Bryant says he was looking for call, but he gets called out
The game was over, the suspension served, nothing left for Kobe Bryant to do but wonder what happens from here.
For the second time in 5 1/2 weeks, Bryant had been punished by the NBA for hitting a defender in the face on the follow-through from his jump shot.
He sat in a Milwaukee hotel Wednesday and "monitored the airwaves," listening to what the TV folks had to say after the latest incident, in which he smacked Minnesota's Marko Jaric across the nose Tuesday night.
When the Lakers played the Bucks on Wednesday, he couldn't go to the arena because of league rules. He couldn't watch the game in his room because his TV didn't have the right channel. So he went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and watched the Lakers lose their fourth consecutive game. Later, he returned a phone call and responded to a question: Is he worried about being known as a dirty player?
"That's what I'm concerned about," Bryant said. "I don't want to have that reputation.
"I'm concerned about that. For them to try to make an example out of me is upsetting."
In the last minute of regulation in Tuesday's double-overtime loss at Minnesota, Bryant flailed his arms after his shot was blocked by Jaric. The officials called a foul on Bryant.
"Not a flagrant," he said. "Not a technical. A loose-ball foul."
Against San Antonio on Jan. 28, Bryant made a similar play when shooting in the last seconds of the fourth quarter, this time catching Manu Ginobili in the face. In that case, no foul was called, but Bryant was suspended for the Lakers' next game at New York.
Stu Jackson, the NBA's vice president of basketball operations, said that in Tuesday's play, Bryant's arm went backward "in an aggressive manner" and said it was "not an acceptable movement."
Bryant said: "This is ridiculous. To suspend me is to say, 'He did it intentionally.' Let's think about this with the rational brain. We have 10 guys on the roster. We're starting this road trip now. We've dropped two games on this [four-game] road trip. Everybody's out. It's a close game. Why would I intentionally hit this kid in the face and get suspended and take our roster down to nine? It makes no sense."
I watched some footage of some of Bryant's game-winning shots on YouTube and in each case his follow-through was the same: arms dropping straight down. He acknowledged the Jaric play was different because he was looking for a call.
