Kobe’s Mark a Real Piece of Work

Dennis Scott’s telephone rang late Tuesday night. A friend was on the line. Something about Scott’s record, and a game in Los Angeles, that he should get to the television.

And so it was that Scott, one of the best long-range shooters in the history of the game, came to witness Kobe Bryant’s hail of jump shots, the run of three-pointers that grew from curiosity to 12, the NBA record, once Scott’s record.

Scott had made 11 in 1996 for the Orlando Magic against the Atlanta Hawks, and by the time Bryant was through, Scott’s hands were damp with sweat, his heart warmed by the memory of three weeks in Hawaii a year and a half before.

“When you’re a shooter, and you’re in that zone, there’s only one person that can stop you,” Scott said with a chuckle, “and that’s God.”

At the end of his career, Scott signed a make-good contract with the Lakers, the Lakers agreeing partly as a favor to Shaquille O’Neal. Scott, then 33, didn’t make it out of training camp.

Since, he has become an in-studio analyst for Fox Sports South in Atlanta and bought into a USBL team in Melbourne, Fla. He said Thursday that he’s considering playing a game or two for his minor league team, just to draw customers, but that his goal is to work his way into an NBA franchise and perhaps become an owner.

His few weeks in camp in Honolulu with the Lakers hardly qualified as life-altering, but Scott did get to know Bryant, did watch as he drove himself harder and longer than anyone else. As Scott saw his record fall Tuesday night, images flickered through his head: Bryant, stained by salty residue, pushing away jump shots, over and over.

“If I didn’t have the opportunity to be around him for the short time I had in Hawaii, I wouldn’t feel as exuberant about a young guy like him breaking the record,” he said. “It’s knowing he’s worked hard, knowing he was a terrible shooter when he first came in, what, six years ago? And now he’s actually a good shooter.

“So I can say, ‘I actually know the guy who broke my record.’ He’s actually a great guy, he’s an All-Star, probably the most hard-working young guy in the league right now. So he’s not a bad person to lose it to, instead of some stiff who comes into the league and has one good year and disappears.”

A few minutes out of Thursday’s practice, Bryant thought back as well, from the day he stepped out of Lower Merion, Pa., High to the summer he wouldn’t leave the gym until 1,000 jumpers fell to Tuesday, when he had the best three-point shooting game in league history.

“It’s not a one-day thing,” Bryant said.

And it is exactly why Scott appreciates what Bryant did, and how he did it.

“When Kobe came into the game, he was all athletic ability, all dunks, cross-over moves,” he said. “Now, he’s worked on the part of his game that was the weakest part when he first came into the game. Knowing his reputation as a hard worker and seeing it with my own eyes that he’s the first one into the gym, the last one out, he does extra shots, does his weight work, I can only respect the guy.

“I’m not mad. You learn as a kid, in AAU, the amateur ranks, that records are made to be broken. Seven years ago, someone was mad at me because I broke his record.”

Scott still holds the record for three-pointers made in a season, 267 in 1995-96.

“The biggest thing was having pride in being a pure shooter,” Scott said. “Regardless of if it was a bad day or a good day, I felt like the next jump shot I took was going to be good.

“It just so happens we have record books. They’re there. It’s kind of like a silent trophy. Later on in life, when people say, ‘You played in the NBA?’ you can say, ‘Yeah, go look in the record book.’ If my grandchildren say, ‘Aw, Granddad, you didn’t play no NBA basketball,’ I’ll say, ‘Hey, look at the picture. Course, there was one guy who beat me out back in 2003.’ ”