Ya’ll just won’t let my Kobe be great this summer huh?
When Kobe gets hot, he’s unstoppable. Bryant was struggling the first half of the game against Australia,but when the second half hit, he didn’t let up.
“I kind of knew what button to push with him. I was talking to him at halftime and in the third quarter and I guess I pushed the button. He woke up and to see that, I’ve been on the other side of the ball and had that situation before,” teammate Carmelo Anthony said.
But Kobe says by that point he was ready.
“He was just saying, ‘Let’s see what we see during the season.’ But by that point, I was already revved up,” Bryant said. “Just kind of searching for something to get me going, for something that would activate the Black Mamba, as Coach calls it”
During the second half Kobe made six consecutive 3 pointers, ending the night with 20 points. After the game, Bryant was selected to a mandatory “random” drug test which caused him not to ride back to the hotel with his teammates and to only arrive back at the hotel at 2am.
Now, Grant Hill told a little lullaby not too long ago about the 1996 Olympic team avoiding being the high scorer because they would often be selected for the “random” drug test and naturally Olympic officials denied the case. Does it raise eyebrows that Bryant was messing every shot in the first half, take a break during halftime and knock down six consecutive 3’s in the second? To officials, I can definitely see the concern but a player just can’t be good anymore to fire off shots? He HAS to be on drugs, especially an American and ESPECIALLY Kobe Bryant, its not like he’s only the top 5 scorers of the NBA or anything important like that.