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Bryant touched by Malone's sentiment
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-29 09:20 When Karl Malone joined the Los Angeles Lakers
last summer after 18 seasons with the Utah Jazz, he did so for one reason — to
finally be part of a championship team.
The Los Angeles
Lakers' Kobe Bryant, left, is congratulated by teammates Shaquille O'Neal,
right, and Karl Malone after scoring against the Minnesota Timberwolves in
the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals in Los
Angeles, Thursday, May 27, 2004. [AP] | The pay
cut Malone took, from $19 million to $1.5 million, was no big deal since he's
earned far more money than he'll ever be able to spend.
It was all about the ring.
That being the case, his benevolent remark concerning teammate Kobe Bryant
was quite touching.
"If I had a choice between winning a championship and making things better
for that little brother, I'd probably help him out," Malone said after the
Lakers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 92-85 Thursday night for a 3-1 lead in
the best-of-seven Western Conference finals.
"That's how much he means to me, and this team," Malone said. "He's being
strong right now, real strong."
Bryant had 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists in putting the Lakers
within one win of their fourth NBA Finals in five years. He did so after
spending the day in a Colorado courtroom for a pretrial hearing in his sexual
assault case.
Bryant has pleaded not guilty to raping a 19-year-old woman at the Vail-area
resort where she worked last summer, saying the two had consensual sex. If
convicted, he faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on
probation, and he could be fined up to $750,000.
When asked about Malone's remark on Friday, before the Lakers flew to
Minneapolis for Saturday night's Game 5, Bryant paused before saying: "It means
a lot. Karl's been like a big brother to me this whole season. We have a very
close relationship."
There's not a great deal of logic to that. For one thing, the 40-year-old
Malone is 15 years older than Bryant. For another, Malone is a self-professed
black redneck from Louisiana and Bryant is a city kid who spent eight years of
his childhood in Italy.
But they're both great players — Malone is the second-leading scorer in NBA
history and Bryant, although only 25, has been a key member of three
championship teams with the Lakers.
And both live in Newport Beach.
"They've kind of gravitated to each other because of the proximity they have
living near each other," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "I think it's
competitiveness that really gravitates them toward each other. When Kobe was
injured and Karl was injured during the year, they spent some time in
rehabilitation and really got to understand each other.
"Karl's really a softy, an emotional guy. He's caring, and I think that comes
across to Kobe."
Malone said earlier in the week that recently Bryant has been the happiest
he's ever seen him.
"I just like to make him laugh," Malone said. "It's been great. The
conversations we've had the last two weeks have been unbelievable. I've seen him
laugh more in the last two weeks than the whole season."
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