Is the Black Mamba a close friend of Mark Zuckerberg or something? Bryant refuses to join Twitter, but never fails to share an important message with his fans on Facebook, which doesn’t help any of us trying to set him up with a “Tweet of the Night.” We will go ahead and pretend his messages are tweets, though, for the sake of our posts.
All the key players on the Lakers already have stated their endorsement of the coaching change that was made Monday morning, but Bryant had been silent up to this point – although he has already shown Mike D’Antoni plenty of support before any changes were made – because he missed the interviews after practice in order to give teammate Steve Blake a personal helicopter ride (ain’t that the life?).
Bryant’s sentiments about his new coach is no surprise: he has openly stated that D’Antoni was his childhood idol while growing up in Italy, when the former player was recognized as one of the finest Italian players ever.
As Bryant mentions, the Lakers’ offense looks to improve immeasurably with one of the most successful offensive coaches the league has ever seen – at least during the era of “seven seconds or less” – taking over the team. Spacing and ball movement will certainly be factors in changing the offense.
But what about defense?