Projo Sports Blog

By Jennifer Floyd Engel
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

BEIJING -- Kobe Bryant has a sense of humor, about himself.

Who knew?

He actually flashed this trait while answering a question Wednesday about why he had been playing as an individual and if this was a Team USA strategy in this Olympics.

"It happens," he said before interrupting himself. "I just wish I had some bigger headphones. I am not used to these itty bitty head phones."

And why exactly was he wearing translation head phones after a 116-85 victory against Australia in quarterfinal play? Besides the use of bloke, the Aussies basically speak English.

"I have no idea," Kobe said. "I guess I'm waiting for like a French or Chinese question." He then laughed at himself. And everybody laughed with him.

As far as I can tell two types of people like Kobe back Stateside, Lakers fans and Laker players. And it is iffy how much his teammates actually do like him on some days. He comes across as a me, me, me guy with a huge ego and lots of arrogance.

Of course, China loves him anyway. And in what may be the biggest holdover of this Olympics, Kobe's popularity looks to be spreading. Back Stateside.

The Kobe who is in Beijing is a team guy, engaging, just as good of a player and non-Lakers fans find themselves kind of liking him. Or are at starting to warm up.

He scored nine of the Americans' first 14 points in the decisive run to start the second half, which prompted the question about him playing an individual game. I have seen Kobe go me, me, me in a game before and his 25-point effort against Australia barely cracks kind of selfish.

He has been way more selfish. We all have seen it.

What we have seen in Beijing is him learning to play nice with his teammates, not freaking out and trying to win games by himself when things go wrong and actually acting like he is not the only guy on the team. Which is why him and LeBron James have been able to mesh so well this Olympics.

Not that the questions were ever really about LeBron. They were about Kobe.

"It is not hard for Kobe and me to get along because of my game and his," LeBron said. "At the end of the day, we're both competitive, two of the best we have in our league, so we want to win. We're going to do what is best for the team."

What is best for the team is finally wiping away the last remnants of the ugly that was four years ago in Athens. For the guys who were on both teams, they want that sorry episode expunged from their records. And the best way to do so is win gold in Beijing.

Their next step path on the bath is beating Argentina in a semifinal on Friday. It is fraught with baggage. The Argentineans were the team that eliminated the Americans in 2004.

"Of course, we think about it," Carmello Anthony said. "2004 was miserable for us. There is no reason to lie about it. We were miserable."

Nor was this just a one-time deal.

As Team USA assistant coach Mike Dantoni noted: "It's been a tough two, four or five years and we've had to live with that."

Nobody moreso than Kobe. He took a big hunk of the blame for the 2004 failure, mainly because he was one of the main culprits in trying to win games by himself. We expected him to be better.

This is why he wanted another shot at Argentina.

"We want to play the best. We want to play the defending champions," Kobe said. "It's all about challenges. Obviously, we welcome all comers (but) Argentina is the defending champs and we want to be able to play the guys who won it."

It was about at this point Kobe had had enough of the tiny head phones.

"That's it," he said. "I'm taking these off."

He had better be careful. If he keeps this up -- the great play, the sense of humor, a gold medal, a little humility -- he may return back to the States and find all sorts of people like him now.

 Tags  basketball Kobe Bryant Olympics Redeemed Team

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