Pumped up after snapping their eight-game losing skid at the expense of the Boston Celtics 118-111 in overtime on Sunday, Jeremy Lin, Nick Young, Jordan Hill and Carlos Boozer celebrated their rare victory over their arch-rival with a rowdy post-game interview that has all the elements of ‘swaggynes,’ trash talk and photo-bombs. Too bad, Kobe Bryant wasn’t happy what he saw from his teammates.
Already out for the remainder of the season with a shoulder-injury, Bryant hasn’t been around on the Lakers bench since going under the knife for the third consecutive season. There’s no telling the specific reason as to why Bryant hasn’t been showing in Lakers home games for quite some time, but it might be because he just couldn’t stand watching his team continue to struggle this season.
In his recent appearance at the Jimmy Kimmel Live, Bryant finally learned some encouraging news about his team: the Lakers defeated the Celtics at home to nab their 14th win of the year. Now here’s the problem. He didn’t like their post-game celebration.
Given those circumstances, Sunday night's overtime win against the ostensible rival Boston Celtics seemed like a pretty good time for some celebration. The victory snapped a seven-game losing streak for Los Angeles, and point guard Jeremy Lin scored a season-high 25 points to get them there. So, in his post-game interview, Lin was interrupted by Nick Young, Jordan Hill, and Carlos Boozer for some classic hijinks. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time:
Everyone except Kobe, I guess. While he wasn't present at the game, Kobe was asked about the moment during an interview on Monday night's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live." It appears that he wouldn't have had much patience for such antics.
In the midst of perhaps the worst season in franchise history, it might be true that any forms of celebration might be inferred as silly given the current situation. A win against an equally struggling Celtics would surely not excite an uber-competitive Bryant, whose only desires are to win more championships and break more records at this point of his career.
However, Bryant should also not expect all his teammates to embrace and preach his doctrine. Lin, Boozer, Young, and Hill may have forgotten the Lakers’ dreadful state at that moment for them to celebrate too much, but at least they still found reasons to smile - and that's the important thing.
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