Andrew Bynum Reminds Kobe Bryant of a Young Kobe Bryant


A few folks on the Lakers on were amused by Andrew Bynum’s sudden desire to start shooting threes — Metta World Peace, for instance. Kobe Bryant didn’t think it was a big deal, and indicated that he thought Mike Brown overreacted to the whole thing last night. From the OC Register: “I asked Kobe Bryant what he thought about Andrew Bynum launching that 3-pointer that got him benched by Lakers coach Mike Brown on Tuesday night. ‘I think he was testing the limits of his game,’ Bryant said. […] ‘It’s somewhat amusing to me, because in some ways the edginess and the chippiness of him make it easy for me to relate to him – because I had some of that when I was young,’ Bryant, 33, said about Bynum, 24. ‘So, it’s easy for me to see where he’s coming from. I understand where he’s coming from. And the first thing you want to do if you want to get the best out of somebody or the best out of your players is you have to understand what they’re feeling; you have to understand where they’re coming from and what they want to accomplish. That’s why it’s not that big a deal to me. You don’t see me sitting here trippin’ or sweatin’ or anything like that. I’ve been there.’ […] ‘They have a lot of youth,’ Bryant said about the Lakers’ coaches. ‘They’re not used to dealing with players of Drew’s ambition, I’m sure, at this stage of his career. I was in that position, and obviously I have a lot of experience in dealing with myself – and playing with Shaquille when Shaquille was young and being mentored by Phil (Jackson) and things like that. So nothing really rattles me.’ […] ‘To me, everybody kind of frowned when he was shooting that turnaround jumper in the post,’ Bryant said. ‘And now people aren’t frowning anymore because he’s making it. Obviously the coaching staff is not used to seeing Drew pull up at the top of the key and take a 3-pointer. I’m sure Drew won’t take many of them. He just tried one tonight.'”