Bryant Is Realizing Time Is on His Side

Didn’t that used to be me?

A couple of years ago, it was Kobe Bryant they were anointing as the next Michael Jordan but then other items popped up on the kid’s agenda, like turning 21, winning something and accommodating himself to that large person in the low post.

These days, when Bryant’s floor game has made such a remarkable improvement and, not coincidentally, the Lakers are winning everything, it’s suddenly Vince Carter’s name that’s up in lights, which Kobe hasn’t even noticed, or has a teeny bit, depending on whom you ask.

“Kobe is starting to take the challenge of not only being a spectacular player or a talent and is becoming a playmaker,” said Phil Jackson Sunday before Bryant went out and got 40 points against the Kings, with 10 rebounds and eight assists.

“I think he understands that we’re a team that’s going somewhere. That may be an individual thing that’s going on with [Carter in] Toronto and that’s great for them. . . . It’s good for the league. But this is our team, and this is our chance to win and have a championship run, hopefully.”

Besides incredible hops and charisma, Carter has an advantage when it comes to visibility: he’s the Raptors’ No. 1 option and whoever No. 2 is, he’s a long way back.

Bryant, who is fine in the hops and charisma departments, himself, has an advantage when it comes to contending for titles: He plays with Shaquille O’Neal.

Having 7 feet 1, 330 pounds worth of Shaq sitting on the low block, may not be ideal for showing off Bryant’s ability to drive, improvise and soar to the hoop, but it comes in handy on nights like Sunday when Kobe is looking for someone to chip in another 39 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and three blocks.

Put it all together--the improvement in Bryant’s floor game; O’Neal’s kindler, gentler free throws; the return of Robert Horry from wherever he has been all these years--and the next thing you know, you have 18 wins in a row, 52 of 63, first place in everything and smiles all around.

Of course, if someone asks if Bryant still thinks he can do things as sensational as Carter does . . .

Bryant scrunches up his face. He grins. He doesn’t answer. OK, we’ll take that as a yes.

“But it’s so much fun winning,” he says. “And figuring out how to win, how to beat teams every night. With this situation I’m in right now, this is my role, I’ve kind of found my niche with this team, what I have to do for this team to win, and I’m having fun trying to perfect that.”

He has received many pointers from Jackson about making plays for teammates, whom he once tended to ignore in his headlong pursuit of his destiny. The pointers were reinforced by at least one behind-the-scenes demonstration of O’Neal’s legendary impatience. As an educational experience, the package worked. Bryant is averaging 5.5 assists in this streak compared with a career-best average last season of 2.9.

Of course, Carter and Bryant are old friends and admirers as well as implicit rivals, who even played on the same AAU team--along with Milwaukee’s Tim Thomas--in high school.

“It was a crazy team,” Bryant says. “We were beating everybody by about 50. . . . He pretty much did the same things he does now. He’s pretty basic with his floor game. He’s very explosive going to the basket.”

What Carter has every night, a license to go for the kill, Bryant had for one night, two years ago at the famous All-Star game in New York where he was hyped into going mano a mano with Jordan and shot 10 of his first 11 touches.

“Waving Karl [Malone] off,” Bryant says, laughing at the memory of telling the veteran, who was trying to set a screen for him, to clear out, which Mailman only complained about for a year.

“I tease him about it all the time,” said Bryant laughing. “He just laughs at it.

“He didn’t play that much in this All-Star game. I told him, ‘Damn, you weren’t out on the floor, I couldn’t call you off.’ ”

It’s a good life when you’re a 21-year-old perennial all-star on the world’s hottest basketball team. And if the world is at someone else’s feet for the moment?

“I’m going to be around for a while,” says Bryant. “I’m just getting started. You know what I’m saying? I really have yet to show what I can do.”