Do not just file away Kobe Bryant's fascinating one-armed
performance Saturday night in the portfolio of "Where there's his will,
there's a way."
It looks like a solo, but only because we rarely stop and notice who might
be in that dark orchestra pit while our spirits are being carried away
during a great show.
It's a misconception that Bryant can and wants to do things all by himself.
Based on a self-assuredness that has made Bryant renowned for both
insistence and accomplishment, it's an understandable misconception. But
basketball is a team game – and no one ever does it alone anyway.
We all need support – and the more we get, the more we can do. Bryant's
career, in fact, has been a testament to that simple idea. His individual
greatness has never been appreciated more than now, when he is cocooned in
utter comfort.
Consider the conversation Bryant's longtime coach and even longer-time
trainer had during the game in Sacramento long before the happy ending.
Phil Jackson saw Bryant was dribbling and even passing only with his left
hand and wasn't sure this was a challenge Bryant could or should take, so
he asked trainer Gary Vitti to check in seriously with Bryant.
This was the timeout where Bryant, obviously struggling with the stinger in
his right elbow, grew animated and answered at one point to Vitti: "No
way!" Vitti left the chat and reported back to Jackson: "If I tell you he
can't play, he's gonna break my arm. That's to let you know how much he
wants to play."
Even though all the world somewhat knows how much he wants to play, Vitti
is the only one behind this curtain. He is the angel on Bryant's shoulder
... and knee and elbow, hatching around-the-clock treatment strategies that
can make everything better. Yet he's also the one willing to come to
Bryant's hotel room and turn it into a torture chamber – pounding and
pushing on Bryant's fractured right index finger as if it's a tube of
toothpaste with just a little left, understanding Bryant's expectations and
forcing the swelling away from the injured joint.
But what if Bryant didn't have a trainer who truly believed after 25-plus
years as the trainer for so many Lakers greats that Bryant was the
"toughest S.O.B." with whom he has ever worked? What if Bryant didn't have
a coach who trusted him to that extent?
Bryant would not have been allowed to keep playing Saturday night, and
there would not have come that moment after about a half-hour of real time,
by Jackson's count, when Bryant got the sensors in his right arm under
control and eventually produced something "remarkable."
What if Bryant also didn't have teammates who unabashedly want to see him
"turn into Superman"? That's the way Ron Artest phrased it in Utah earlier
this month as he tried to explain why he morphed into a 260-pound Laker
Girl, so eager was he to cheer Bryant through a stomach virus.
"He was really hurting today," Artest said after that game, which began
with Lamar Odom literally massaging Bryant's shoulder in the huddle. "But I
was trying to push him to the limit and beyond."
Artest was hurt and missing Saturday in Sacramento, but another teammate
was noticeably present. Little-used Josh Powell, who has developed a unique
rapport with Bryant, periodically approached in late-game timeouts with
whispers that either cut through or perhaps strategically inflamed Bryant's
elbow pain.
"You've got some buttons to push on everybody," Powell said Sunday. "And I
kind of know how to do that."
It's why Bryant paused after he made those two right-handed 3-pointers in
the second overtime and before his hero interview for KCAL/9 to seek out
and then lock eyes with Powell, who had played three minutes out of 58 and
finished with all zeroes next to his name. The expression of thanks that
Bryant sent to Powell for his support was frankly even more meaningful than
Bryant's straightforward "Way to go!" praise for Pau Gasol's life-saving
tip-in that forced the second overtime.
And before Gasol scored that basket, Shannon Brown came up with similarly
key fourth-quarter plays while Bryant played as if his right arm were tied
behind his back. Maybe that's why Brown and Bryant were hanging out
together Sunday night, reliving Brown's contributions at a time in the game
when Jackson worried Bryant's teammates were waiting for him to leap the
state Capitol building in a single bound.
"I was kind of getting in some of their faces about taking more
responsibility on as a teammate," Jackson said.
Bryant did the same, actually. Miffed that Gasol wasn't seizing even more
moments, Bryant pounded him on the chest to drive home that point before
they sat down for one timeout. Gasol nodded in understanding.
That's how far Bryant has come since his tug-of-war with Shaquille O'Neal
for greater glory as opposed to greater good. Bryant's team now views his
tenacity as a staple of its basic identity and relishes the prospect of
Bryant doing that hero interview as much as John Ireland.
"We know every time," Brown said, "he's going to do something crazy."
Said Gasol: "He plays through a lot of things, and you've got to give him a
lot of credit for it."
Absolutely. And on my as-of-today NBA MVP ballot, it's Bryant by a mile.
