Youngest Laker Has Rough Time

Kobe Bryant, the high school star who bypassed college and jumped to the Los Angeles Lakers, is the subject of an article in this week’s New York Times Magazine. Some of the things said in the piece take a little luster off Bryant’s star.

It seems that Lakers coach Del Harris, who has taken shots from Bryant’s family for not playing Bryant more, sees the family’s proximity and involvement in Bryant’s life as a hindrance to the rookie’s development.

“Kobe’s showboating frustrates his teammates,” Harris is quoted as saying. “He may see me as the first real obstacle in his life, the first adult who told him he was wrong. I don’t want to be remembered like that - the guy who wouldn’t let Kobe Bryant play. But I have to do it. I can’t give him special treatment just because he’s 18. He elected to come into a man’s world, and he’ll have to play by a man’s rules.”

The author of the piece is Pat Jordan, who once did a salacious expose of Steve and Cyndy Garvey’s deteriorating marriage and is best known in Philadelphia for a controversial magazine profile of Phillies great Steve Carlton in retirement.

Jordan had this to say after spending time with Bryant:

“Despite his amiable smoothness, Bryant seems never to connect with people. His charm is linear and superficial, more persona than personality.

“Bryant is trying to do what few sports stars have ever done successfully. Before he has become a star or developed an adult personality, he’s trying to become a media star.”

Teammate Shaquille O’Neal has stopped calling Bryant “Showboat,” a nickname he hung on him at the season’s beginning. Seems it strikes too close to home.

No stopping him

Brett Szabo, an Augustana (Ill.) College product who is with the Celtics on a 10-day contract, said it had been his dream to have ESPN’s “SportsCenter” show a highlight of him and then hear this version of anchor Dan Patrick’s signature line: “You can’t stop Brett Szabo. You can only hope to contain him.”

Well, after Szabo threw down a dunk against the Warriors, he almost got his wish. He tuned in to ESPN, only to find that Patrick was not doing the show last week.

But anchor Keith Olbermann, who was tipped to Szabo’s dream by a phone call from the Celts, said: “It’s too bad, because the guy who says that is on vacation, so we can’t say that. But, all right, we will say that: You can’t stop Brett Szabo. You can only hope to contain him.”

Szabo can now die happy.