“That’s his opinion. That’s it. He’s not a doctor, I’m not a doctor.”’
Then:
“”I want to play, I mean, why wouldn’t I want to play? But, at the same time, this is my career, this is my future, this is my life. I can’t leave that up to anybody else because nobody else is going to take care of me. So, if people are pissed off that I don’t play or if I do play, whatever it may be, so what? This is my career. If I go down, then what? Everybody’s life is going to go on. I don’t want to have another summer where I’m rehabbing and trying to get healthy again. I want to come back and have another great year. That’s what I want to do.”
(from 2hrs ago)Here's the full testy exchange when Dwight got annoyed when asked if he has talked to Kobe about his injury ...
Reporter: Have you talked to Kobe about it, just your situation?
Dwight Howard: "What situation?"
Reporter: In terms of your injury and all that?
DH: "Have I talked to Kobe?"
Reporter: Yes, just as far as outlining, like, telling him your perspective?
DH: "Of what?"
Reporter: Of you wanting to take the long view?
DH: "Why do I have to explain that to Kobe?"
Reporter: Well, because he’s a teammate …
DH: "He’s a doctor?"
Reporter: No, but he’s a teammate.
DH: "OK. So I should explain that to all my teammates then, right?"
Reporter: I’m not insinuating that. I’m just asking, have you talked to him?
DH: "I’m asking you …"
Reporter: I don’t know if you’ve talked to him.
DH: "I’m asking you, I’m supposed to tell all my teammates?"
Reporter: No, I’m just asking if you talked to him.
DH: "Just Kobe. Just Kobe."
Reporter: Considering the comments he made yesterday …
DH: "I don’t know what he said."
Reporter No. 2: He says we don’t have time for Dwight’s shoulder to heal. We need urgency. We need him back on the floor. This is the Lakers. It’s either a championship or a complete failure.
DH: "OK."
Reporter No. 2: What do you say to that?
DH: "That’s his opinion."
http://sulia.com/channel/la-lakers/
f/89fa0ae2-ee2f-4212-9e7e-ec40e68e8
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As you guys can see, Kobe's comments have really encouraged Dwight to play asap.
Anywhere else is fine, except to the media.Yo!...J_D, slow your roll there cowboy...for the record -
Yes Kobe is the leader but he's NOT the coach. If a coach wants to call you out to the media to try to motivate one of his injured players I get that. But nothing ever turns out good when you have your "so called leader" constantly calling out his teammaets to the media.
When Kobe said, "We don't have time for [Howard's shoulder] to heal. We need some urgency." that's not necessarily a direct shot at Howard, that's Kobe rallying his team essentially saying that nobody is in a position to take the "wait and see" approach with Dwight's injuries and that the team has to compensate and show some urgency in spite of Howard possibly not playing.BOSTON -- The newest Lakers firestorm arrived Thursday after Kobe Bryant apparently told ESPN.com the night before that Dwight Howard needed to come back from his injured shoulder. Quickly.
But Bryant said Thursday he wasn't prodding Howard to return.
"Not even a little bit," Bryant said in a quiet moment after the team's morning shoot-around, adding that he was surprised at the tone of the ESPN story. "In this case, it's not legitimate. I was shocked."
Bryant has a high threshold for pain, as evidenced plenty of times in the past. Howard has missed six games and left two others because of a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
Bryant understood that his own pain tolerance was through the charts.
"I'm crazy, though, so I don't put that on other people," he said.
Howard took part in the morning shoot-around but was not sure whether he would play later in the day against the Boston Celtics.
He also didn't seem to want to hear what Bryant thought of him. Or didn't think of him.
"He's not a doctor. I'm not a doctor. So that's his opinion," Howard said. "I mean, I want to play. But at the same time, this is my career, this is my future, this is my life. I can't leave that up to anybody else because nobody else is going to take care of me.
"If people are [ticked] off that I don't play, that I do play, whatever it may be, so what? This is my career. If I go down, then what? Everybody's life is going to go on. I don't want to have to have another summer where I'm rehabbing and, you know, trying to get healthy again. I want to come back and have another great year."
According to ESPN.com, Bryant said, "We don't have time for [Howard's shoulder] to heal. We need some urgency."
Bryant also talked big picture about the free-agent-to-be.
"[Howard] has never been in a position where someone is driving him as hard as I am, as hard as this organization is," Bryant said. "It's win a championship or everything is a complete failure. That's just how [the Lakers] do it. And that's foreign to him."
If Howard doesn't play against the Celtics, the Lakers will go with Earl Clark at center, Coach Mike D'Antoni said.
"We'll play small," he added.
That was hilarious!! I am beginning to wonder if the reporters main job is to stir up stuff between players so they can get a story. Dwight shouldnt fall for that but he did. The reporter definitely touched a nerve.
montsho, please, that's just your way of imposing your own anti-Kobe bias on a spin off the same quote. You think Kobe's the only player on this Lakers team that is playing for a championship? All the Lakers do is play for championships - perennially!When Kobe said, "We don't have time for [Howard's shoulder] to heal. We need some urgency." that's not necessarily a direct shot at Howard, that's Kobe rallying his team essentially saying that nobody is in a position to take the "wait and see" approach with Dwight's injuries and that the team has to compensate and show some urgency in spite of Howard possibly not playing.Thats one way of looking at it. Another way would be that Kobe has realized that another ring may be a bit harder to get than he anticipated. He knows he is not going anywhere without Howard or Gasol in the lineup. His comment was the epitome of stupid because he revealed his concern for his own self instead of the Dwights health.
Howard basically said "who the F is Kobe that I need to run the status of my injury by?" Or maybe I'm reading into it like you are doing.montsho, you are reading into it...Howard is being baited by reporters who are, as usual, trying to make a much bigger story out of this than exists in the first place.
