Kobe Bryant is not a nice guy.
Rather, he is "a killer, a gunslinger, a guy who will take the weak and have no mercy on them. That's one of the things about Kobe. He's a tough character, but he's got a real nice demeanor and carries himself very well."
Those were the words Saturday of his coach, Phil Jackson, the guy who has sat on the sidelines and guided Bryant through nine of his 13 NBA seasons.
To Jackson, Bryant is nowhere near the same mystery he is to the rest of the world, a player whose mood throughout this postseason has been scrutinized closely.
In Game 1 of this series, it immediately jumped out at colleague J.A. Adande that Kobe brought his game face to the center circle for the opening tip, the first guy out there, "bad man" written all over his focused features. He scored his 40 without yapping, looking as unstoppable as he ever has.
Afterward, he kept up his recent habit of being borderline morose in his news conference -- he said his daughters had been calling him "Grumpy," a reference to one of the Seven Dwarfs in the Snow White fairy tale, because of his mood lately) -- and observers were struck by how it was such a far cry from the loose Kobe we saw during last season's Finals against Boston.
His checkered history, his mood swings, and his successes and failures have all fed into the accurate and inaccurate perceptions of Bryant, but the latter was the topic Jackson was asked about on the eve of Game 2 of the NBA Finals:
"What is the biggest misperception people have of Kobe?"
Jackson's answer actually had two parts, the second being that people have the mistaken impression that Bryant is a selfish player: "All of us have a certain amount of ego in this game. But he understands what the mood and the temperament of the game is a lot of time, reads the game, knows when he has to carry the thrust of our team a lot and then knows a lot of times if he's got to pull back or sit back and let some other people do what they can do best on the team."
Bryant's Olympic teammates undoubtedly developed a new level of respect for Bryant from witnessing his dedication to his craft, and the workout time he put in.
Dwight Howard had this to say about Kobe, “He is a nice guy, a very nice guy. He's a great team player, one of the hardest-working people you'll ever meet.”
"Sometimes he goes crazy. He starts making unbelievable shots, he plays great defense," Howard said. "When he has that killer-instinct look, you probably saw it last game, it is a sight to see."
"Just because you're focused on something doesn't mean you don't enjoy something," Bryant replied when asked whether he was enjoying this, since it appears to the untrained eye that he is not. "That's part of the fun is just figuring out how to focus and how to get ready to play game after game. You can still do your job and still have a good time."
