CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
2008

Playoff Dreams—or Nightmares?

The Los Angeles Lakers had disposed of the Denver Nuggets in four straight games. The Utah Jazz didn’t fold as easily. After the Lakers won the first two games, the Jazz fought back to tie the series at two apiece.

Game Five was played in Los Angeles before a screaming, celebrity-filled crowd, a crowd whose loyalty to the boys in purple and gold was rewarded with a win. The Lakers needed just one more victory to advance to the Conference Finals. They got it the next game, thanks in large part to Kobe Bryant, who helped crush a Utah rally by draining 12 points in the last quarter.

“We want to keep it rolling,” Bryant said of his team’s momentum. “It’s a great accomplishment to get to the Conference Finals, but we believe we can accomplish much more.”

So far, the Lakers were 8-2 in the playoffs. Two games later, against their Conference opponents, the San Antonio Spurs, their postseason record was 10-2. Those wins hadn’t come easily, however. The first, in fact, nearly went to the Spurs, who had a 20-point lead midway through the third quarter.

Up until then, Kobe had taken just three shots, only one of which had made it through the hoop. Considering that he hadn’t scored less than 22 points in the previous ten outings, some wondered if his hot hand had cooled off.

It hadn’t. Four minutes into the third quarter, he hit a jump shot. Two and a half minutes later, he hit another, and followed that with an assist to teammate Pau Gasol—his sixth assist of the night. After that came a three-pointer and two free throws, then two more assists to Gasol. He finished the quarter with yet another bucket and one more assist to bring his point total to 13, with 9 assists.

The final quarter started with the Spurs ahead, 72 to 65. One minute later, it was 72-67 thanks to Kobe’s driving layup. The Spurs got two free throws to widen the gap again, only to see it close on a jump shot from Bryant. It got tighter just minutes later, when number 24 made back-to-back buckets to bring Los Angeles to within three points of tying the game. Would they have enough muscle to draw even in the time they had left?

They would! With 3:18 showing on the clock, Lamar Odom rolled in a layup off ofhis fingertips to tie it up at 81 apiece. Seconds later, Bryant was fouled. He hit both free throws to give the Lakers their first lead of the game, and then sweetened the deal with a jump shot.

The Spurs weren’t about to sit back and let LA roll over them, however. Manu Ginobili sank two free throws. Then Tim Duncan tossed in a jumper to tie it at 85 to, 85.

As the clock ticked down, an overtime decision seemed inevitable to many. Many, but not all. Not Kobe Bryant! With less than thirty seconds remaining, he brought the ball to the lane, drew up, and lofted a ten-foot jumper that arced over the Spurs’ outstretched fingers and into the hoop. The Lakers had a two-point lead and when Vujacic hit two free throws moments later, that lead stretched to four. From a one-time 20-point deficit, the Lakers had surged to take the game, 89-85.

The following game wasn’t nearly as exciting, but it was rewarding—for Laker fans, anyway, who saw their team win by a margin of 30 points, 101 to 71. Los Angeles was now just two victories from the NBA Finals.

The next game didn’t see them advance any closer, however, for they lost to San Antonio. But that loss was just a temporary setback. They took Game Four, holding off a last quarter recovery by the Spurs to squeak out a 93-91 win. They won Game Five, too, a victory that saw Kobe scoring 17 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter.

“We’re all extremely excited,” Bryant said after the win that pushed them into the Finals. “Now, it’s time to go on and see if we can’t finish it off.”

“Finishing it off wouldn’t be a simple task. To win the NBA Championship, the Lakers would have to beat the strongest team in the league, the Boston Celtics.

After dwelling in or near the cellar of the league for several years, the Celtics had staged an amazing comeback season. At the head of the charge was a group of players known collectively as The Big Three: forwards Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and guard Ray Allen. Guard Rajon Rondo and center Kendrick Perkins rounded off the starting lineup.

Boston was coming off a tough postseason that found them playing all seven games in their first two series, and six out of seven in the third. They eventually beat the Atlanta Hawks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Detroit Pistons, but it hadn’t been as easy as they—or their fans —had hoped.

But they had done it and in doing so had returned to the Finals for the first time since 1986. If they won this year, it would be their seventeenth championship title. Nine of their sixteen previous Finals had been against one team: the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics had won eight of those matches only to see their streak end in 1985, when LA finally beat them. Now, the media was in a frenzy over the 2008 Lakers—Celtics Finals, a matchup they hyped as the greatest rivalry in basketball.

Game One was played in Boston on June 5. The Celtics had been virtually unstoppable on their home court. Kobe Bryant knew that if his team was going to win there, he would have to step up his game another notch.

Instead, the Celtics’ powerful defense took him down a notch. He managed to drain 24 points all the same, but at the same time, he missed some that he usually made. Boston won, 98 to 88.

A Celtics victory looked certain the next game, too. With only eight minutes left in the third quarter, the Lakers were down by 24 points. But Los Angeles hadn’t reached the Finals by giving up. Slowly but surely, they crept up on Boston’s lead until amazingly, they were within two points of a tie.

To no one’s surprise, it was Kobe who led the charge. At the top of the fourth quarter, the score was Boston 83, LA 61. Within the first minute, Bryant ripped down a defensive rebound and dished it to teammate Jordan Farmer, who tossed in a three-pointer. Kobe assisted on the next four points, too, made by Ronny Turiaf.

Then he tried his hand at shooting. A 19-foot jump shot failed to fall, but the 18-footer he attempted next swished the strings on its way through the hoop. He put in two free throws, too, after standing his ground and drawing the offensive foul.

