Checking in with the Lakers in Hawaii; Training camp: so far, so good

Kobe Bryant, the Lakers guard and the league’s leading scorer last season, decided to stop in at training camp after refusing to comment and letting speculations run rampant about his commitment to the team for the 2007-08 season. In a story published Oct. 3 by the Honolulu Advertiser, Bryant expressed his loyalty to the Lakers and said he thinks the team needs to unite during the training camp and “Just play basketball, focus on executing and working hard and doing what we need to do.” Bryant also discussed the advantages and opportunities involved with working new team member Javaris Crittenton and returning veteran Derek Fisher, who is the only other current team member besides Bryant who was part of the Lakers’ three-year championship run from 2000-02, according to the Honolulu Advertiser. Fisher rejoined the Lakers this summer as a free agenr, “He’s a dead-eye, knockdown shoter,” Bryant said of Fisher. “More so than that, he understands the nuances of the offense. He understands spacing, he knows what I like to do and tha tsimplifies things a great deal.”

Coach Phil Jackson seemed pleased with the team’s lineup and said of the recent displeasure that Bryant had expressed with the team: “Those are situations that arise after you put six months of work in to try and et to a championsihp run and you don’t get that opportunity. Everybody is like, ‘HOw come I wasn’t invited to that dance?’ Kobe’s been to that dance four times. He’s experiencing a lot of furstration about not being there and I think that’s what you saw.” His plans for Bryant for the upcoming season include playing a more significant role as a combo point/shooting guard. The one thing I can do is take him and put him back on teh top of the floor again, rather than putting him down at the wing where he was really in isolation,” Jackson said. “PUt him in a sitaution where he can push the ball and also create for other guys down the floor.”

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