Kobe Bryant on the Knicks’ Triangle Offense: ‘That’s a Square’

Kobe Bryant is now a shell of a shell of his former self, but Father Time hasn’t sapped The Black Mamba’s legendary ability to talk sh*t.

During a lull in play Sunday, Kobe was chatting up the stars sitting on Madison Square Garden’s Celebrity Row, and joked that the New York Knicks are running a square instead of the famed Triangle Offense.

The Knicks had the final laugh, however, sending away Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers (and their rowdy fans) with a 99-95 loss.

Per the NY Daily News and NY Post:

After the game, Bryant said it was a typical back-and-forth with New York’s most recognizable fan. […] “Just usual stuff, just usual trash-talking stuff. Standard Spike (Lee) being Spike and me being me,” he said.

 

The Knicks, to be fair, have de-emphasized the triangle this season in hopes of getting easier buckets in transition. Starting in training camp, coach Derek Fisher said he shifted “the conversation” away from the triangle. […] “Sometimes it’s just in the way you express what’s important, how you lay out your priorities,” he said recently. “And I think it was difficult for all of us a year ago trying to implement a new system and a new way of playing basketball offensively. And I think in a lot of ways we allowed the conversation about the triangle to drive everybody’s mind-set. This year we kind of – even though our offense hasn’t changed really – what we wanted to make clear to our guys is that when we make people miss, the first objective is to go score as quickly as possible before the defense gets set. There’s no shape to that.”

 

Contrary to Phil Jackson’s statement in late September that Kobe Bryant will return next season with another NBA team, Carmelo Anthony says his buddy won’t ever leave Los Angeles. […] “I can’t see it,” Anthony said of Bryant playing elsewhere next season. “I don’t see why he would at this late stage of his career — go all these years with the Lakers to spend one year with another team. I think it’s a bigger picture when it comes down to your legacy and things like that. At this stage, that’s what matters — how you carry out your legacy.”