ORLANDO – On the Los Angeles Lakers' game-tying shot, a 3-point dagger that Derek Fisher drilled to silence all of Orlando and specifically Amway Arena, Kobe Bryant passed the ball.
On the 3-pointer that won the game, another brilliantly high-arching shot by Fisher, Kobe Bryant drew the double team and passed out perfectly for the shot that essentially put L.A. in position to win a title.
We are witnessing, before our own eyes now, the maturation of Kobe and possibly as soon as tonight the championship essence of Kobe.
He is the greatest closer of today's game, finishing off foes with that legendary, step-on-your-neck killer instinct. But clearly Bryant has learned between those dynastic days of three straight titles and today that winning games all by himself is pretty futile. And maybe that's why he started trusting his teammates more and at times serving as the game's most glamorous decoy ever.
Bryant is, if anything, a quick learner. On Tuesday in Game 3 of these NBA Finals, Kobe started off as unstoppable as ever, scoring 17 first-quarter points. But after a short rest to start the second period, Kobe came back into the game and didn't have the same magic as before. His shots were off and remarkably he kept on gunning, allowing the Magic to take control of the game.
And down the stretch, Kobe was a mess as he tried to do too much. He missed shots (five of them) and free throws (five more) and had a huge turnover down the stretch when he tried to dribble through a double team by Dwight Howard and Mickael Pietrus.
A highly peeved Bryant had this to say after his Tuesday meltdown: "It was disappointing. There were a couple of mistakes that I made that I wouldn't mind getting back. That being said, you've got pick your head up, put one foot in front of the other and keep on moving."
That's exactly what Bryant and his unbreakable will did in a Game 4 that turned around these NBA Finals. By winning 99-91 in overtime, the Lakers took a commanding 3-1 lead instead of falling back into a questionable 2-2 precarious predicament. Now, the Lakers have three shots to win one game and claim the title they have been chasing since last June's embarrassing rout against the Boston Celtics.
L.A. is in this position because Bryant had the willingness to trust his teammates in the tense moments of Game 4. Maybe he saw how LeBron James couldn't beat Orlando on his own in the Eastern Conference Finals, delivering several jaw-dropping plays early in the series, but ultimately wearing down as the hopeless battle wore on.
Knowing when to "go off," as Kobe calls it, and when to feed his teammates so that they don't look like L.A. tourists scoping out homes of the rich and famous, has always been a tricky proposition for Kobe. Openly deferring to others goes against everything in his hyper-aggressive, supremely confident body. But he knows now what he didn't always want to believe in those stubborn days early in his career: You can't play one-on-nine and win a championship.
So Kobe is more trusting, Kobe is more about sharing. And now he could be on the verge of winning the championship some doubted he could get as the leader of a Laker team.
"My responsibility on this team, I have to do a little more. I have to score and facilitate," said Bryant, who had eight assists in each of the first four games of The Finals. "So I have a lot more responsibilities and I can't just go off. I've got to get my guys involved. Sometimes you're sacrificing your rhythm and then trying to rebuild it.
"If I feel like my guys are struggling, I'll try to shoot through it. But when guys get things going I'll keep going to them and try to find my way through that."
Fisher, the guy who came into the league with Bryant and is most trusted by Kobe, understands the struggles that the Lakers' star guard must endure on a nightly basis. He feels that too much pressure is heaped on Bryant when the Lakers stumble – he's too selfish, he doesn't trust his guys, he doesn't close well enough. Bryant is first and foremost a scorer, but the ability to make others better with the pass is still there, Fisher said.
"He loves to dominate a game, and so if chose to pass more, he would easily average Chris Paul-type of assist numbers," Fisher said of Bryant. "But he's a born scorer, and he's always said that, and we don't mind it because that sets up everything else that we do."
Fisher said that no one was happier in the Laker locker room after Fisher's game-winning heroics than Bryant. Of course, first, he had to tweak Fisher over the five 3-pointers that he missed before making the tying shot at the end of regulation and the winner in overtime.
Let's face it, this hasn't been a knock-your-socks-off Finals from Kobe where he seemingly can't miss shots and puts together a long string of Jordan-like, unstoppable 40-point games. He had one of those in Game with 40 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Since then, he's been rather ordinary shooting the ball, still a solid accomplishment considering the way Mickael Pietrus has hounded his every move. In Games 2, 3 and 4, he was an un-Kobe-like 10 of 22, 11 of 25 and 11 of 31. In truth, they looked so much like the 2004 Finals against Detroit (38 percent shooting, 17 percent 3-point shooting) and last June against Boston (40.5 percent shooting, 4.7 turnovers a game).
But this is undoubtedly Kobe's finest moment. No, he doesn't need a fourth title to justify his legacy what with three rings already, a MVP trophy and an 81-point game already on his resume. But he did need to prove he could take a team to a title, doing so in the framework of a team.
This is that time for Kobe. It showed in the way he snarled and gritted his teeth in Game 1. It was evident in Game 2 when he took over in overtime. It showed in Game 3 when he steamed about turning the ball over late and missing those free throws. And, finally, it showed in Game 4 when he was willing to do whatever it took – especially trusting his teammates and passing down the stretch – to put the Lakers in position for another title.
"I just want this so bad," Kobe said.
It shows.
