Kobe Bryant-Ron Artest has (quietly) been a duo in the making

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Kobe Bryant was showering defeat from his body after Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals against Boston.

He was alone, and then Ron Artest walked in, shocking the heck out of the Lakers star.

Said Bryant: “[Artest] said, ‘This is not going to happen to you [again]. I’m going to come in here and help you out.’ He wound up being in Houston, and next year he took us to Game 7. But he’s here now. It’s something we’ve both been trying to make happen for a while, and here it is.”

Bryant, who spoke at his Kobe Academy basketball camp at Loyola Marymount today, said he was excited about what Artest could bring to the team, especially defensively.

Bryant also said that he wasn’t sure whether Lamar Odom will re-sign with the Lakers, but he hopes he does; that he hopes to sign a contract extension at the end of the month but doesn’t know right now whether that will happen; that the recent moves in the East – Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland, Rasheed Wallace to Boston – prove this off-season is about teams making serious runs at a championship; and that he always knew Phil Jackson would return next season as the Lakers’ head coach.

– Baxter Holmes