Kobe Bryant brushes off ESPN idiots who ranked him 40th
ANAHEIM When Kobe Bryant retires, presumably after his current contract expires in 2016, he will go down as one of the 10 best players in NBA history.
A year after ranking Bryant the league s 25th best player, the website s NBA experts ranked Bryant No. 40 in their annual preseason countdown of the league s best players. He checchina patagonia guide jacket1ked in just ahead of players such as Eric Bledsoe (No. 41) and Kenneth Faried (42) and behind Andre Iguodala (39) and Klay Thompson (38).
Bryant insisted he doesn t care about such things, but couldn t resist taking a shot at the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
I ve known for a long time they re a bunch of idiots, Bryant said.
Thchina patagonia guide jacket2e superstar is famous for finding motivation in outside influences, but brushed off that the latest ranking had anything to do with his 27 point performance in Thursday s preseason loss to Utah. He joked that he usually is motivated by things that tend to be in the realm of reality.
Honestly, all jokes aside, it really doesn t bother me too much, he said. I m going to do what I do regardless. And God wichina patagonia guide jacket0lling I can stay healthy and if I wind up proving a lot of people wrong in the process that will just wind up being collateral damage.
Lakers coach Byron Scott stood up for Bryant, saying, I just kind of smirk. I see him every day at practice, I see how hard he works. I know he s going to get stronger so I think he ll have the last laugh.
While Bryant had his highest scoring output of thpatagonia jackets reviewe preseason in the 119 86 loss to the Jazz, he shot just 10 of 23 from the field in 28 minutes best patagoniaon the floor.
He said he was moving closer to the minutes he would likemens patagonia mixed guide hoody black de32 to play in the regular season. For the first time in the prechina patagonia guide jacketseason, he split his minutes over all four quarters.
Byron and I kind of workpatagonia outlet store coloradoed out the schedule in terms of playing time and things like that, he said. Tonight I wanted to play morpatagonia outlet store 3462e like a real game with the minutes and so forth, so I figured I d play my game.
Stechina patagonia guide jacket3ve Nash was a late scratch after initially telling Scott he wanted to play, despite mispatagonia coupon code onlinesing the last three days of practice.
The 40 year old Nash went through his pregame routine before deciding he would not be able to play.
He came out and did some shooting, everything like that, Scott said, but just said he still had that shooting pain gopatagonia discount code wickeding down his back or his side. So he said he just couldn t play.
The Lakers were blown out for a third straight preseaspatagonia everlong review chevyon game, and have lost those three games by an average 29.6 points per game.
While it s the preseason, it s a troubling trend for a Lakers team that is battling injuries to Jeremy Lin, Nick Young, Ryan Kelly, Xavier Henry and Jordan Clarkson.
I think we ll see better results once we get healthier, Scott said. That to me is the bottom line. If we can get healthy then I ve got a good chance to assess where are and what we need to do, but until then we ll probably have another one like this, or two.
Scott expressed hope that Lin and Kelly would be able to return for Sunday s game against the Jazz at Staples Center.
We got a lot of guys sitting right now, Bryant said. We re playing with a lot of young kids, man, playing with a lot of young kids who are playing hard and trying to make the team and things like that. It s been a little difficult.
Add one more name to the list of injuries: Training camp invitee Kpatagonia hiking boots bigeith Appling. Appling left the game in the fourth quarter after injuring his left arm. He will undergo an MRI on Friday.
