Word: kobe
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...That's what Zhou Qiang was doing this past April, at a playground not far from the Xujiahui area in central Shanghai. Dressed in a gold Kobe Bryant Lakers jersey, a baseball hat worn slightly askew and Nike high-tops, he's got the American hip-hop look of a baller down pat. He's 16 years old and started playing four years ago. "I come here sometimes four times a week," he says. "I like the game, I like the fact that it's a team game but that individual skills matter a lot. You can be creative...
...There you have it, the Kobe rules - ignore them at your own risk. Then again, it may not matter what you do against a player Kobe's caliber. "You have all the right defensive principles, rotations, all that bullsh-t going for you," says Brown, one of the best defensive tacticians of all time. "And Kobe just negates it all. That's what this guy does...
...Over the years the New Jersey Nets, for example, have put Vince Carter on Kobe in the first quarter, and Jason Kidd on him in the fourth. It's probably not a coincidence that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, no team has held Kobe to a lower scoring average during his career (21.9 points per game). Deng's Chicago Bulls match up different players on Bryant as well, and they held him to just 18 points per game this season...
...Kobe could be defending your worst player, the guy who makes his team's fans cringe when he has the ball. It doesn't matter - against Kobe, you have to treat that guy like he's Larry Bird. Pass him the ball. Make Kobe chase him all over the court, and run Kobe into a million screens. "He has to feel the contact," says Deng. If Kobe can have the luxury of relaxing on the defensive end, he'll have more energy on offense. And is more likely to score 50 points...
...Luckily for Boston, its arsenal is so varied that Bryant is likely to end up guarding Allen or Pierce. The Celtics set lots of picks for Allen, so they can bruise Kobe a bit in that match-up. Pierce is a lethal scorer off the dribble, and will make Kobe work...