LA Daily News EL SEGUNDO - Phil Jackson asked first for the shooters who already had missed two free throws to step back to the foul line, so he could stop watching sooner and send the Lakers back out on another punishing set of cross-court sprints. He looked in the direction of special assistant coach Kareem Abdul-Jabbar standing on the sidelines and said disgustedly: "The big guy was doing 17s (sprints) at 38, 39 years old. That's how old Corie (Blount) is now." Then Jackson kindly asked the Lakers a few minutes later to get off his court and return for practice tomorrow, although the coach's exact words were neither polite nor printable. This Lakers team might have mere playoff aspirations as opposed to championship expectations, but Jackson showed Saturday he is still as capable of playing mind games as before. And he might have found a leader opposite Kobe Bryant as a result. While Jackson stormed off the floor and Bryant kicked a water bottle on his way to the locker room, Lamar Odom rallied the rest of his teammates and led them back to the foul line, where they kept on shooting. Jackson came into the season saying Bryant will be one of the Lakers' two captains. He would not commit to Odom being the other Saturday, but acknowledged the role fits, especially with Odom moving to the backcourt and directing the Lakers' offense. "He's a supportive guy and I think that it's kind of natural to say he's going to fall into that role," Jackson said. "But I want that to be something that's not by my doing but by his doing, by the team following him. "Kobe, by virtue of his status here, his veteran ability, his All-Star capabilities, has a position that a lot of times is leadership by example. Whereas we need someone who can lead by encouragement, by support, a person that can rally the group." Source
Kobe can't control his emotions. This is why the lakers are a bad team now!. They need to get rid of Kobe because he's not even that good of a player! Just kidding. But I could see the media trying to use that to hurt Kobe's image
instead of odom, kobe should be the one being supportive of teammates. or at least stay on the court and continue practicing with them. he separates himself from teammates too much.
