Kobe Bryant booed at Nuggest-Lakers meeting in Denver

boulder news dot com ^ | 1-8-04 | Gary Baines

[doug from upland]

Kobe Bryant booed at Nuggets-Lakers meeting in Denver

Los Angeles star has game-high points in Denver win

By Gary Baines, Camera Sports Editor
January 8, 2004

DENVER — The spectators and the news media were out in full force for the Kobe Watch on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center. Even Denver Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe was courtside.

Kobe Bryant showed up, though he seemed a bit distracted.

Playing his first game in Colorado since being accused of felony sexual assault last summer in Eagle County, the Los Angeles Lakers star was routinely booed Wednesday, most loudly when he was introduced, but every time he touched the ball during the game.

"We expected boos out there, but it was a little heavier here," Lakers teammate Horace Grant said.

"I've been booed before," Bryant said after the Lakers were trounced by the Nuggets 113-91. "I don't pay attention. I'm out there playing basketball. ... I came in expecting the worst, but so far this season it's been OK."

Though he downplayed the stir surrounding the game in Denver, Bryant certainly didn't have one of his stellar performances. He finished with a game-high 27 points and had six steals, but he made 8 of 23 shots from the field and turned the ball over five times.

"He was very animated tonight," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of Bryant, who got into a brief tussle with Nuggets rookie Carmelo Anthony after battling for a rebound during the third quarter. "He was feisty. ... He didn't have a great game tonight, but he tried to shoulder it on his own."

The Nuggets issued 60 more media credentials than normal due to the Bryant situation. Among the news media outlets with reserved spots at the Pepsi Center were USA Today, TNT, ESPN, Fox Sports, the Fort Worth Telegram, Baltimore Sun and New York Post. Suffice it to say this wasn't your typical media contingent for a Nuggets home game.

A sellout crowd cheered Bryant's missed shots and turnovers, and one contingent shouted "guilty" in unison as he shot free throws. But some people cheered him on and one fan held up a "Kobe not guilty" sign.

[doug from upland]

Attorney Kevin James is discussing the fans chanting "guilty, guilty, guilty" on the Al Rantel show. This trial is going to be moved.

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[drjimmy]

This trial is going to be moved.

From where, to where?

[sinkspur]

These people obviously aren't following the case; they are siding with a woman who is barely believeable.

[doug from upland]

Colorado Springs???

[drjimmy]

The reason I ask is because people yelling "guilty" in Denver, where the crime didn't occur, isn't going to get the trial moved from Eagle, where the crime did occur. If the trial gets moved anywhere, it will be to a city large enough to be deemed to have a large jury pool, which could in fact be Denver.

The same white supremacist group that posted racist anti-Kobe fliers in Eagle had earlier posted racist fliers in Colorado Springs and Lakewood, so those locations might be too tainted for his trial.

[KellyAdmirer]

Oh for God's sakes, don't send that circus down here!

[ppaul]

The K.O.B.E. Video

[dfwgator]

good thing they weren't shouting "brick!"...

Looks to me that the Lakers put up a lot of bricks in that game. Looks like they won't be able to buy another championship after all.