Mamba in the Morning: How Kobe Bryant changed Team USA
By Jacob Rude
Good morning Lakers fans!
After Team USA’s fourth straight major tournament victory, some have began to look back on Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s era. Most notably for Lakers fans, Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report talks about how Kobe Bryant changed the landscape of USA Basketball.
"Tony Ronzone, longtime international scout, current player personnel director for the Dallas Mavericks and former Team USA executive, believes Sunday’s success, along with every other international triumph over the last seven years, can be traced back to the first quarter of Group B’s final game in the 2007 FIBA Americas in Las Vegas, Nevada.That’s when Bryant, having asked for the challenge of stopping the tournament’s leading scorer to that point, Brazil’s Leandro Barbosa, hounded Barbosa into losing his dribble and then dove onto the floor to retrieve the ball near midcourt.“I swear that was the turning point,” says Ronzone. “You saw the best player in the world at that time sacrificing his body for a loose ball. That turned us. Great players can play that way. It’s looking in the mirror and saying, ‘We have to play that way.'”"
As Ronzone goes on to continue to put it, Team USA was missing a “swagger” and a player that teammates feared. Enter Bryant. It’s quite the statement to say one man changed USA Basketball, and while I’d be hard presser to agree with Bucher and Ronzone, you can certainly attribute SOME of the changes to Bryant.
In his absolute prime and coming off an MVP-winning season, Bryant sacrificed his summer to play in Beijing in the 2008 Olympics. On top of that, with the whole world watching, Bryant came up HUGE for Team USA in the gold medal game.
In other Lakers personnel news, Eric Pincus of the LA Times says the Lakers are linked with center Ryan Hollins.
"The Lakers have considered adding on Ryan Hollins — according to the free agent center, who visited the “Bottom Line Sports Show” over the weekend.As tweeted by Sirius/XM NBA Radio, Hollins said, “he’s been in talks with the [Miami] Heat, [Sacramento] Kings, [Chicago] Bulls, Lakers, [and San Antonio] Spurs, among others.”"
While it’s a bit of a head-scratcher as to why the Lakers would have interest in ANOTHER big man, Hollins is a legitimate 7-footer and a true center, which the Lakers lack.
In order to sign Hollins, the Lakers would likely move another player, which doesn’t seem likely or make much sense for a player of Hollins’ talent level. Nevertheless, we’ll see how it plays out with training camp two weeks away.