In crunch time, there's just no stopping Bryant
SAN ANTONIO -- Don't know if you've seen it yet, more than 2.5 million already taking a look on YouTube, but Kobe Bryant, urged on by his friends Wee-Man and Party Boy from "Jackass," is shown leaping over a pool filled with snakes to dunk the ball.
You think he would do that for Phil Jackson?
If the guy had any guts, though, he would have had the pool filled with sports writers, or maybe that's the way he was looking at it.
Whatever, he already leap-frogged an Aston Martin, and I had to look for myself, because I had no idea what an Aston Martin was. I live in Placentia.
Bryant is not Superman, of course, because Superman chose to retire early in Phoenix. And most folks probably look at the Nike promos and write them off as fancy camera work -- agents, attorneys and team officials never allowing Bryant to really place himself in danger.
In addition, anyone who caught the purple tutu his wife was wearing the night he accepted the MVP trophy in Staples Center, knowing what it might mean to tell the wife to change clothes before going to the arena, understands the guy really does know his limits.
Reality, though, is such a bummer. It's so much more fun believing Bryant is unstoppable, capable of leaping cars, snakes and Bruce Bowen any time he wants -- backing up what he said following Game 1's explosion: "I can get off at any time."
Who wants to see the guy restrain himself, the game's top closer put on the brakes, or whoa there, Kobe -- 31 seconds to go, game over and where do you think you are going?
Thirty-one seconds to go, the Lakers up by four and Bryant is still trying to get to the free-throw line for the first time in the game instead of running out the clock, and never before did it seem like a good idea to tell him to hold back.
"He thought he had a direct line to the basket," Jackson said. "And that set up a situation that was very -- it put us in jeopardy."
Come on, do you think it's easy to leap over a speeding car, a pool filled with snakes or take a playoff game on course to end in routine fashion and turn it into a heart-pounding, controversial finish?
That's entertainment.
SIX HOURS before game time, and the folks at sa.com had already posted the alarm: "It's the news every Spurs fan has dreaded -- the team fighting for its season, and blowing the whistle with be one Joey Crawford.
