The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant dunks during the second quarter Sunday, April 3, 2016, against the Boston Celtics at Staples Center. The Celtics beat the Lakers 107-100. (Photo by Stephen Carr/Daily Breeze)
The resume already became worthy enough for the Hall of Fame. Kobe Bryant already collected four NBA championships. He already addressed questions on whether he could win an NBA title without Shaquille O’Neal, or if Bryant could ever become an effective leader. Bryant already became one of the game’s top scorers.
Yet, Bryant considered his 2010 NBA championship as the most important one. It cast himself deeper into Lakers lore with a victory over the Celtics. The title also eradicated Bryant’s loss to the Boston Celtics in the 2008 NBA Finals, highlighted by a 39-point loss in Game 6.
Hence, Bryant considered it “non-negotiable” for his extensive NBA career to become partly blemished with green.
“There was no way we could go down in history as being remembered as being the team that lost twice to the Celtics,” Bryant said. “With all the history that has gone on, there is no way. Above winning the fifth championship, it was more like not disappointing the memory of this organization and the rivalry that has been here for decades. That was more important. You can’t lose twice to these guys. I don’t care how many Hall of Famers they have. It just can’t happen. There’s no excuse. So as a team, I completely understood that and our team completely understood that. It was by any means necessary. We were going to win this damn series. I don’t care what we have to do. We were going to have to figure out a way to get it done.”
Bryant spoke in his usual articulate and confident tone. Yet, it hardly seemed easy for the Lakers to accomplish any of that job description in Game 7 against the Celtics.
The Lakers trailed Boston by as many as 13 points. Bryant shot 3-of-14 from the field half through endless double teams. He admitted he overcompensated and allowed the pressure to overwhelm him. Yet, Bryant still prevailed in different ways. Though he shot only 6-of-24 from the field, Bryant made scored 24 points and made a 17-foot fade-away jumper to give the Lakers a 68-64 lead with 5:22 left in the game. Bryant also collected a team-high 15 rebounds.
“It’s psychologically draining to try to prepare for these guys,” Bryant said. “You had so many weapons. You had to stay up all night trying to figure out the schematics of things and communicating to the guys. That portion of it was mentally draining. Then, figuring out how are the guys feeling? Are they ready and are they feeling the pressure? Are they nervous? It’s all those things of trying to manage, aside from preparing myself in the games.”
That became challenging enough.
“That was the toughest. My [right] knee was messed up throughout the playoffs,” Bryant said. “I had to get it drained and all this other stuff. I could barely bend it. The [right] finger was broken. There was a lot of stuff going on with a bone chip in my ankle. There was a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on in that series that we had to attend to. Besides from the energy it took to pull it through, there’s a lot of physical things that is like, ‘Now it’s jacked up.'”
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