Lakers won the game, thanks in large part to Kobe’s 39 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Less than a month later, Kobe closed in on another historic record in a thrilling game against the Seattle SuperSonics that was decided in the final four seconds of overtime. The score was tied at 121 points apiece when Bryant got the ball 18 feet from the basket. He turned, shot, and swish! Two points and the win!
Those points brought his game total to 48, his first 40-plus game of the season—and the 87th of his career. If he had just one more game with more than 40 points, he would tie Elgin Baylor, who had 88, for third place in the NBA record books. Few people doubted he would tie and eventually surpass Baylor, and soon. And that’s exactly what happened.
On January 25, 2008, he reached 88. On February 1, he made it 89. Nineteen days later, he was up to 90—despite pain in his right pinky, which he had dislocated earlier in the month. On March 2, he posted his 91st 40-plus game with a 52-point effort, his highest point total so far that season. And before March was through, he bested that mark by draining 53 points for his 92nd 40-plus game—and his 23rd 50-plus career game!
Such performances had some people whispering that this year, Kobe Bryant would finally win an award that had eluded him so far in his career. Despite posting fantastic numbers in most of his eleven seasons, Bryant had never been voted as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player.
No one disputed the fact that Kobe was a great player, perhaps the best on the court. The trouble was, many were uncertain if he was the best team player. For those voting for MVP, this is what the award represented.
That Kobe himself recognized this fact became clear in a reply he gave in mid-April when asked if he thought he had a chance to win.
“The MVP nowadays is not an individual award, you really have to make your teammates better and elevate your ball club. I think for me to be nominated in that race is a tremendous honor because that’s really been one of the criticisms people have had of me, how well I make my teammates better. From that standpoint, I feel like I have already won.”
But were his efforts enough for him to win MVP votes? Only time would tell. Meanwhile, he still had a job to do—namely, help the Lakers win their way through the playoffs and into the Finals!
On April 11, the Lakers clinched first place in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference with a nail-biting 107-104 win over the dangerous New Orleans Hornets. Two nights later they beat the reigning NBA champions, the San Antonio Spurs, by a walloping 106-85 to jump ahead to first place in the Western Conference.
“It’s all about momentum,” Kobe commented.
That momentum carried the Lakers through their last regular season game, a 124-101 blowout over the Sacramento Kings. Kobe had 20 points that night, most of which were free throws. He also had 5 assists. The second of these marked yet another important milestone in his career.
Bryant entered the game with 3,998 total career assists in eleven seasons. Within the first minutes of the first quarter, he had added number 3,999. Then, with 7:22 showing on the game clock, he dished the ball to teammate Vladimir Radmanovic, who drove in for a layup. Radmanovic added two points to the Lakers’ score—and Kobe became the sixteenth player in NBA history to have 4,000 career assists, only the third Laker to reach that mark.
Kobe was pleased to have earned his way into the top ranks of basketball players. But there were still two goals that eluded him, the MVP award and a fourth NBA championship title.
That the Lakers could achieve the second of the two was possible, for Los Angeles swept the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs to advance to the Conference Semifinals versus the Utah Jazz. Kobe played one of the best games of his life in that first round. He hit 18 of 27 shots from the floor, made 5 out of 9 three-pointers, and added 8 more points on free throws for a total of 49 that night. He also contributed 10 assists; in all, his performance accounted for 69 points of the team’s total score!
It was efforts like that that made it easy for sports writers and broadcasters to decide on the 2007-2008 MVP. On May 6, they chose Bryant in a landslide that saw him garnering 82 out of 126 first-place votes.
Kobe was thrilled to finally receive the award that had danced just out of reach for so long. But he didn’t claim the trophy for himself alone. He knew that he wouldn’t be holding it if it wasn’t for his teammates.
“This is really a brotherhood. We’re really, really close, all of us,” he stated on his Web site. “We’re brothers, man.”
Now all that remained to be seen was whether that brotherhood could power their way through the playoffs and win the ultimate prize: the NBA Championship.