Kobe Bryant‘s year of tossing media grenades rolls on. This time, Pau Gasol is catching the Mamba’s wrath.
After last night’s frustrating loss to the Orlando Magic, a game that saw Gasol on the bench during crunch time for the second time in the last five games, Kobe let it be known that Gasol has to man up.
This is what Bryant said after the game:
“Put your big-boy pants on. Just adjust. Just adjust. You can’t whine about it. You can’t complain about it.”
And then this:
“Pau has got to make some adjustments, obviously, to his game. He might not be posting up as much as he likes, but he just has to adjust.
“The reality is, I’ve adjusted, I’ve never run this many screen-rolls in my entire career. But I’ve worked on it. I’ve worked on handling the ball. I’ve worked on coming off of screens and making plays. I’m used to being in the post much, much more but you have to adjust.
“You have to master what it is that we’re trying to do here and Pau is talented enough and he’s good enough to be able to do that.
“There’s no excuses to be made, there’s no whining. No putting your head down. We’re here, we have the talent to make adjustments, we have to make them. Period. …
“I’ll kick everybody’s ass in this locker room if that doesn’t happen. That’s the attitude that you have to have. Metta (World Peace) is the same way. Dwight (Howard) has that in him as well. Even though he smiles a lot, he still cares a lot about this thing. Like I said, come hell or high water, it has to get done.”
I’ll kick everybody’s ass in this locker room … Good times in L.A.
The real question is whether or not Pau has it in him to rise to the occasion.
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