The Denver lead is five points as he curls into the corner, catches the pass from Ramon Sessions and squares up on the Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari. He pump fakes, jukes right and rises. Four inches taller, 10 years younger and playing him tight, Gallinari stretches for the rafters. The shot clears the defender’s fingertips and, as the clock dips under a minute, cuts the lead to two. The crowd at Staples Center loses its collective mind. Four straight three-pointers, a 13-point lead shredded in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, 43 points on the night and a city of 18 million on his back. It’s official: Kobe Bryant is going off.
Two quick possessions later, Denver forward Al Harrington is fouled and sent to the line. The Nuggets are still up, 98–96, and Harrington has a chance to stretch it into a two-possession game with less than 30 seconds on the clock. He misses the first free throw and the camera cuts to Bryant. The joy in his eyes is bare and gleaming. “Look at Kobe smiling,” says Steve Kerr, calling the game for TNT. “This is his element here.” Before the final whistle, Bryant gets two more chances to tie the game. Both are physically impossible three-point attempts, and both just barely miss. The Lakers lose, despite Bryant’s superhuman performance, and their first-round series stretches to a sixth game.
At 33 and with 16 NBA seasons ground into, and out of, his body, the only thing left for Kobe Bryant to chase is immortality—a sixth ring to equal Jordan; a 38,388th point to best Kareem. Surpassing Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record will largely be a matter of maintaining the discipline necessary to stay healthy and effective for as many seasons as possible (at his current rate, he’d get there in 2017). But, as he showed by sitting out the last game of the regular season instead of chasing down Kevin Durant for the scoring title, Bryant cares more about championships than his legacy as a scorer, and tying Jordan will take more than spectacular individual performances.
Starting two seven-footers in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, the Lakers’ most obvious advantage this post-season is size. The price they’ve paid for all that length is speed. Smaller, faster clubs like the Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder will beat the Lakers downcourt for easy transition buckets whenever the opportunity presents itself. To prevent teams from running them into the ground, L.A. has to dictate the pace of the games. To do so, they have to establish a dominant post presence and play strong perimeter defence. And to dominate the post and perimeter, they need to get solid minutes out of two of the most unreliable and unpredictable players in the NBA: Bynum and Metta World Peace.
When he’s not trying to put his elbow clean through the side of an opponent’s head, World Peace is an excellent shutdown defender who matches up well against premier perimeter scorers like Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Bynum’s playoff meltdown last season (just in time for Phil Jackson’s last game) was the most publicized incident in a history of childish behaviour that includes his complete failure to show up for games three and six of the Denver series. But when he feels like dominating, he doesn’t just draw a double team (giving Kobe more room to manoeuvre); he ties the NBA record for blocks in a playoff game and notches the Lakers’ first playoff triple-double in 21 years, as he did in game one against the Nuggets.
For someone as competitive and disciplined as Bryant, having to trust in the mental stability of Bynum and World Peace to help propel him to the Finals must be torture. His example in the locker room—the seriousness with which he manages injuries and the work he puts into adding new facets to his game—has long had a steadying influence on teammates, but that ability to inspire improvement was always coupled with an outspokenness that only added to the Lakers’ soap opera (his feuding with Shaq, his demands to be traded in 2007 and on and on). While he hasn’t shied away from voicing opinions this season, his refusal to flip out has been astounding. Especially when you consider the amount of provocation he’s endured: the front office’s failure to consult him before hiring Mike Brown to replace Jackson; the vetoed deal for Chris Paul and its effects on Gasol and Bynum; the incomprehensible Lamar Odom trade; any number of disagreements with teammates and the coaching staff; and all this amplified a thousandfold by the L.A. media. Plus, he’s getting divorced.
Even after Bynum and Gasol combined to go 5-for-21 from the field in a 113–96 garrotting in game six of the Nuggets series (a game in which Bryant dropped 31 points on 13-for-23 shooting despite battling a stomach condition and needing several IV bags to get through the game), Bryant’s criticism was controlled. Speaking at the post-game press conference, he anticipated the return of World Peace: “the one guy I can rely on night in and night out to compete and play hard.”
Bryant knows that for the Lakers to win the NBA title, even if he goes off for 43 points a night, Bynum and World Peace have to show up ready to play and win. Should he publicly attack them for sleeping through the first half of a game or attempting to decapitate an opponent, he runs the risk of spiralling them even deeper into whatever internal funk caused the narcolepsy or homicidal impulse in the first place. The safer bet is to calmly coach them into feeling “that there’s no other option but to perform and to battle,” hoping that they’ll follow his lead and come through when it really matters.
Both Bryant’s and Gasol’s contracts are up after the 2013–14 season, and with the harsher luxury tax penalties imposed under the new collective bargaining agreement, the Lakers will look long and hard at their expenditures as that deadline approaches. Gasol and Bynum were both tied to trade talks earlier this year, and there’s no reason to believe that won’t reoccur. As far-fetched as it seems, even Bryant’s name could be thrown on the table as the Lakers’ front office searches for ways to remain competitive once he’s done. With an uncertain future and a relatively unexpected outside shot at this year’s title, Bryant will do everything in his power to drag the Lakers into the Finals. What makes this year different is that they may not come along willingly.
This article originally appeared in Sportsnet magazine.