Bryant Not Discussing Olympics

Kobe Bryant skirted a handful of reporters Saturday afternoon. As he did, he was asked if he’d like to talk about his decision to withdraw from the U.S. Olympic team because of his legal case.

“Uh, not really,” Bryant said.

He then disappeared through a door leading to the trainer’s room.

“He hasn’t really talked about it much around us,” Derek Fisher said later. “I’m sure he was looking forward to it.... He’ll get other chances, hopefully.”

The judge in Bryant’s sexual assault case could set a trial date for late August or early September, and the trial is expected to last about three weeks. As a result, Bryant notified USA Basketball on Friday that his participation would be unlikely, and the organization immediately began considering his replacement.

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If Karl Malone had not left Utah for Los Angeles, he would have left Utah for San Antonio.

Despite interest from other teams, notably Sacramento, Dallas and Boston, Malone decided early last summer that he would come to the aid of the Lakers or Spurs. When the Lakers lost in the Western Conference semifinals and the Spurs won the NBA title, his decision was made.

“I didn’t want to be considered jumping on the bandwagon,” he said. “If the Lakers would have won ... I would have been in San Antonio. That was my mind-set.”

Malone said he spoke a handful of times with Spur Coach Gregg Popovich during the early-July negotiating period, two weeks the Spurs spent recruiting Jason Kidd. He found Popovich to be “honest and fair,” but the Lakers were more attractive, and he still finds them to be.

“This is where I’ll finish playing,” he said.

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Three years ago, the Lakers won their final eight regular-season games and their first 11 playoff games, momentum they rode through a five-game win over the Philadelphia 76ers in the Finals.

Now it’s the Spurs, looking to repeat their title, on a roll. They won 11 in a row to end the regular season and swept the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. The Spurs haven’t lost since March 23. They’ve won 15 consecutive games, one of them in Los Angeles against the Lakers, by an average of more than 13 points.

“We have to find a way to crack their impervious mentality,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “They feel like they’re impenetrable right now.... We know what that feels like. You have to find a way to make them doubt themselves.”

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Luke Walton was barely out of kindergarten when his father, Bill, retired from the NBA. So, while he’d heard stories about the nature of the playoffs, he still wasn’t quite prepared for the passion they provoke.

“Every game is crazy,” he said. “The intensity in everybody is so different now. Every loose ball, everything, even in practice is like that. Kobe’s yelling at people, everybody’s into it.”