Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson were all about winning, although they had different views on what needed to be done to get the wins. Back in 2011, they had a little misunderstanding during a regular-season game. Kobe took care of business by himself, breaking the Lakers’ offense way earlier than expected.
Kobe took 22 shots in a Grizzlies’ 104-85 win 10 years ago. After going on his own against Memphis, he was tired, hurting the Lakers’ chances to get that win at home. After the game was over, Phil Jackson was asked about Kobe’s ‘strategy’ and the head coach explained his plan of going solo changed the dynamic of the game for his team.
“Kobe had to screw up the game and start energizing the team by going one-on-one,” Jackson said. “That takes the rest of the guys out and as a consequence, that didn’t bring us back in.”
The Black Mamba was asked about Phil’s comments, and instead of being offended, he agreed with the coach, explaining he felt that was the right move to make. He owned that and said he was fine with the result; if it was good, that was great, but he was ready for the criticism if it wasn’t.
“You let him do his job, you go about your business. But he was right, I totally broke the offense. but I did it intentionally because I felt like we needed to get something started. Because what we were doing just wasn’t working so I tried to kickstart it, and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s my responsibility. When it works out, great. And when it doesn’t, you take the criticism for it.”
This shows how down-to-earth Kobe was. The Lakers legend always owned his mistakes and vowed to be better. As he said, that could work or not but he was ready for either outcome.
Bryant and Jackson loved their jobs and were as professional as they come. The duo created a great relationship in Los Angeles, taking the Lakers to five championships (three with Shaquille O’Neal), creating one of the best dynasties in NBA history. In 2011, the Lakers were swept by the eventual champions Dallas Mavericks, which was the beginning of the end for them.
After that, they failed to create a competitive team again, entering a 10-year period that saw the purple and gold struggle in the Western Conference.
