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One by one the players, dressed to the nines, walked out the door and made a
right turn down the tunnel to greet waiting friends and family. There was
one exception: the giggly, skinny, goofy kid with the Afro, the scruffy
goatee, the friendly gaze and the mile-wide smile.
He stood in front of his locker, wearing a T-shirt and briefs and answering
the last of a steady barrage of questions that took at least 35 minutes --
an unusually long time for a player in a post-game interview.
To his left stood a pair of young boys, no older than 8, waiting with
basketballs and felt-tip pens for their hero to sign autographs.
Kobe Bryant obliged, of course, the grin never leaving his face.
That's the way the youngest All-Star in NBA history operates.
He's friendly, down to earth, engaging, patient. And he goes about it all
with a manner so pleasant and joy-filled that one can't help but wonder if
anyone so young has it as good as Bryant, the 19-year-old wunderkind just
now making the transition from interesting sideshow to breakthrough icon.
"I'm just getting started," Bryant said. "And you know what? That's what's
so much fun for me. You're starting at the lower level, and when you're
climbing up the ladder -- that's the best part."
No one has revved up the Forum like Bryant since Magic Johnson was a rookie
18 years ago.
No one has dunked the ball so creatively since Julius Erving.
No one has shown such raw talent in the NBA at such a young age -- ever.
"He's like a little Jordan, but he has a lot more moves," teammate Nick Van
Exel said.
"He does it all, and he's an established person and an established player
for a 19-year-old," Shaquille O'Neal added.
Lakers coach Del Harris said: "I don't want to compare him to anybody
because they won't be saying he's somebody or the next something. He's going
to be his own guy.
"He will be Kobe Bryant."
Bryant, a leading contender for the Sixth Man of the Year award, is the
Lakers' third-leading scorer with an average of almost 18 points a game. His
moves and dunks have been particularly astounding, unlike anything seen
consistently since the heyday of Dominique Wilkins.
The typical halfcourt alley-oop is a spectacular play in itself, but when
the 6-foot-6 guard is on the receiving end, the creativity meter goes off
the chart. He won't just dunk it, he'll catch it, spin 180 degrees in the
air and do a reverse windmill that the most avid fans will swear they've
never seen before.
"I don't want to compare him to anybody because they won't be saying he's
somebody or the next something. He's going to be his own guy. He will be
Kobe Bryant."
-- Del Harris
"'The Play' was in Vegas against the Wizards in an exhibition game," Van
Exel said. "He did a crossover and took off from the dotted line, saw a guy
was about to take a charge and flat out jumped over him. It was
unbelievable."
Teammate Jon Barry recalled other moments:
"He did a dunk earlier in the year, caught it on the break, jumped and
everyone thought he was going to dunk it on one side. He brought it down
with two hands and reversed it around the other side, just out of the blue.
All of us looked at each other and said 'Where did that one come from?
What's next?'
"Earlier in the year against Atlanta, he gets the ball, goes up for a layup,
turns and there's a guy right there, and he 360s and lays it in," Barry
said.
"It was like so smooth, it wasn't rehearsed, and I bet he's never done it
before and he just did it. That's what came into his head and that's what
his body did. An incredible move and he made it look so easy. A lot of the
things he does look so easy for him."
Indeed, it is an easy life for the teen-ager who followed Kevin Garnett's
lead and jumped directly from high school to the NBA in 1996.
He moved his parents and sister with him from Pennsylvania to California,
bought a sleek BMW sedan, began living the pampered life of a professional
athlete and gave a glimpse of his personal arsenal when he won the slam-dunk
contest at last year's All-Star Game in Cleveland.
He took college courses last summer after his fitful rookie season, but
declined to register for the fall semester and let homework or exams
interfere with his job.
It's a life any 19-year-old would relish, and Bryant makes no apology for
enjoying himself, making money ($3.5 million over three years) and saying
he's happy he skipped college basketball.
He knows he has become a role model and accepts it as part of the life he
has chosen.
"It's a responsibility, but I don't feel it's an overwhelming one," Bryant
said. "It's fun. You get a chance to meet some children in a positive way.
It's cool. I love it. I love having kids come up to me. They can relate to
me a little bit more because I'm a kid myself right now."
Bryant, the son of former NBA player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, is worldly and
mature for someone his age, having spent six years of his life in Italy when
his father played professionally there.
As well spoken as he is, Bryant has a tendency to let his age show in
settings where such behavior is rare.
During interviews, if a question is particularly flattering or
complimentary, he actually giggles and says "Thank you" before answering.
On the court, his every move has a varying degree of flair -- everything
from an extra stutter step in a one-on-one move to an extra dippsey-do on a
scoop shot to an extra head-fake on an 18-foot jumper.
He was asked: Can't you just make a plain old layup, Kobe? Do you need all
that mustard, Mr. Hot Dog?
"Ha, ha, ha, ha."
"If it comes across that way, I don't care. As long as the ball goes in."
Bryant shaved his head during his rookie year, emulating his elders in the
league that popularized the bald-athlete look.
This year, he's breaking out of the mold and growing his hair, sporting a
retro Afro.
"It makes me 6-foot-7," Bryant said, following with yet another infectious
giggle. "Just growing my hair a little bit, taking it back to the
10-year-old days when I had a big old Afro and had it blown out like Artis
Gilmore."
The fact that Bryant would be knowledgeable about Gilmore, a former San
Antonio Spurs center whose best Afro days were in the late '70s, says much
about his love for the game, which he was around even before he could walk.
His coach, in fact, also coached Bryant's father.
"They're nothing alike," Harris said of Joe and Kobe Bryant. "The only
similarity is they both really had great ball skills. Joe could do just
about anything with a basketball. He had about as good passing skills as
anyone who played at that time other than Magic."
Bryant scored 20 points in last Sunday's victory over the two-time defending
champion Bulls, but Michael Jordan outdid him on the few occasions when the
two went one-on-one.
The 34-year-old Jordan still has a few moves left, of course, but Bryant
will be looking forward to breaking out a few of his specialties when the
two start opposite each other in Sunday's All-Star game in New York.
"If it's the passing of the torch, it's the passing of the torch," Bryant
said. "But I'm just going to go out there and play hard, have another
matchup with Mike, try to learn some more, try to soak up some of that
knowledge he has in his skull.
"It's the ultimate challenge, playing against the greatest ever -- Michael
Jordan. To try to be the best you have to learn from the best.
"It's going to be fun. I can't wait. Talk about your emotions and
adrenaline! That's why I play the game."
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