Kobe Bryant pushes his teammates
LAKERS
With only one game this week, the All-Star guard has made sure to keep everyone from becoming complacent during the down time.
Do you want to be great or just good?
That was the question Kobe Bryant posed to his young Lakers teammates during practice today.
He doesn't want his teammates to become complacent with a 4-0 start, or for them to relax because they have so much time off in-between games, or for them to not put in a high-level effort in practice.
Come to work and work hard ever day, Bryant has impressed upon his teammates.
"That's our message for the week is we can either be good or we can be great," Bryant said. "This is the time that we can really use to get better to make another step forward."
The Lakers played one game this week, on Wednesday night against the Clippers. The Lakers don't play again until Sunday, when they host the Houston Rockets at Staples Center.
Of the six days this week when the Lakers didn't have a game, they practiced in five of them. "We're striving for perfection," Lamar Odom said. "We're striving to be perfect."
When told of Bryant's comments, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson paused.
He was ready to talk about greatness just yet.
"I would say we'd like to just go to good," Jackson said. "We'd like to be a good team. Wednesday (against the Clippers), I thought we were just average. We just really didn't have that fire in the belly until the fourth quarter then we got going."
Practice was a little slow in the beginning today, Jackson said, something he figured would happen because of their day off on Thursday.
But the pace picked up, and that was because of Bryant pushing and prodding his teammates. "I think we've done a good job of coming in here and practicing and working hard and being focused on what we need to get accomplished," Bryant said.
Lakers rule out McDyess
If the reports are true that Denver plans to buy out the last two years of Antonio McDyess' $13.63-million contract and make him a free agent with the ability to sign with any team, don't expect the Lakers to make a bid for the 6-foot-9 power forward.
The Nuggets acquired McDyess this week from the Detroit Pistons as part of a four-player deal that included Allen Iverson and Chauncey Billups. McDyess has refused to report to Denver.
The Lakers have a 14-man roster -- one shy of the league maximum of 15. The Lakers also still have their mid-level exception of $5.59 million to offer a player like McDyess.
