LOS ANGELES – It wasn’t some wonderful dream Andrew Bynum drifted into one night in 2006 after binging on McDonald’s and the mini-bar in the hotel room. It wasn’t even a flash-forward to what Lakers practice might look like in 2013, when Nike could be marketing the Ground Kobe Savvy VIII sneakers.
It was the most important practice of the current Lakers season. At the end of it Friday afternoon, Kobe Bryant was taking it easy, shooting free throws at a side basket. Bynum was still going strong, running wind sprints with the rest of the team and running well.
Afterward, Phil Jackson spoke of how one of those two guys coming off a layoff seemed to weaken as practice went on, but the other didn’t. It was truly alternate-universe stuff, because Bryant is the renowned practice warrior who is never supposed to tire and Bynum is still viewed as the cowardly lion also cursed with a tin man’s legs.
In actuality, Bynum ran those sprints with such a full heart that if we’re still talking movies, he was like the young Forrest Gump breaking free from the constraints of his leg braces. Bynum had, in fact, thrown his medically mandated knee brace down behind the basket standard before letting loose with his sprints.
On Sunday, Bynum brought the same youthful exuberance to the game court for the first time after a month-long layoff with a strained left Achilles’ tendon. When playing postgame word association about what Bynum brought in his return, Pau Gasol’s first choice was: “energy.”
The joyful purpose in Bynum’s movements wasn’t just refreshing. It was downright uplifting considering all his injuries the past three years for there still to be a default of hope instead of fear.
Bynum, 22, is like Bryant in that sense: remarkably optimistic, even in the face of adversity. And it’ll be interesting to see as the postseason rolls on how these two Lakers ride their respective waves.
For all this experience and skill, Bryant was out there searching for his game a lot Sunday. Bynum was like a golfer who hadn’t played in a month – not overswinging and therefore making surprisingly solid contact with every move he made.
Whereas Bryant at one point blacked out on fundamentals after a miscue on offense and went chasing after ball-carrying Russell Westbrook, not simply getting back on defense, Bynum consistently held his position and jumped with arms straight up to be big and bothersome but not foul-prone.
It’s somewhat unfair to compare, because while Bynum can keep it simple, Bryant’s job description can’t be letting the game come to him. Even as Jackson talked after the Lakers’ victory about Bryant being out of rhythm and needing to take open jumpers instead of overdribbling, the coach expressed appreciation for the offense Bryant created for his teammates.
And even though Bryant shot 6 for 19 from the field, he took a mental toll on the three Thunder players assigned to guard him: Thabo Sefolosha, James Harden and Jeff Green combined to shoot 4 for 19.
Bryant is also smart enough to find ways to make winning plays more often than not. However, making enough plays to win a championship requires two months of superstar production that Bryant will need to milk from his 31-year-old battered body.
He played 41 minutes in the game Sunday. Let’s just say that Bryant’s physical-therapy dynamo, Judy Seto, was working pretty close to that long after the game to attend to what isn’t going away or healing on its own in his body.
It might very well be that Bryant needs more from Bynum than anyone could expect –Nike, included, considering the Swoosh folks who would jump if Kobe told them to just do it never did get a deal done with Bynum as they’d told him they would earlier this season.
Maybe Bynum never does strain that Achilles’ tendon if he’s in Nikes and not the low-priced Protégé brand he wears and you can get at Kmart. Then again, Bryant said after Bynum’s work in Game 1: “The injury actually did some good for him, because he was able to rest.”
Bear in mind that this season started with both Bryant and Bynum playing at All-Star levels while Gasol rested – and the Lakers were even more excited by what Bynum was doing before he strained that Achilles’ a month ago.
“There was a while before he got injured that you could see the light had gone on,” Derek Fisher said Sunday about Bynum.
It was Fisher who said after that first practice back for Bynum on Friday that even Bynum’s teammates had forgotten just what a big boy Bynum is.
Bynum reminded everyone else Sunday.
“Tough team, especially with Bynum back,” said Westbrook, whose decisions when driving toward the hoop began to be dictated late in Game 1 by whether Bynum was in his way. “It makes them really big in the paint.”
Even if Kobe isn’t all that Kobe can be, the Lakers still have reason to dream big.
“Drew’s going to get better,” Fisher said.
He wasn’t talking about 2013 either.
