The Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers squared off again Wednesday night but this time Rockets star Dwight Howard was absent. Amongst his legal troubles with his babymother and whisperings of his previous altercation with Kobe Bryant, Howard sat out with a “sprained right knee” and did not even watch the game from the bench. After the Lakers pulled off the 98-92 win, Kobe was asked about his previous spat with Howard when he called him “soft” as well Kevin Durant’s recent incident where he called Howard “p*ssy”.
via ESPN:
“No, I don’t feel that way. I don’t think Kevin does, either,” said Bryant, who scored a game-high 29 points against the Rockets. “In moments of confrontation during a game, you’ll say things in the heat of the moment.
“I know Dwight. I’m sure Kevin does. We don’t really feel that way about him. It’s like when you get in an argument with somebody, you’ll say things out of frustration, out of anger, that you don’t really mean.”
“Heat of the battle, heat of the moment,” Bryant said of his comments. “You [reporters] have all been in arguments, you guys that are married. Sometimes you say things that you wish you could take back that you don’t really mean. But it’s in the heat of confrontation, and sometimes things come out.”
Bryant said he has grown more concerned about trash-talking opponents in the digital age.
“Well, in the moment, no. In hindsight, yes,” he said. “Especially now with social media and [the fact that] everybody has a camera. You try to be as conscious as possible to the fact that kids are watching.”
