Rambis Earns Bryant’s Respect

Intentionally or not, Coach Kurt Rambis continues to make a point--no one is too big for him to at least temporarily remove from the game.

On Wednesday, after being pulled once in each half after making mistakes during the Lakers’ loss to Utah the day before, Kobe Bryant expressed no ill feelings.

“I’m fine with it. I told Kurt, ‘Man, I’m with you,’ ” said Bryant, most noticeably pulled for three minutes in the fourth quarter after Shandon Anderson beat him for three baskets.

“Now, obviously, I don’t like getting taken out of the game at any point. You want to play. But I’m always with Kurt.”

In previous games, Rambis raised eyebrows by removing Shaquille O’Neal in late situations.

“I respect Kurt because he has the [guts] to make those types of decisions,” Bryant said. “A lot of coaches, they would just panic and say, ‘OK, regardless of what’s going on, regardless of the mistakes that you’re making, I’m just going to stick with you, because if we lose, I can say we lost with our best guys.’

“Kurt, he really doesn’t care about any of that.”