I remember the night Kobe Bryant scored his first NBA basket. I was there in Charlotte, and to celebrate his milestone of 25,000 points scored I’m posting my story about his first basket in the league from November 1996. In those days, getting a little one-on-one time was easy.
YO, KOBE, WASSUP?
Never mind that the interviewer is a 44-year-old white guy. Kobe Bryant still greets him with a soul shake—a little skin, then the hooked fingertips and the tug. Very smooth.
And why not?
Life these days is a weave drill for the 18-year-old Bryant. Just months after taking his last high school exam, he is a member of the Los Angeles Lakers and seems well on his way to making a success of his brassy move to become one of the youngest players in National Basketball Association history.
“How ya’ doin’?” he asks, reflecting a level of people skills that could someday rival Michael Jordan’s.
Yes, everything at the moment seems very cool for the young Mr. Bryant. He’s even found answers for dealing with the littlest bit of adversity he has faced in the first games of his pro career.
First, there were the injuries that got his season off to a late start. Then, even when he did return to active duty, he found Lakers coach Del Harris using him sparingly.
“I’m just taking it as a learning experience, sitting back and getting to watch the guys,” he says. “You see so much sitting on the bench. . . It helps you mature because you just have to sit back and learn and observe and listen.
“I think it helps me mature as an individual as well as a basketball player, to be able to sit there throughout the crunch time. Even though you’re sweating and saying, ‘Man, I want to be out there,’ you just have to be patient and just learn.”
His first action didn’t come until the fourth game of the season, against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden, when he notched his first pro score with a free throw.
However, his first field goal—a three-pointer—didn’t come until the next night, in a road loss at Charlotte. In fact, Bryant scored five quick points in a second quarter appearance against the Hornets, but he also rang up three quick turnovers, including a play where he stepped out of bounds in his eagerness to get to the basket and dunk.
Asked about the play, Bryant said, “When I caught the ball in the corner, at first I said, ‘I’m gonna shoot it. All right! I’m gonna stroke it.’ But then I saw this big ol lane under the hoop and I started lickin’ my chops. I said, ‘Oh, man, I’m gonna finish this.’ But I was overexcited. My back step was a little too long. That was just being overanxious getting to the hoop. I’m like, ‘Man, if I can just get to that block, I can get this dunk! I’m there! I’m home. I’m free.’ So that was a little overanxious right there.”
He took his first bucket in similar stride: “It felt good,” he said. “When I first took that three point shot, I believed it was gonna go down. First it felt good, then it felt a little short. I kinda leaned back, eyein’ it. When it went down, I was like, “Shewww! My first three-pointer.’”
“He’s gonna be a good pro,” said Lakers assistant coach Larry Drew. “He has a lot to learn about the NBA game. He’s been battling injuries, but he’s coming along.
“He loves to play. He wants to be out there regardless. But he understands that this is a learning process and a slow process. He’ll get his chance.”
Obviously the main lessons the 6-6 Bryant will have to learn are defensive, which is true for most NBA rookies. At times during his early appearances, he has seemed lost on the floor.
“I feel like I’m getting a lot better,” he says. “I’m learning how to chase guys around screens and so forth.”
Defending the pro style high screen and roll is a little bit of a different wrinkle, Bryant says, “Especially if you haven’t done it before. I’m learning, and I think I’m getting better at it.”
His progress there could be critical to his team’s playoff hopes, although his coaches are quick to defray any pressure. Still, the first month of the season has found the Laker bench struggling to score. In the loss to Charlotte, it produced just two points outside of Bryant’s five.
Which means it’s understandable if the Laker coaches are watching his development. Bryant seems to be able to get his shot just about anywhere on the floor.
“You know, I grew up in Philadelphia,” he says with a laugh. “You go down to the playground, you play. If you can’t get your own shot, you can’t play. So that started at an early age.”
And it means that Bryant already has a clear vision of his expanded role—providing scoring off the bench. “I think of me stepping in there and being young and just having so much energy coming off the sideline, hopefully I can be a spark plug,” he says.
Besides learning patience and defense, there are other adjustments for an 18-year-old in the land of big paychecks. One of the most challenging is Los Angeles itself.
“Because of the lifestyle,” Bryant says. “With there being so many distractions. But I think that if you can remain focused on your goal and what you’re there for and what got you there, you should be okay.”
It helps perhaps that he grew up a child of affluence, the son of longtime pro hoops player Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant, who played in the NBA and in Europe. His parents moved from their suburban Philadelphia home to Los Angeles just to aid in that adjustment.
Have you been calling home during this trip? an interviewer asked during the Lakers’ recent East Coast road trip.
“Off and on, yeah, we’ve been talking,” he says of his parents and pauses before adding with a laugh, “My mother calls me all the time.”
His father, meanwhile, spends much of his effort counseling patience about playing time. “My father tells me, ‘Your time will come,’” Bryant says.
Indeed it will. Kobe Bryant will play a decade in the NBA and still be only 28 years old, something of a frightening thought for other teams.
For now, though, it’s a matter of proceeding cautiously.
“He’s gonna be fine,” new teammate Shaquille O’Neal says, “once he gets a chance to go out there and shine and do his thing. He’s gonna be fine.”
Roland Lazenby is the author of “Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon,” set to be released by Random House/ESPN in February.
