Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006 | 8:02 a.m.
What: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Phoenix Suns
Where: Thomas & Mack Center, UNLV
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $11-$92; www.unlvtickets.com
Also: Lakers vs. Sacramento Kings, 7 p.m. Tuesday
Kobe by the numbers
81 - Points scored against Toronto on Jan. 22 ; second all-time in NBA history
3 - NBA championships
8 - All-Star games in 10 seasons
16,866 - Points in his career
23.9 - Career scoring average
35.4 - Scoring average for last season
3,634 - Rebounds in career
3,148 - Assists in career
1,059 - Steals in career
707 - Games played
126 - Playoff games played
45.1 - Field goal percentage
83.4 - Free throw percentage
18 - Years old when he played his first NBA game
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant repeatedly, and forcefully, showed Lindy LaRocque how to run a tight defender into a hard pick, creating more space to launch a jump shot. OK, maybe the move involved a little nudge from her nonshooting left hand, but it still took Lindy time to digest it all.
Not so much the move but the teacher.
"It was kind of a shock to me," said Lindy, a Durango High junior who is being wooed by the University of Arizona. "He told me a few things. I was nervous."
Bryant tried to settle Lindy, telling her he's just a player, like her.
Later, Lindy broke into a smile about Bryant trying to pass himself off as "just" a player. "He's not just any other player, or just any other person."
Bryant, who's in Las Vegas for two preseason games, is a superstar. At 28, he's a 10-year NBA veteran, an eight-time All-Star and three-time champion. Last year he scored 81 points in a game - only Wilt Chamberlain ever scored more. His reputation suffered from a rape charge (he was cleared last year) and a feud with fellow star Shaquille O'Neal and coach Phil Jackson. (All have apparently made up.)
Bryant spent the summer holding Nike-sponsored camps for talented young players from Philadelphia to the Far East.
He stopped in Las Vegas in August to work with five dozen or so select players from Durango's summer league. He spent 3 1/2 hours in fifth gear, zipping from one of the seven stations in the gym to another. He gave autographs. Posed for photographs. Started small talk with fans. Patted an infant's head. Encouraged many players with pats on their rears.
He said he wanted to pass along some ideas and techniques that he learned at an early age from his father, former NBA player Joe "Jelly Bean" Bryant, that helped him succeed and drove him to improve.
"I think they've got to know that there's a process to become what he became," said Kevin Eastman, the former Washington State coach who was working for Nike before jumping to the Boston Celtics' coaching staff.
At the station on a defensive stance - a hamstring-burning crouch that relies on balance, Bryant was animated. "Does it burn? Yes!" he said. "Make it hurt!"
At another court, he implored players to think about a game as it develops. Pay attention to what transpires, and opponents' tendencies, over three quarters.
"Then, in the fourth quarter, you start picking them apart," he said. "It's chess. You guys have to feel this game. You have to feel the rhythm of a game, slow it down. After a while, you'll feel like a world beater."
At a side court, he told a group that the elbow jumper - 10 feet diagonally to either side of the free-throw stripe - should be a layup.
"Don't miss those," Bryant said. "Those are easy shots."
His enthusiasm gained strength. He said he started watching tape - back then it was film - when he was 6.
"I'd see why something worked, or didn't work, and watch it again," he said before a television set and video recorder in a darkened front room of the gym. "How did that guy get so wide open?"
He watched former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders, who taught him how important hips are to making strong and swift moves. He also spoke highly about the soccer background of Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash. Playing other sports, he said, helps develop skills that can throw basketball foes off kilter.
"It looks weird, but the rhythm of soccer players is so good," Bryant said. "Nash is tough to keep up with."
He tapped a power forward and showed him how a well-placed, but hardly detectable, left hand could help create that little extra space to provide a wide-open jumper on a turnaround fade-away shot.
"Now," Bryant told the kid, "you're at my mercy."
The Laker guard said his offseason regimen consists of rising at 5 a.m., hitting the weights for a couple of hours and then making (not taking) a thousand shots on his basketball court. That takes from four to five hours.
When he's burning and exhausted, he'll rip off a few miles on a track.
"You can be hurtin', but what are you gonna do? Go home? That's what quitters do," he said. "You just go. Run! Finish what you set out to finish. At the end of the day, you'll feel better."
Back in the auxiliary gym, he forcefully showed another player how not to give into a screen.
"You're in for a fight now!" he told the screener as he jumped in place of the previous player. Bryant nearly headlocked the kid, who busted out in a wide grin.
He zipped to Lindy to show her a killer crossover dribble, flew back to the center court to work on those elbow jumpers and executed a few push-ups at another half court.
"Don't half-speed anything!" he said on another court. He dribbled an invisible basketball between most stations. He left many by clapping his hands together hard. He fired up a center with some nose-to-nose fury.
Marcus Moreland, an El Dorado High sophomore, was twice given instruction by Bryant.
"I still can't believe it," Moreland said. "What a surprise."
Heiden Ratner, a senior shooter at Silverado High, was also struck three times by the star's personal touches.
"He taught me how to sell the fake shot," Ratner said. "Here I was being shown moves, or situations, by possibly the world's greatest basketball player, period. You don't forget that."
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