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Lakers duo something special
Posted: Monday June 19, 2000 11:36 AM
This is where it gets scary. This is where every other player and coach in the league starts to sweat. The Lakers have figured it out. They've learned how to put a leash on their egos, how to grasp the big moment, how to let themselves be coached. It all became crystal clear in Game 4 of the Finals Wednesday night, a game for the ages in which Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, Laker superstars 1 and 1A, provided the stuff of which legends are made and perhaps dynasties built. O'Neal continued his habit of toying with the Indiana Pacers' front line, scoring 36 points and grabbing 21 rebounds. When he fouled out with 2:33 left in overtime and the Lakers leading 112-109, the chillingly confident Bryant winked at him, as if to say there was nothing to worry about -- and there wasn't. Young Kobe simply took over the game, stroking hang-in-the-air jumpers, dropping in a graceful reverse layup for what proved to be the winning points, and generally steering the Lakers to a 120-118 victory that gave them a 3-1 Finals lead. "It was like, do not give the ball to anyone else," John Salley, the Lakers' backup center, said of Bryant's late-game heroics. "It was like, if anyone else shoots, call timeout and send them to the locker room."
They are not a finished product yet, by any means. The 21-year-old Bryant, frightening as it is to imagine, is only going to get better. But the point is that even if they didn't improve another iota, the Lakers have cracked the code. They know how championships are pieced together and they seem fully capable of repeating the formula for years to come. That's what has the rest of the league, which no doubt hoped LA. would continue its underachieving ways, now reaching for the Maalox.. The symbol of the Lakers' arrival, of course, is the relationship between O'Neal and Bryant. They have gotten past their thinly veiled jealousies and realized how much they can do for each other. Their Game 4 duet was a classic example of that, with Kobe casually stepping into Shaq's Superman cape when the situation called for it. I can remember sitting in a hotel lobby in Vancouver with Bryant last April as he told me that one day Shaq would be unable or unwilling to be The Man, and he would turn the role over to Bryant. It sounded like the naïve, grandiose plans of a player too young to know any better. But that's exactly what happened in Game 4, and you get the feeling that it won't be the last time it will happen. O'Neal, for his part, has been unfailingly generous in his praise of Kobe this season, and judging from their long hug after the overtime win, Shaq has come to sincerely respect him. The fact that he was able to say "Kobe was the hero tonight" moments after he himself had put that 36 and 21 on the stat sheet speaks volumes for O'Neal's maturity. The Lakers have talent, maturity, brashness, youth, experience, leadership and poise. More important, they know how to use -- and when to exhibit -- each quality. It all came into focus on a magical night in Indiana, and it appears that for this team, there are many more nights of magic yet to come. Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor covers the NBA and appears
regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's This Week in the NBA. Look for his
column every Tuesday on CNNSI.com.
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