Kobe Inspires Lakers Youth Movement

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Once the roster had been determined in training camp, Phil Jackson gathered his players for a meeting at the Lakers hotel in Hawaii. All around the room, they were required to stand one by one, give their name and say something about themselves.

And so, the rookies, Javaris Crittenton and Coby Karl, rose, and and the old returning champion, Derek Fisher, and finally, the most famous man in the room climbed to his feet.

“Hi, I’m Kobe Bryant and I want to win a championship.”

For a moment, it had to draw the air out of the room. After all, this was the tension that hung over the franchise like an anvil.

“That’s all he said,” Jordan Farmar said by phone Thursday. “That’s all that needed to be said.

To the Lakers youth, the message was unmistakable: For the future of the franchise, they were on the clock. Between Bryant and management, all hell had broken loose, trade talks still swirled and the youngsters in the room understood that they were the source of irritation. Kobe Bryant didn’t think he could win with them.

Perhaps Andrew Bynum swallowed hardest listening to Bryant in the hotel. With so much of the summer of Bryant’s discontent borne of his frustration with Bynum’s development, with management’s refusal to trade the 7-foot teeny-bopper for New Jersey’s Jason Kidd, nothing could change for the Lakers until the light flickered for him.

Yet, there was one young Laker bred for this burden. He comes out of Woodland Hills, and played his ball at UCLA where he delivered the Bruins to the national championship game. In just his second season, no one needs to hold Farmar’s hand here. He’s a pro. He embodies the toughness, the tenacity, it’s taken for this young core to fight through all the doubts, the dismissals and ultimately be responsible for steadying a wobbly franchise. When you’ve grown up with the Lakers and played your ball under John Wooden’s banners, there’s no flinching in a environment that makes the demands of Bryant and Phil Jackson’s Lakers.

Along with Bynum, Farmar has played an immense part in what felt like the unthinkable mere months ago. Together, they’ve moved the Lakers back to relevance, and Bryant back from the brink. Suddenly, the Lakers are 18-10 and the Western Conference’s Big Three – San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix – find a fourth muscling into contention.

If the Lakers keep winning, it’ll be impossible to deny Bryant his first Most Valuable Player award. For Kobe, that hasn’t happened by leading the league in scoring and losing. The MVP will come out of trusting his teammates and elevating those around him. It’ll come because Bynum is turning into a low-post terror, Farmar a relentless pest and the rest of these young Lakers – Luke Walton to Sasha Vujacic and Trevor Ariza – are able complements to Bryant’s greatness.

“He has done a lot better job being a teammate,” Farmar said. “He’s been great this year. His focus is with us on the planes, going out to dinner, and practicing more when he could be resting up. He’s a member of the team, not bigger than it. He wants us to be great.”

Slowly, surely, Bryant must be coming to terms with the truth that there’s no championship salvation to be found in a trade. Out of stubbornness, he’ll never come out and say that this is where he wants to be, that this is best, because it would be admitting he was wrong. For now, it doesn’t matter. General manager Mitch Kupchak has shown a better eye for talent than most wanted to give him credit for this summer, and Jackson has done a remarkable job playing these kids through mistakes, through tough times and developing a bench.

“We’re a deeper team than we were last year,” Bryant said. He won’t give them much more because he knows it’s just December, and he knows that trailing the Suns by one game in the Pacific Division can be a mirage. He’s been desperate to find tough young guys able to withstand the pounding of life with him, to understand what it takes to chase contention.

<span style="font-size:24pt;line-height:100%">“Listen,” Farmar said, “they don’t care what else happens here, except us raising a banner. This isn’t about getting through the first round of the playoffs, it’s about winning championships. That’s how it was at UCLA. Coach (Ben) Howland would chart our goals in the preseason and it would be: Win all of our games, win the Pac 10 and win the national title.

“They don’t hang any banners at Pauley Pavilion except national championships. And that’s the mentality with the Lakers. We are not here for stats. We are not here to get paid. We are here to win now. That’s the sacrifice we are all making.” </span>

As Farmar and these young Lakers understand, he’s Kobe Bryant and he wants to win a championship. For now, these kids on the Lakers have him on the way to a winning season, on the way to an MVP. Out of nowhere, there are possibilities again. The Los Angeles Lakers have a basketball season. Slowly, surely, they’re winning back Bryant.</div>

Source: Yahoo Sports

 

^^ Haha

"Hi my name is Sasha Vujacic. I grew my hair all summer long."

- Sasha