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Kobe Sounds Like He Might Shut Down This Jeremy Lin Phenomenon Tonight

If there’s one aspect of Kobe Bryant’s game that can truly stand alongside Michael Jordan’s, even more than pure scoring ability, it’s the attitude. It goes beyond wanting to win (which Kobe does, very badly). Kobe also wants to assert his dominance in order to destroy you, personally. It’s a rare (insane?) kind of competitive drive…and we’re thinking one Jeremy Lin could be on the business end of it tonight when Kobe’s Lakers square off against the Knicks.

Why? It’s simple: hype. Lin’s the talk of the league, and tonight, Kobe has a chance to put a stop to all that. Apparently, before yesterday, Kobe hadn’t really gotten a taste of that hype. Maybe at that point, it wouldn’t have mattered so much that Kobe crush Lin in his fist. But then, reporters started asking him about Lin. And they kept asking (a few NSFW words, but you can’t really hear them because they’re overdubbed):

As soon as Kobe said, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” it was on. What’s the best way to keep everyone from getting ahead of themselves? Destroy Lin on the court. Kobe seemed like he was trying to be (mostly) diplomatic. He even seemed impressed when he asked, “He’s averaging 28 and 8?” (Which, for the record, Lin’s not quite doing – he’s putting up 25.3 points and 8.3 assists over his three-game tear, still plenty impressive.)

But then, the question about Kobe guarding him if Lin’s going off like he’s been over the last three games? Kobe’s response may have sounded exasperated, but there might not have been one more effective way to get him to indeed guard Lin than bring up the possibility that he might. And there’s definitely no way to fire Kobe up more than forcing him to imagine a hypothetical scenario in which the Lakers are getting torched by a guy he’s hardly ever heard of. Ever after L.A.’s draining win over the Celtics’ last night, we are fully expecting a fired-up Kobe to take the MSG floor at 8 p.m. We’ll see if Lin’s ready.

[Ball Don't Lie]

Getty photo, by Ezra Shaw