Kobe Bryant Drops 39 Pts on MVSteve’s Suns in 2005-06 Staples Opener | Full Highlights

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Kobe Bryant Partial Highlights
All Field Goal Attempts (20)
LA Lakers vs Phoenix Suns
November 3, 2005
Staples Center

- 39 pts, 7r, 5a / 13-26 fg, 0-2 3pt, 13-14 ft

TNT’s leadoff broadcast, Indiana vs Miami, carried far over it’s allotted TV time. It resultantly took a sizable chunk out of the Lakers’ home debut matchup vs Phoenix. The network finally made it’s way to Los Angeles at the 2 min, 45 sec mark of the 1st quarter. In the playing time unseen, Kobe scored 11 points on 4-6 fg. In total, 28 of Kobe’s 39 points and 20 of his 26 shot attempts were captured.

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Excerpts from Phil’s 2013 book “Eleven Rings” regarding the 2005-06 team:

“We had several young players who needed to be schooled in the basics—including Smush Parker, Luke Walton, Brian Cook, Sasha Vujacic, Von Wafer, Devin Green, and Ronny Turiaf. Instead of a deficit, I saw this as an opportunity to build the new team from the bottom up...”

“This was a team that was crawling its way up from infancy—a new experience for me—and I had to nurture the players’ confidence with care.”

“One major hurdle to get over with my new team was the lack of consistent scoring options beyond Kobe.”

“...Lamar was a graceful six-ten forward with a freewheeling style of play... created matchup problems for a lot of teams, and I thought we might be able to turn him into a strong ‘point forward’ à la (Scottie) Pippen. But Lamar had trouble learning the intricacies of the system and his game often fell apart when we needed him the most.”

“Shortly after I returned, we picked up Kwame Brown in a trade with Washington... what we didn’t know until much later was that he didn’t have any confidence in his outside shot. At one point during a game against Detroit, Kobe came over to the bench, laughing. ‘You might as well take Kwame out of the game, Phil,’ he said. ‘He just told me not to pass him the ball because he might get fouled and have to shoot a free throw.’”

“Another player who had looked promising at first but lacked mental toughness was Smush Parker... His shooting was erratic, but his spirited play helped energize the offense and get us off to a strong start that season. But Smush had had a difficult childhood that left him fragile emotionally and limited his ability to bond with others... If everything was going his way, Smush could be the most energetic player on the floor. But when the pressure mounted, he had a hard time holding himself together. He was a time bomb waiting to explode.”

“Meanwhile Kobe continued to excel. In the first part of the season I told him to let loose since the team had yet to master the system—and he responded by shooting for the history books. Kobe scored 40-plus points in twenty (seven) games during the regular season and averaged a career high 35.4 points.”

(pp. 281-83)

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