Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant will play limited minutes in the Lakers' two European preseason games as he rests his knee following offseason surgery, coach Phil Jackson said Saturday. The NBA champion Lakers will take on the Timberwolves in a sold-out game Monday night at London's O2 Arena, then play FC Barcelona in the Spanish city on Oct. 7. "He's not going to play a whole lot," Jackson said. "His playing time will be limited, maybe 6-7 minutes in his first run, then we'll see if he can play another set. "He's not doing anything too explosive, but he looked good and shot the ball well.

If you stepped into something unexpected today, here's hoping it was related to St. Nicholas Day and not a irresponsible pet owner. Millions of children (and some freaky adults) are finding candy and other assorted junk stuffed into their shoes this morning in one of the more unsanitary Christmas traditions. And in keeping with the concept of finding free crap in your shoe, it seems like everyone's having an awesome day on the Internet! Christmas may come early for Apple CEO Tim Cooke who could find out today whether a mess of Samsung phones are permanently placed on the naughty list, out of reach of U.S. consumers.

LOS ANGELES — LeBron James was the king. The injured, hobbled Kobe Bryant was merely a member of his court. James received his second consecutive MVP trophy a week after Bryant scored 12 points in a playoff game against the Thunder, his lowest postseason output in six years. He looked like a guy who had logged more than 44,000 minutes in more than 1,200 games. Fast forward to now, an NBA reality check in which the Cavaliers have been eliminated and Bryant is four victories from his fifth NBA championship while playing some of the best basketball of his career.

There's not been a lot to cheer about for Maryland basketball fans the past couple of years -- most notably two seasons without a postseason invitation and Terrell Stoglin's misguided decision-making off the court that recently ended the college career of last season's top scorer in the ACC. Things are going to get better in College Park , but for those Terps fans trying to get their fix of hoops and happiness, Steve Blake is providing a...

If you stepped into something unexpected today, here's hoping it was related to St. Nicholas Day and not a irresponsible pet owner. Millions of children (and some freaky adults) are finding candy and other assorted junk stuffed into their shoes this morning in one of the more unsanitary Christmas traditions. And in keeping with the concept of finding free crap in your shoe, it seems like everyone's having an awesome day on the Internet! Christmas may come early for Apple CEO Tim Cooke who could find out today whether a mess of Samsung phones are permanently placed on the naughty list, out of reach of U.S. consumers.

WASHINGTON - This will be the first thing I've written about the Kobe Bryant trial - passing references aside - in over a year. I put a moratorium on Kobe columns after writing two such pieces that suggested to me in hindsight that this was the rare subject on which maybe I didn't know my own mind. Mr. Bryant was a guy I admired, playing for a team - the Lakers - I've followed since 1979. Now he stood accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel worker in Eagle, Colo., so I wrote a column defending him. When he confessed to adultery, I wrote another, backpedaling.

The last time I saw Kobe Bryant play in person, he was still in high school. Lower Merion High in the Philadelphia suburbs. And like many fans who watched him back then, I wondered how well he would do against tougher competition when the guy guarding him wasn't some poor glassy-eyed kid being hypnotized by the dribbles and feints and the blur to the basket. And like many fans, I've seen him scores of times on TV, maybe hundreds, since he jumped to the NBA as an 18-year-old. And when he was paired with Shaquille O'Neal on those championship Los Angeles Lakers teams, I wondered how much of Bryant's productivity was because of the star cast assembled around him. And like many fans, after Shaq moved on to the Miami Heat and Bryant managed to be even more prolific offensively, winning back-to-back scoring titles even as his team's fortunes sagged, I wondered how much of that was directed toward self-aggrandizement rather than winning.

LOS ANGELES -- Like any other precocious kid waiting for Christmas morning to open presents, Kobe Bryant can't wait for tonight to hurry up and get here. However, this time, the wrapping doesn't come off a gift, but off Bryant and the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers, who have been impatiently waiting nine days for the chance to defend their title, starting tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. "Last year, all of this hoopla, it was very cool," Bryant said yesterday after practice at Staples Center.

Ever since the Los Angeles Lakers traded Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2004 after eight seasons and three NBA championships, the Lakers have been little more than mediocre - or worse - with star guard Kobe Bryant going on almost nightly one-man scoring binges. The latest outburst came Sunday, when Bryant, playing at Staples Center in Los Angeles against the Toronto Raptors, scored a career-high 81 points, the second most in NBA history, exceeded only by Wilt Chamberlain's legendary 100-point game for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks in 1962.

First it was "Free Winona." Then "Martha Stewart Living in Jail." Now it's Kobe Bryant's turn in the T-shirt hall of fame - or shame. Bryant supporters are hanging up their gold-and-purple basketball jerseys to don pro-Kobe apparel in an effort to assert that he is innocent of sexual assault. Bryant foes also are making out well with anti-Kobe gear, such as "Colorado Prison League" T-shirts from alfredwbush.com. Other Web sites, like FreeKobeBryant.net, FreeKobe.com, YQue.com and PrayforKobe.

