In Hollywood, Everything’s Zen

There was a time when mutual contempt between Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson gave the NBA its reason for being. At a minimum, their bickering was a respite from the insufferable championships to which Shaquille O'Neal and his 7'1", 315-pound frame would lead them each June. At best, they brought illusions of a grander prize — that this internal tempest would cause the delicate framework of Hollyball to implode.

Ultimately, Jackson was driven to a brief sabbatical during which he penned his book, The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul (Penguin Press, 2004), wherein he called Bryant “uncoachable". Yet a year later, he found a way to again coach the petulant Lakers star.

Or, to paraphrase Terrell Owens' former publicist Kim Etheredge, he found 30 million ways.

Since the two reunited, the frost in their relationship has melted, leaving in its place a glacial pool whose runoff now cuts through the landscape of injustice to seek and wash away Bryant's detractors. And, even after four consecutive 50-point outings — two of 60 or more — there's a lot of washing to do.

Whether it be persecution or a unified call to arms, Bryant's play of late has been attracting its share of criticism. Take the simple act of shooting a basketball, which he performs nearly 30 times a night. One would think that through sheer repetition, a player of the ilk of Bryant could correct the awkward follow-through in which his shooting hand takes a 90-degree tack and pursues a horizontal plane at roughly the height of a defender's cheekbone.

As hard as it is for the typical fan to swallow the naturalness of Kobe's shot, it is apparently harder for Jackson to accept those who feel Bryant's game is better suited to an ice hockey rink than to hardwood. For those harboring doubts about the benevolence of Bryant's intents — especially NBA Executive Vice President Stu Jackson, who has now overseen three disciplinary actions against him this season — the Zen Master has a challenge.

"I think I'm going to have to put about 50 clips of Kobe shooting his shot and his arms going out like that so the judger of this deed of Kobe's sees that he does this a lot," Jackson told the Associated Press after Bryant's second suspension for the same infraction within a five-week span. "It's not an unnatural basketball motion."

As it happens, both shots that led to Bryant's suspensions were potential game-winners taken in the final seconds, a coincidence whose unfortunate timing makes his natural follow-through look a bit like retribution for tight defense to the uneducated eye who has yet to watch any of Jackson's 50 clips.

Compounding matters for the team — remember the team? — both games ended in overtime defeat. Tack on losses to the lottery-bound Milwaukee Bucks and sub-.500 New York Knicks while The Natural One was serving his two suspensions, and the Lakers took a four-game hit in the Western Conference standings.

One might go so far as to think Kobe a saboteur who jeopardizes his team's season, only to come in as its last-minute savior amid the cheering of the redemption-starved throng. Jackson, in fact, made such an allegation once. Of course, that was $30 million ago. Besides, the conduct that elicited his condemnation occurred when Bryant was back in high school. He's matured since then. Take Game 7 of last year's first-round playoff series against the Phoenix Suns, when Bryant reminded his teammates of his importance by refusing to shoot in the second half as the Lakers went down in a 31-point blowout.

The truth is, Phil Jackson is so starved for a 10th ring that he'll go beyond looking the other way on issues involving the one player most able to get it for him. He's resorted to coddling his star and taking up his defense, even if it absorbs some petty cash, as it did last week when Jackson was fined for charging the NBA's front office with conducting a “witch hunt" on Bryant. If only it were that easy. After all, witches conduct their dastardly acts in notoriety, wearing pointy black hats and riding broomsticks in the process. Kobe's are carried out with a sleight of hand that goes undetected by all but the highest-tech video equipment of major television networks.

Once again, Jackson seems to have abandoned any preseason illusions of getting everyone involved, of having Kobe make those around him better. It's an all-out sprint to the playoffs, and there won't be many more. Just roll out the ball, dress a supporting cast, and let Bryant take care of the rest in true Hollywood style, where even the coaches are fake.

To his credit, Jackson has righted his ship with three straight wins, all against inferior teams that wouldn't have survived the first weekend of the NCAA's Big Dance. Never mind that if Bryant managed only 55 points in regulation against the TrailBlazers last Friday, a 26-38 team would have extended his club's losing streak to eight. Or in Memphis on Thursday night, when it took 60 points from Bryant to stave off the worst team in the NBA, one with far more incentive to lose than to win.

For his part, Kobe has forgiven his teammates of thinking they were ... teammates. He has managed to put Phoenix behind him and acquiesced to the role of savior. Over his last eight games, Bryant has taken 29 shots and scored 41 points per game. These are substantially higher than in his first 55 starts, where he was averaging 29 points on 20 shots. But the ever-humble scorer still acknowledges his minions.

"I just feel like guys are finding me," he told the Associated Press after Thursday's game. "I have to get great picks, great looks, and great passes."

In a sport where one player can carry a team, so few do the way Kobe Bryant does. Yet, he'll never get the accolades he may deserve. There are just too many side dishes to his career, and too many Manu Ginobilis and Marko Jarics and Kyle Korvers on the court. Notwithstanding all the Zen's horses and all the Zen's ulterior motives, these are more than fans beyond Hollywood city limits can digest.

But perceptions can change. If only Jerry Buss could open his checkbook to the rest of us, perhaps we too may come to look at Kobe Bryant through Zen-coated glasses.