Bryant Isn’t Much for Sentimentality

No matter the persistence of the inquiries, Kobe Bryant would not subject himself to the warm and fuzzy “Kobe Goes Home” angle.

For one, Bryant doesn’t go much for heartwarming these days, not in the middle of the playoffs. Two, he was booed in the First Union Center when the Lakers played there on Feb. 14, and maybe he didn’t like it. When he’s slighted, Bryant’s not much on forgiveness.

“As far as going home, it’s really nothing to me,” he said. “To me, it’s just basketball.”

He said he would not require more than the two tickets per game given every player.

“Everybody I went to high school with is asking me for tickets,” Bryant said, smiling. Sort of. “I’m not getting them tickets because they’re all Sixer fans anyway. They could stay at home and watch it on NBC like the rest of us.”

The between-game and between-series rests that were so beneficial to the aging Lakers might now better serve the younger, but ailing 76ers.

While Laker Coach Phil Jackson insists on execution, the 76ers require a certain sustained anti-decorum, which could become difficult to generate when the games pile up. That seems to be what Jackson is counting on.

“I felt it was important that we play a game that’s similar to [Game 1] and see,” he said after Game 2. “If Philadelphia could sustain what they played on Wednesday night, I’d have been very impressed. I didn’t think they could shoot at that level, play with that intensity. That’s tough for a basketball club. They ran a tough challenge on Wednesday night and I think it sapped something out of their energy tonight. We’re able to sustain the effort that we gave the other night. So, I felt that’s what we had to do and we got a win. Regardless of what the score was going to be, we were going to play OK.”

Shaquille O’Neal, who has dominated everywhere else, is 14 for 32 from the free-throw line in the Finals, and 76er Coach Larry Brown hinted that he might be forced to dabble in the Hack-a-Shaq.

Shooting coach Eddie Palubinskas flew to Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.