Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Morning Report: Expect more from Kobe

Listening to Stewart Scott ask Kobe Bryant about his motivation last night made me laugh.

Listening to Stewart Scott ask Kobe Bryant about his motivation last night made me laugh.

Bryant, who played like man possessed as the Los Angeles Lakers nailed down the NBA championship with a 99-86 win over Orlando, seems beyond motivation.

But it's a fairly easy conclusion that he wanted the fourth ring to match the career total of former teammate Shaquille O'Neal, and the first he's won without the gigantic center at his back.

And lest anyone think Bryant's motivation will ebb at age 31, remember two names: Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

Magic won five rings with the Showtime Lakers in the 80s; Michael won six with the Chicago Bulls in the 90s.

Kobe owns this decade, but he's not done yet.

Trivia time. The Celtics and the Lakers have combined to win 32 NBA championships, nearly half the titles in the league's 65-year history.

The Celtics have 17 and the Lakers now have 15. Which franchise is third?

Jackson's legacy. Maybe Laker's coach Phil Jackson will finally get some respect now that he's passed Red Auerbach and hockey's Scotty Bowman and won his 10th ring.

The rap on the laid-back Jackson always has been that he never had to build a team - he simply inherited a ready-made Bulls team with Jordan and a ready-made Lakers team with Kobe and Shaq.

But he certainly built this team, blending Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol with Bryant and Derek Fisher. The Lakers were only 42-40 two years ago, but the Gasol trade in early 2008 put them over the top 18 months later.

Two-in-one Opens. Golf Magazine says the USGA plans to hold both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women's Open at the same course - Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina - just a week apart in 2014.

The Opens never even have been at the same course in the same year, let alone in consecutive weeks, but it makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

The move saves the USGA a fair amount of money spent in setting up the golf course, building grandstands and scoreboards, and erecting tents for concessions, media and hospitality.

And they won't even have to move the Porta-Johns.

Finally. Did anyone else notice that Pennsylvania's streak of pro sports titles came to an end last night? The last three had been won by the Phillies, the Steelers and the Penguins.

Damn. If only the 76ers could've held off those Orlando Magic we'd have been 4 for 4. No?

Trivia time.

The Chicago Bulls have won six NBA titles.