Kobe gets unlikely support from fellow teammate....

andylawcc

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
18,183
3
81
Malone Offers Bryant Uncondtional Support
Lakers Stars Have Become Fast Friends, Odd Pairing
By JOHN NADEL, AP SPORTS

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (May 28) -- When Karl Malone joined the Los Angeles Lakers last summer after 18 seasons with the Utah Jazz, he did so for one reason -- to finally be part of a championship team.


AP
Once rivals, Kobe Bryant and Karl Malone have become close friends on the Lakers.


The pay cut Malone took, from $19 million to $1.5 million, was no big deal since he's earned far more money than he'll ever be able to spend.

It was all about the ring.

That being the case, his benevolent remark concerning teammate Kobe Bryant was quite touching.

"If I had a choice between winning a championship and making things better for that little brother, I'd probably help him out," Malone said after the Lakers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 92-85 Thursday night for a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference finals.

"That's how much he means to me, and this team," Malone said. "He's being strong right now, real strong."

Bryant had 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists in putting the Lakers within one win of their fourth NBA Finals in five years. He did so after spending the day in a Colorado courtroom for a pretrial hearing in his sexual assault case.

Bryant has pleaded not guilty to raping a 19-year-old woman at the Vail-area resort where she worked last summer, saying the two had consensual sex. If convicted, he faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation, and he could be fined up to $750,000.

When asked about Malone's remark on Friday, before the Lakers flew to Minneapolis for Saturday night's Game 5, Bryant paused before saying: "It means a lot. Karl's been like a big brother to me this whole season. We have a very close relationship."

There's not a great deal of logic to that. For one thing, the 40-year-old Malone is 15 years older than Bryant. For another, Malone is a self-professed black redneck from Louisiana and Bryant is a city kid who spent eight years of his childhood in Italy.

But they're both great players -- Malone is the second-leading scorer in NBA history and Bryant, although only 25, has been a key member of three championship teams with the Lakers.

And both live in Newport Beach.

"They've kind of gravitated to each other because of the proximity they have living near each other," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "I think it's competitiveness that really gravitates them toward each other. When Kobe was injured and Karl was injured during the year, they spent some time in rehabilitation and really got to understand each other.



"Karl's really a softy, an emotional guy. He's caring, and I think that comes across to Kobe." [so who said this line? Karl or Kobe or some one else?]


Malone said earlier in the week that recently Bryant has been the happiest he's ever seen him.

"I just like to make him laugh," Malone said. "It's been great. The conversations we've had the last two weeks have been unbelievable. I've seen him laugh more in the last two weeks than the whole season."
 

PoPPeR

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2002
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yeah i've been reading all about malone and kobe for the past week. You'd think they were married or something the way the newspaper/magazines write about them
 

esun

Platinum Member
Nov 12, 2001
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"Karl's really a softy, an emotional guy. He's caring, and I think that comes across to Kobe." [so who said this line? Karl or Kobe or some one else?]

Phil Jackson. When the previous paragraph ends quoting someone but does not use an ending quotation mark and the next paragraph starts with a quotation mark, it means it is a continuation of the quotation from the previous paragraph.
 

11thHour

Senior member
Feb 20, 2004
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When asked about Bryant commenting that Malone's been like a big brother during the season, Malone responded, "I think its true, like a family. Just as a big brother is protective of his little sister."
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
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Originally posted by: hdeck
it's cause kobe has been passing him the ball recently.
Or,

"Kobe has recently been passing him the ball because of this."