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From preps to the pros

Richard Hamilton, above, and Kobe Bryant were high school friends. Richard Hamilton, above, and Kobe Bryant were high school friends. (Associated PressAssociated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Richard Hamilton, above, and Kobe Bryant were high school friends. Richard Hamilton, above, and Kobe Bryant were high school friends. (Associated PressAssociated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Kobe Bryant and Richard Hamilton first crossed paths when they were prep stars in the Philadelphia area.

They’ve traveled in different directions to reach the NBA Finals, where they’ll provide one of the key matchups when the Los Angeles Lakers face the Detroit Pistons.

“It’s going to be fun,” Bryant said Wednesday. “We’ve played against each other so many times — we were very good friends in high school. He plays the same. (But) he’s gotten so much better.”

The 26-year-old Hamilton, six months older than Bryant, attended Connecticut for three years after graduating from Coatesville High in 1996. He led the Huskies to the NCAA championship as a junior before Washington made him the seventh overall selection in the 1999 NBA draft.

Hamilton improved steadily in three seasons with Washington before being traded to Detroit before the 2002-03 season in a six-player deal that sent Jerry Stackhouse to the Wizards.

Finishing his second year with the Pistons, Hamilton has become a star, leading them into the Finals by averaging 21.5 points in the playoffs.

Bryant, meanwhile, went straight from Lower Merion High to the Lakers in 1996 and achieved stardom a few years later. He will be shooting to win his fourth championship ring in five years.

While Bryant figures to spend most of his time guarding the tireless Hamilton, the Pistons might opt to assign Tayshaun Prince to the Lakers’ star at times.

“Larry is using him the way he used Reggie Miller in Indianapolis,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “He gets a lot of help from the screeners.”

Jackson was referring to first-year Pistons coach Larry Brown, who is coaching in the NBA Finals for the second time. The first was three years ago when he was in Philadelphia and the 76ers faced the Lakers, who won in five games to cap a 15-1 playoff run.

“We go back a long way,” Jackson said. “I’ve got a great understanding for what he does, a lot of respect for his ability to coach basketball.”

The Lakers and Pistons meet starting Sunday in L.A. in a rematch of the 1988 and 1989 Finals.

Notes

Detroit’s win over Indiana in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals was the most-watched basketball game ever on ESPN. TNT’s coverage of Game 6 of the Western Conference finals between Los Angeles and Minnesota was watched in 6.5 million households, the most ever for an NBA playoff game on cable. … Stanford All-America Josh Childress has hired an agent and will not return to school, an option he left as a possibility when he first declared himself eligible for the NBA draft in late March.