The clock was winding down, which meant it was time for another assist, this time to Vladimir Rodmanovic, who stuck a three-pointer. Kobe now had had a hand in 14 of the last 16 points made by the Lakers!

And he wasn’t done yet. Another assist led to another three points by Derek Fisher. Then he hit a three-pointer of his own, followed in quick succession by back-to-back running jump shots. When teammates Vujacic and Radmanovic added five points with a three-pointer and a dunk, the Lakers were suddenly within four points.

Then, with less than a minute to go, Kobe was fouled. He lined up for his free throws. He made them both! Those two points brought the Lakers’ twelve minute total to 41. Unfortunately, those two points were the last the team made that game. Boston made four free throws, bringing their score up to 108, or six points more than Los Angeles. If they had had just a little more time, the Lakers might have pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in postseason history.

The series moved to Los Angeles for Game Three. Now the Lakers had a solid mental advantage over the Celtics, for Boston had struggled throughout the post season to win away games. In fact, of the twenty matches they’d played, they’d won only two on other teams’ courts!

They didn’t add a third this night. Led by a fired-up Kobe Bryant, who put in a game-turning three- pointer late in the fourth quarter, the Lakers eked out an 87-81 victory.

Game Four was in LA again. Those who watched the game saw what many sports followers believe was the most dramatic comeback of NBA postseason history.

Boston had not been shooting well and was down by 24 midway through the secondquarter. Then something changed. In the next few minutes, they rattled off 12 unanswered points to shrink LA’s lead. But LA sweetened their lead with five points of their own to make it 50-33. At halftime, the score stood at Lakers 58, Celtics 40. An LA win—and yet another away-game Celtics loss—seemed certain.

But as a famous sportsman once said, “It ain’t over until it’s over.” And with two quarters left to play, it was far from over. Boston went on a shooting spree,adding 31 points to their side in 12 minutes. Los Angeles, on the other hand, put in less than half that number. Suddenly, it was a two-point game and the certain win looked a whole lot less certain.

The two teams were neck-and-neck throughout beginning minutes the final quarter. Then, astonishingly, after trailing for the entire game, the Celtics took over. They inched ahead by two, then by four. With sixteen seconds remaining, Ray Allen made the play of the game, a beautiful reverse layup that was shown repeatedly on sports highlights the following day and proved to be the nail that the sealed the Lakers’ coffin. Final score: Boston 97, Los Angeles 91.

Kobe Bryant had been the consummate team player that game, dishing 10 assists, nabbing 4 rebounds, and sneaking 4 steals. Unfortunately, the Celtics had shut him down on offense. He ended the night with just 19 points, all of which he made in the second half.

“They were determined not to let me beat them tonight,” Kobe commented later. “I saw three, four bodies every time I touched the ball.”

The series score now stood at Boston 3, Los Angeles 1. No team in basketball history had ever recovered from such a deficit. Kobe Bryant was determined to help his team rewrite that history if he could.

At first, it seemed as if the Lakers would indeed add a new chapter to the NBA record books. Like an army, they won Game Five by beating back the Celtics, charge after charge. Kobe punctuated his drive to win by stealing the ball from Paul Pierce and racing it down the floor to deliver a massive dunk 34 seconds before the end of the game. Those two points put the Lakers ahead by four, a lead they bettered by the game’s end.

The series returned to Boston for Game Six. The Celtics were up, 3-2. They wanted nothing more than to make that 4-2 in front of their adoring hometown crowd.

And unfortunately for Lakers’ fans, that’s just what they did. The first quarter was close, 24 to 20, but after that the Celtics seemed to score at will while simultaneously slamming the door on the Lakers’ offense. Boston’s lead stretched… and stretched… and stretched, until in the end, they had chalked up an amazing 131 points. LA, meanwhile, only scored 92.

Bryant was bitterly disappointed with the final outcome. During a post-game press conference, he answered reporters’ questions in a subdued voice. When asked how to help his team improve next year, he said he thought they could work on being as strong on defense as they were on offense.

“We’re pretty good at it,” he said, “But I think we could be much better.”

He added that he thought experiencing ups and downs would make the team mentally tougher.

Then came the toughest question yet: “Can you talk about how you see the Laker prospects from here?”

Kobe looked away, clearly uncomfortable to be asked about the future of the team—and the second question that it seemed to imply, whether or not he would be a part of that future. In the end, he gave a simple, three-word answer.

“I don’t know.”

Did that reply mean that Kobe Bryant was ready to open the door and walk away from the Lakers, as he had seemed to be before the season began? Or was it just the distress of coming so close to his goal, only to see it slip from his fingers, that was talking?

“I’m upset more than anything,” he admitted later. “Frustrated… Understand that second place just means you’re the first loser.”

And yet, underneath that disappointment was another, equally strong feeling about his team. “I’m proud. I’m proud of my guys. I’m proud of the effort that we gave.”

No doubt, Laker fans hope that in the end, Kobe’s pride will outweigh his frustration, and he will choose to remain with the team he’s been such an enormous part of for the past eleven years. If he does decide it’s time to move on, he will leave behind a legacy guaranteed to inspire those who follow.

And wherever he goes, he will bring with him the talent and drive that have vaulted him to the top ranks of professional basketball. At age 29, he has shattered records, hit milestone after milestone, and racked up amazing statistics in every offensive category imaginable.

In short, Kobe Bryant is a superstar.

Kobe Bryant’s Career Highlights

1996:

USA Today’s High School Player of the Year

1997:

Youngest player to start an NBA game (1/28/97 against Dallas) NBA Slam Dunk Champion and Rookie All-Star game MVP

1998:

Youngest player to start an All-Star game

2000:

Member of the NBA championship-winning team