Bryant Has Been Listening to the Voice of Experience

Just before the Lakers take the court for tipoff, Ron Harper gives Kobe Bryant a high-five and a hug, then says a few things into his ear.

“A last-minute pregame pep talk to get him pumped up,” Harper calls it.

And another step along Bryant’s quest to be the best player in the league. Harper, a 37-year-old veteran, has taken a more active role this season in guiding the 22-year-old Bryant down the path to greatness. He distills 15 seasons of NBA experience into an assortment of words, dispensing them at the appropriate times.

“Kobe and me have that thing we call that brothership thing,” Harper said. “I’m the oldest.

“There are times you say stuff to him and times you don’t. I think he knows whatever I say to him is going to improve him. It’s not hard. It’s just going to need to be said. There are guys who say stuff to guys and they can be hard on guys, but I’m not hard on him. I just say what I have to say.”

Of course, a teacher can only be effective if his pupil listens.

“Parts of the year, he was really good at it,” Harper said. “Earlier this year, he was trying to go hard-headed, but the more we sat down and we talked, he saw that everything was going to be fine.”

The first step toward knowledge is recognizing you still have much to learn. Bryant is even better now than he was when he led the league in scoring earlier in the season because he has realized what he has to gain from a man who is not too far from walking away on his creaky old knees.

“Just understanding the game,” Bryant said. “Harper, he doesn’t rely on his athletic ability anymore. He used to; now he understands the game. He understands the momentum, how certain game situations can turn. I picked up a lot of things as far as angles go, defensively, especially.”

What Bryant seems to have learned most of all, however, is when to step back and when to step up. He is making a genuine effort to establish Shaquille O’Neal and the rest of his teammates early, then taking over at the end.

“The first thing I tell him is to go out, step on the floor, pound the ball inside and [if you] receive the ball outside, do your thing,” Harper said. “And he is doing his thing. He’s doing it at the time we need him to.”

Bryant’s 30.7 points-per-game average in the playoffs breaks down like this: 10.4 points in the first half, 20.3 points in the second half.

He scored 28 of his 48 points in the second half Sunday, when the Sacramento Kings were fighting desperately to extend their season and O’Neal fouled out with 3:09 left. Bryant decided the series was going to end right there in Game 4, and that was that.

Bryant and O’Neal have come to the understanding that they can take turns. Sometimes it’s quarter-by-quarter, sometimes it’s game-by-game. It might even be series-by-series.

If there’s one thing Harper has learned, it’s that being the Man and having all the individual accolades that go along with them is worthless.

There’s one thing the three highest-scoring seasons in Harper’s career had in common. When he was scoring 20-plus, be it with the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Clippers, his team did not make the playoffs.

But in four of his five lowest-scoring seasons, when he put up a single-digit average for the Chicago Bulls and with the Lakers last year, his team won NBA championships. Which memories do you think he cherishes more?

After he tore up his knee in January 1990, he was never quite the same. Although he still could score, he did not dominate. He left the Clippers to go to Chicago in 1994, and, after Michael Jordan unretired, Harper concentrated on his defense and became content to be merely another face on offense.

Harper has seen just about everything there is to see in the NBA and he knows what matters. Sometimes you have to do a little less to accomplish more.

Bryant was a youngster and his family lived in Italy when Harper was in his prime.

“I’ve seen some highlight tapes on him,” Bryant said. “I knew what he was capable of, I knew what he used to do.”

But the Harper he has seen up close, who he has played with and against, is the old man who plays the game with his head.

Can Kobe, with so many potential-laden years ahead of him, imagine the day when he has to get by solely on wisdom?

He smirked and chuckled, slightly amused by the thought. It’s almost impossible for a player whose talent is flowing as freely and high as his afro to think of playing any other way.

“If I do,” Bryant said, “If I have to play that type of game, I’ll be schooled very well.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: ja.adande@latimes.com.