Lakers Coach: Kobe Bryant Has “Privilege” On The Court

Lakers coach Byron Scott talks about how he coaches Kobe Bryant and shares the extra privileges afforded to the veteran

On Monday, Los Angeles Lakers coach Byron Scott caused a bit of a national basketball media stir when answering questions on the topic of Kobe Bryant after practice. Several highly reputable basketball writers took note of the quotes accumulated and tweeted by Serena Winters of LakersNation.com.

Fortunately, NBCLA.com stood present to further provide context as the Los Angeles Lakers' coach answered a couple questions administered by Bill Oram of the Orange County Register.

Oram asked, "Going back to talking about isolation being a problem, Kobe came out and got a lot of shots early last night, talking about wanting to shoot you guys off to a good start, does that kind of set the tone for other guys going 'iso' and the ball sticking?"

Earlier in the practice, Scott had previously spoken about losing patience and possibly benching young players for a variety of offenses, including failing to follow the defensive game plan, failing to hustle back on defense in transition, playing one-on-one basketball and holding the ball for too long.

"It could," Scott responded by saying Bryant's early shooting could have set an unwanted isolation mentality at the start of the game.

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"First of all, he's had 20 year in this league," Scott said about Bryant, who is likely in his final season in the NBA. "We might not have six players that have 20 years in this league combined. So, he has that privilege, basically."

Scott is considered an "old school" coach, and earning playing time, privileges and the concept of seniority are the language of the older style of basketball. To his credit, though, Scott has seemingly embraced new school concepts like small ball (to a fault, probably).

However, Scott continued to expand and attempted to explain how he coaches Bryant with a different philosophy than the other members of his team.

"From a coaching standpoint, I want Kobe to be Kobe," Scott said about the 37-year-old, who attempted and missed more shots than any other Laker in Sunday's loss. "Other guys haven't earned that right yet. When it gets to their hands and it's sticking, and you're a first, second, or third-year player, you haven't earned that right yet."

Then, Scott completed his answer by rehashing the lessons he is teaching the Lakers' young group.

"So we're going to keep talking about that on the offensive end as far as moving the ball and moving our bodies and sharing the ball and being a little bit more unselfishness as a basketball team because I don't think we're doing it maliciously," Scott said, returning to his overall positive outlook with his 2-11 team. "I think guys want to win and they want to do the right things, but they just don't know how to go about it."

At this point, Oram asked a follow-up question: "Is that something that you've had to talk to (the team) about, that that privilege is not extended to them as yet?"

The voice of the "old school" responded again, "No, I haven't had to talk to them about it. And I don't think I still have to talk to them about it yet."

Obviously, the team understands that Bryant has special privileges. They see them regularly on the court and off it. On this particular Monday, Bryant did not have to report to practice after playing 31 minutes on Sunday. Instead, he met the team at the airport (after taking a helicopter, apparently), where the Lakers took off for Northern California for a game the next day.

On Tuesday, the 15-0 Golden State Warriors, a near impossible task, a national audience and history await the Lakers.

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