Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant said he hasn't lost his patience on Jeremy Lin and company because he still believes his teammate will evolve into better players as the season progresses.
Bryant, who is on the brink of passing Michael Jordan for no.3 in All-Time scoring list, insisted the notion of him impatient is very wrong, adding that he only lashed out people if they don't see them working hard enough to improve.
"The idea of me having no patience is misunderstood," Bryant told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday night. "I don't have patience when we're not putting the work in, if I see that we're not doing our job as professionals.
"If that's happening, I'll let my team know about it. But this is not that kind of group. We work. These guys want to get better every day. They're there early working, they're there late working."
Averaging 25.8 points on 39 percent field goal shooting this season, the 36-year old Bryant has lessen his shot attempts from 25 to just 15 field goal shots a game and has made his teammates more involved the past few games.
While the Lakers are still trying to get out of a 5-13 hole in a very tough Western Conference, Bryant believes the franchise will contend for a championship soon as he gives credit to the team's management, Jim and Jeannie Buss, for giving him the opportunity to play this long in his career.
"This organization put forth a lot of effort to try and land some of these top free agents. They went for it. I respect that. I appreciate that. Now it's time for me to go out there and do my job -- not whine or complain about it," Bryant told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
After a slow start and some run-ins with Kobe, Lin has played solid basketball as of late as he's putting up at least 15 points and 5 dimes per game. Lin, who is in the final year of his current deal, is trying to live up to the challenge presented to him by Bryant, and so far the Asian-American standout has responded very well.
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