Kobe spoke with reporters after Tuesday’s practice about the Lakers, his retirement comments, and of course someone asked him about the Dwight Howard/Shaq drama. Check out what he had to say:
Kobe Bryant said he hasn’t felt as good physically as he does right now since the 2006 season.
“With all the training I put in this summer,” he said, “I feel healthy, I feel strong. I feel ready.”
And his most important job, besides preparing himself, is trying to get the most out of Howard. While they’ve spoken a lot since the Lakers acquired the mercurial center from Orlando in the middle of August, Bryant said most of what he can teach Howard is learned through observing how he practices and plays.
“I make guys uncomfortable. When I practice, everybody is a little uncomfortable,” Bryant said. “If you want to get to that next level, if a guy’s guarding you in practice, you have to punish him and send him a message. Make the guy who is guarding you think about if he wants to play in the NBA anymore.”
While Howard is known as more of a jokester, Bryant said he’s been impressed by what he’s seen so far. He just wants to see more of it, more often.
“Dwight, to be a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, you’ve got to have a little of that dog in you,” Bryant said. “It’s just a matter of him digging deep and just pulling it out. But it’s already there. It’s just a matter of him having it become habit.”
During Tuesday’s practice, Howard participated in full-court, full-contact, 5-on-5 drills. Before the media was let in to watch, he blocked two shots that had Bryant smiling.
“A goofball doesn’t make plays like that,” Bryant said. “He was all the way out of bounds, ran back in the play and made a big block on a dunk.
“Magic was like that. You saw Magic barking at guys. He was the point guard, the general, so you saw him yelling instructions a lot. And he’s extremely competitive. But he still played the game with a smile on his face.”
Just like Shaquille O’Neal, right?
“No. They’re different,” Bryant said. “Shaq was a goofball. But Shaq was a big a——. I was a little a——. It worked well.
“Dwight has a lot of that in him. He just needs to bring it out and make guys pay every single day.”
O’Neal caused some controversy last week when he characterized Howard as a “pick-and-roll” player with a more limited offensive game than more traditional back-to-the-basket centers Andrew Bynum and Brook Lopez.
Howard responded to O’Neal, saying the former star should “just let it go” and that “it’s time to move on.”
Howard then pointed out what he perceived as O’Neal being a hypocrite.
“He hated the fact when he played that the older guys were talking about him and how he played and now he’s doing the exact same thing,” Howard said. “Just let it go. There’s no sense for him to be talking trash to me. He did his thing in the league. He’s one of the most dominant players to ever play the game. Just sit back and relax. You did your thing. Your time is up. So, I don’t really care. I don’t really care. He can say whatever he wants to say.”
Bryant was going nowhere near any of that controversy on Tuesday. Well, sort of.
“That’s Shaq’s job to make a point,” Bryant said of O’Neal, who works as an analyst for TNT now. “Dwight is going to be one of the greatest centers of all time. To not say anything but that is laughable.
“Shaq has three Finals MVPs and championships, but Dwight does have three Defensive Player of the Year awards. That’s something Shaq was never able to accomplish.
“I think there’s a lot to be said for Dwight and where he’s at so early in his career. He’s got a lot of room to go. His numbers are going to be way up there one day for sure.”
As for how Howard defended himself in response to O’Neal’s criticism, Bryant said: “He said what he had to. There’s really nothing else to be said that he hasn’t said.”
WRITTEN BY Ramona Shelburne | ESPNLosAngeles.com & FULL STORY HERE
