Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard share a hug, put feud in the past

Houston Rockets guard James Harden had no quarrel with the partisan Toyota Center crowd rabidly cheering Lakers legend Kobe Bryant at every turn on Saturday night, seemingly spurring Bryant to his best shooting performance thus far in his final season in the National Basketball Association. A team rebuilding for sure, it does not get any easier as they head into the AT&T Center where the Spurs are undefeated at 11-0. I think Howard forgot for a second there, or maybe that was his retirement gift to Bryant.

The Lakers’ poor offensive execution led to another loss despite one of Kobe Bryant’s best games of the season.

When the family eventually returned to Philadelphia in 1991, Bryant joined the Lower Merion High School basketball team, leading it to the state championships four years in a row. And immediately that’s the right thing to do when you enter an organization. Bryant became annoyed with Howard’s more laid-back approach toward the game. “I don’t think Dwight wanted to play with Kobe”, World Peace told Los Angeles News Group.

“I just took it in and I said, ‘Rob, I don’t rule anyone out, but it has got to be based on performance because there’s so many people who want (to be on the team) – everyone wants to be on the roster'”. Scott also has refused to give Russell, the No. 2 pick in the draft, extended minutes in the fourth quarter and has stated publicly that he is not going to sacrifice wins to develop players – despite the fact that L.A.is 3-19, which is the worst start in franchise history. Howard soon agreed to a four-year, $88 million deal with Houston instead of a five-year, $118 million contract he could have signed with the Lakers.

The latter part of his career was blighted by injuries, with Kobe suffering a torn Achilles tendon in April 2013, followed by a devastating knee fracturing just six games into the 2013-14 season. The Lakers also struggled to defend Houston without fouling, sending the Rockets to the line for 28 free throws.

“You could have a little bit of a correlation to it”, Scott said.

“I hope to see him there”, Silver said, via Los Angeles Times’ Eric Pincus. But if Bryant were to disagree with any of those decisions by Scott, who would ultimately get his way?

It seemed as if Bryant was hell-bent on shooting himself out of a shooting slump, but it wasn’t working. “I’m always going to be confrontational even with my friends I’m going to be that way”. They did not have any interactions during the actual game other than Howard setting a pair of moving screens on Bryant.

(STATISTICAL) LINE OF THE NIGHT – See Bryant.

Harden, a fan of the Mamba’s growing up, paid homage to Kobe wearing his shoe from back in day when Bryant was with Adidas. “‘Sometimes we came out on top, sometimes the Lakers did”.