Lakernoise

A reader named Brian left the following post/question today.

“Roland, I have a general NBA question that I would love to hear your opinion on. It seems most pundits this year feel that the Cavs are the favorite to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy. Their rationale is they have the best team and best player and therefore best chance to win. So what happens if the Cavs fail to win it or worse duplicate their performance last year and fail to even make the Finals? What if anything would this say about Lebron as a player?”

Brian, your question reminded me of a conversation I had recently with former Lakers team psychologist George Mumford, who worked extensively with that force of nature known as Kobe Bryant.

Mumford offered the observation that James and other top players benefited tremendously from being on the Olympic team with Bryant, because they were given the opportunity to observe his unbelievable dedication and work habits up close.

Just the Olympic experience wasn’t enough to show James and other top players the way, Mumford reasoned, but it was enough to help them get a clue as to what it really takes to be successful.

Mumford, of course, also worked with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen with the Bulls, and he considers Bryant their peer — if perhaps not even better, if that’s possible  — in terms of superhuman work habits.

This, in turn, reminded me of a conversation I had with Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw four years ago, when he compared Bryant with another of his former great teammates, Larry Bird.

I had asked him how can a little rich kid like Kobe could possibly have the same hard, hungry edge that poverty had burnished into Larry Bird.

“He is a student of the game,” Shaw said of Bryant, without hesitation. “And it’s no accident he’s as good as he is. He’s the first person, when we get on the plane tonight after the game, he’ll want a copy, a DVD, of tonight’s game, as well as a copy of the tape on our upcoming opponent, so he can watch it and prepare for who he has to play next. He’ll watch what he did tonight. Not everybody in this league puts in that kind of dedication, that kind of effort. That’s what separates him from even the other superstars of the game, in my opinion, the Tracy McGradys, the Vince Carters, whoever else you want to name.

“Then there’s the time.” Shaw added, “that he takes tuning his body up, not just in the weight room, but working with our physical therapy guys to make sure everything’s adjusted, in alignment. The time that he takes stretching, the time that he takes studying his opponent, the time that he takes watching film of himself and studying how he can improve. That takes a lot of time. That takes a lot of discipline. That takes a lot of focus. Not everybody else has that discipline.”

I then asked what were the chances of Bryant’s intense competitiveness rubbing off on his young Lakers teammates? Not much, according to Shaw. “His teammates, I know they see him doing this. But most people aren’t willing to dedicate themselves to putting in that type of time.”

If you ever got the opportunity to watch Bird work through his shootaround before each game, you get the picture of Bryant’s focus.

For a young team, such a leader is a blessing and a curse, perhaps.

Strong personalities need someone equally strong to stand up to them.  “You have to discuss it with Kobe,” Shaw said of the challenge a coach faces in correcting Bryant. “And you have to tell him when he’s doing things wrong or things that you don’t like. Even if those things are sometimes miraculous. He respects those who will speak up, even if it’s against what he wants to do. He respects you more if you tell him about it.

“Kobe’s an alpha male.”

So are coach Phil Jackson and center Shaquille O’Neal, Shaw pointed out. That’s what was so difficult having the three of them on the same team earlier in the decade.

“That’s a lot of alpha males on one roster,” Shaw said. “When you have that, at some point, there’s a gotta be a breaking up.”

Bryant and O’Neal won three championships together but that run came to an end with an acrimonious parting after the 2004 NBA season.

That alpha male mentality still drives the Bryant package. “He’s the kind of guy, he can take a bad shot and make it,” Shaw observed. “It doesn’t matter if there are four or five guys on him, he feels like he can score on them. So as a teammate, I love to have somebody on my team like that, who thinks that way and feels that way and that no matter if we’re down 20 and there’s a minute left in the game he’s still thinking there’s maybe a way we can win. As a teammate you love to have somebody with that mentality on your team.”

Yet Shaw acknowledged that not every teammate appreciates the alpha male nature of a Kobe Bryant.

“If you’re a weak-minded individual, you look at it as if, ‘He’s taking all the shots, and I’m not getting to shoot.’ Well, that’s where you’re not gonna appreciate being on a team with a guy like that,” Shaw said. “You should look at it like, I know he’s gonna shoot the ball a lot, so I better go get rebounds and do these other things because I got to find another way to get my shot. Some guys he’s played with have understood that pecking order, like a Horace Grant.”

These days Bryant is attempting to lead the Lakers to a second consecutve NBA championship.

Having the opportunity to observe Bryant up close would provide James with key clues that he seems to lack, Mumford observed.

Perhaps he’ll figure those things out on his own. But of all the talents an NBA player needs, a superior work ethic is one thing that sets apart the truly great.

To answer your question, Brian, what will happen if the Cleveland Cavaliers lose again this season?

LeBron James will have to start over in his quest to figure out the riddle of greatness.

His best clue will come from observing Bryant up close. He does a lot of his winning in the wee hours, studying tape, or during other peoples’ down time, when Kobe is still at work.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.