Kupchak has the power K.C. Johnson Chicago Tribune Look, Kobe Bryant and Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak are far more similar than different, wired to win at all costs. Kupchak may do so in a far more behind-the-scenes manner. But both bleed purple and gold and victories. So Kupchak, as usual, will win in this latest mini-personnel pull. Remember when Kobe demanded to be traded in 2007? That was how many NBA Finals appearances ago? The Lakers no longer are among the NBA's elite.

Believe in Magic Shandel Richardson Sun Sentinel Kobe Bryant is great but hardly the greatest Laker of all time. The title has to come from the Showtime era because that always will symbolize the franchise. Magic Johnson is No. 1 on this list. He redefined the point-guard position, brought Hollywood to basketball and is still the face of the organization. Most important, Johnson always will be more beloved by fans in Los Angeles than Bryant.

It's a hard world to get a break in when two-time defending champions don't have their own ESPN "microsite," like Some People. If no one else cares, the Lakers are excited about the coming 2010-11 season. Oh, it already started? Those last six games were real? It's quiet around the Lakers, now in no-drama mode, just as I foresaw. Too quiet. Of course, I foresaw it three seasons ago, when the arrival of Pau Gasol, an effortless fit with Kobe Bryant, seemed to herald a new harmonious age. Instead, after strolling through the 2008 postseason — at least until the Finals, where the Celtics smoked them — the Lakers took back-to-back roller-coaster rides to win their 2009 and 2010 titles.

The Western Conference isn't a Lakers lake as it was in the '80s, when they made eight NBA Finals, beating five different West finalists 32 games to 7. Nor is it the land of titans it was from 2000 to '02, when the Lakers won three titles despite finishing No. 2 in the conference to the San Antonio in '01 — and No. 2 in the Pacific Division to Sacramento in '02, when the Kings and Spurs were 1-2 in the West. Injury issues and all, the Lakers are favored to come out of the West draw for the fourth season in a row over ... whomever.

Kobe Bryant will play limited minutes in the Lakers' two European preseason games as he rests his knee following offseason surgery, coach Phil Jackson said Saturday. The NBA champion Lakers will take on the Timberwolves in a sold-out game Monday night at London's O2 Arena, then play FC Barcelona in the Spanish city on Oct. 7. "He's not going to play a whole lot," Jackson said. "His playing time will be limited, maybe 6-7 minutes in his first run, then we'll see if he can play another set. "He's not doing anything too explosive, but he looked good and shot the ball well.

Steve Blake had been through the process several times in his seven-year NBA career: the declaration of free agency, postseason negotiations between his longtime agent and teams interested in signing the former Maryland point guard, starting over in a new city with a new team, and a new set of expectations. This time, Blake acknowledges, was different. How often does a player who has averaged less than eight points and five assists for his career get pursued by a two-time defending NBA champion and personally welcomed by the league's most accomplished star?

NEW YORK -- Kobe Bryant has barely played a year and a half in the NBA, and already he's being compared with perhaps the best player ever. It's probably Bryant's flair for the spectacular, his on-court confidence and his charisma.But it gets downright eerie with Bryant when you sit down next to him. Close your eyes and listen. Hear his inflections, the cadence of his speech and the confidence he exudes. Bryant resembles Michael Jordan in more ways than one.At this time in 1996, Bryant was a senior at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pa., helping lead his team to a state championship.

The Los Angeles Lakers spent the past five months proving they were capable of learning Phil Jackson's triangle offense, showing that All-Stars Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant could play nicely together and demonstrating an ability to dominate for weeks on end. Having won 67 of their 82 regular-season games and the grudging respect of their critics, the Lakers are certainly the team to beat when the NBA playoffs begin today. The question is, can they be beaten? In the past 10 years, only five teams that finished the regular season with the best record went on to win the NBA title.

Not since Michael Jordan's final championship has an NBA game drawn a bigger audience than last week's seventh game of the Lakers-Celtics series. The Nielsen Co. said Tuesday that 28.2 million people watched Kobe Bryant's Lakers win their second straight NBA Finals. Except for the Olympics, Nielsen said Thursday's game was the most-watched show on network TV in the summer since the finale of the first "Survivor" season in August 2000. •Lakers center Andrew Bynum's injured right knee has been drained for the third time in recent weeks, and he will have surgery next month.

BOSTON — Isn't this the way it's supposed to happen? The defending NBA champions with their superstar guard heading home for two elimination games. Or the underdog team looking to pull off the ultimate trifecta of upsetting two No. 1 seeds and one No. 2 to return the championship banner to its parquet home for the second time in three years. Such are the things that big TV ratings are made of. The Celtics wove those storylines to reality Sunday with a 92-86 victory over the Lakers to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.