<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Kobe Bryant needed some help to win this game. He didn't get it. So the only teammate he could salute after the Lakers' 98-95 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers was the one who wasn't out there Sunday – or in any of these four losses in five outings: injured Andrew Bynum. “He developed into the player that I prayed about having on my team for years,” Bryant said. Bynum's replacement at center, Kwame Brown, made a key mental mistake that infuriated Bryant and wound up jump-starting Cleveland's comeback from nine points down in the fourth quarter. Brown jumped without even a full ball-fake from Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and landed in a foul that became a four-point possession for the Cavaliers. It was cited afterward by Lakers coach Phil Jackson as the game's critical error: “Gave them hope,” he said. After a Bryant offensive foul against a double team down the stretch, the Lakers came up empty on two later possessions when Bryant passed out of double-teams for Lamar Odom and Luke Walton. Most egregious was Walton, deterred by LeBron James quickly recovering to him from trapping Bryant, not letting fly a potential tying 3-point shot before the final horn. “I kind of fumbled the ball a little bit,” Walton said, “and I wasn't aware the clock was as low as it was. As soon as I passed it back to Kobe, I realized that was a mistake – and unfortunately it cost us big.”</div> http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=54180 There is no direct link to an article in there, but I doubt it's made up.
Things certainly have changed. Just last season he was flaming him, and wishing his "ass" was shipped to NJ for Kidd.
Yea, pretty amazing how people can totally look differently at a player over a span of 6 months. Maybe 6 months from now, Odom will look like an allstar player. He has look impressive at times.
Bynum has proved his worth to the team. Kobe respects him for that. I respect him for that. I was ready to have him shipped for Kidd.
F*ck him! this game was lost because of kobe shootin bricks while going 1 on 1 against lebron!!! WTF!!! its been 2 years since we won against cleveland!!! i am so ****ing pissed!!!
So...you're blaming Kobe for the loss when, if not for him in the first half, the Lakers aren't in the game. You blame him even though he wasn't the one that apparently forgot to shoot the ball when the clock was expiring. You know, I realize he had a rough 2nd half, but quite frankly, since Bynum went down, his teammates have a tendency to just stand and watch and not really move, and that seems to be what happened today. You really can't blame him for this loss, instead, why don't you aim some blame to the moron that didn't even give the Lakers an opportunity for OT because he didn't shoot the ball.
You guys realize the Lakers didn't score a single point when Kobe went to the bench in the 2nd quarter right? How can you blame Kobe?
They also neglect to realize that Kobe scored 11pts in the 3rd when we took the lead. But since he wasn't brilliant in the 4th, he gets the blame.
“He developed into the player that I prayed about having on my team for years,” Bryant said. If you really analyze this quote, it can be taken as an indirect dig at Lamar. Oh, I love it!
