	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERS

June 9, 2010

Kobe Bryant

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day

Q. That two-man game that you and Derek were running last night, was that just a case of two veterans getting together and kind of recognizing something that a defense was sort of giving you and you guys taking advantage of that?
KOBE BRYANT: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's something that we talked about in time-out. You know, it was effective for us.

Q. Fish was very emotional after and talked about things that he can control, some things he can't control. Do you have any idea what's going on with him and why he was so emotional?
KOBE BRYANT: No, I'm not an emotional person; I can't understand.

Q. This series as opposed to the 2008 Finals, as rough, rougher, not as rough in terms of --
KOBE BRYANT: About the same. It's about the same. You know, it's their style of play. They put bodies on you all the time. They're bumping cutters all the time. We do our share, as well. So I'd say it's about the same.

Q. Along those lines, do you think the fact that these two teams are very long, a lot of big guys and a lot of ball movement, player movement, do you think that is the reason why there have been a lot of whistles and it's been closely called by the officials, or have you detected anything out of the ordinary or more strict in that area?
KOBE BRYANT: No, I think it's two teams that like to put bodies on each other, use a lot of ball movement, player movement. We both like to get the ball down low. I think because of that there's a lot of whistles. I don't think there's anything outside of that.

Q. What's your favorite quality about Fish?
KOBE BRYANT: His toughness. His toughness. He's very, very, very, very tough, mentally and physically. He doesn't back down from anything or anyone.

Q. Last night there were some moments where Andrew Bynum was pointing and communicating and gesturing and talking. Can you talk a little bit about his growth just in these playoffs alone, how big he's come up.
KOBE BRYANT: Huge. He's obviously playing with -- we all know about his knee condition, so he's had to mature pretty quickly here. He's done a great job, and he seems to get better and better with each series defensively, kind of being a captain for us on the defensive end.

Q. Does the fact that he's sucking up an injury right now kind of win him a little bit of respect in the locker room?
KOBE BRYANT: Oh, no question, no question about it. It's a tough injury to play through. So yeah.

Q. Were you a part of Lamar's decision to stay at all? Did you ever think he would leave? Did you have to recruit him at all?
KOBE BRYANT: No, uh-uh. All I said is, "If you leave, I'll kill you." That's it.

Q. Last night you said you guys had to do a better job, the ball was getting to you with like three seconds left on the clock a lot of times and you guys had a good flow in the first and second quarter. How does that happen?
KOBE BRYANT: Defense. Their defense picked up and forced us into those situations, so we had to do a better job -- we'll look at it today, see things we can adjust and do better. But their defense got stickier as the game went on, and it took us a lot to adjust to it.

Q. When you said you think you're a better team, did you mean better than '08 or better than the Celtics?
KOBE BRYANT: No, I think we're better than we were in '08. Whether we're better than the Celtics, the jury is still out on that. But I think we're a much better team than we were in '08.

Q. Going back to your defense last night as a team, you've got to be pretty pleased with what you saw out there from just about everybody.
KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, we did a great job. You know, we got back in transition, we contested shots, we limited them to one shot.
So overall I was very pleased with it.

Q. When you guarded Russell Westbrook for that one game in the first round and you were asked about guarding a guy who was that much smaller than you were, I think your quote was, "I'm a sly old dog." Well, Rondo is a lot smaller, so how do you guard this guy?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, him and Westbrook are completely different players in terms of the responsibility for the team. You know, Westbrook will go out there and score 25 points. Rondo is really trying to more get everybody involved. That's his responsibility, to kind of captain the ship especially in this building, create a lot of energy for their team. The responsibility is more to kind of keep him from doing that as opposed to having these big scoring nights.

Q. One other thing: Fish once told a story about when he left the first time, you did call him up and begged him not to go. And he said that he was so moved that he almost called Chris Mullin and backed out of the deal he had already made. Were you aware of all that going on?
KOBE BRYANT: Oh, yeah. Well, Fish and I, we've always been close, though. I think when he left, we became even closer, as weird as that seems.
Yeah, I was aware of it, and I was hoping that that would have happened. But everything happens for a reason. It's kind of good to see him kind of come full circle and be back here again.

Q. Just talking to some of the guys about how they're eating up the "Beat LA" chants and everything in this town is like that. Talk about the personal challenge there and just hearing that all the time, what does that do to the inside.
KOBE BRYANT: I mean, it's part of the whole deal. We hear it every single series. We've kind of become acclimated to it a little bit.

Q. Is it louder in Boston, though?
KOBE BRYANT: No, I can't say that. Phoenix it was pretty crazy, Utah. Here when they say it, it carries more weight to it because of all the history.

Q. Have you become acclimated to playing here? You won your last two regular season games, now you won Game 3 here last night. Is there a little bit more of a comfort level playing in this building now?
KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, I mean, for us we've always viewed ourselves as being a good road team. It doesn't really matter where we play. We feel like if we do our job, we give ourselves a heck of an opportunity no matter where we are. So from that standpoint, whether it's here or Utah or Oklahoma, we feel comfortable.

Q. Talk about your team's defense against Ray Allen. What do you feel about that?
KOBE BRYANT: He just missed. If somebody goes 0 for 13, defense has got nothing to do with that. He just missed shots. He won't miss them the next game.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297