Jeremy Lin has a little Kobe Bryant in him. And Bryant loves it.
ESPN Los Angeles was the first to report on Bryant's reaction to Lin, who refused to give Bryant the ball late during the Los Angeles Lakers' 118-111 loss to the rival Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night.
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Lin instead instructed Bryant to set a screen for him. Lin drove around the screen and fired up a 3-pointer with the Clippers' Chris Paul draped all over him as the shot clock expired and drained it, giving the Lakers a 106-103 lead at the time.
While a younger Kobe may have pouted - remember, he went an entire half without taking a shot once - he was encouraged by Lin's aggression, comparing the play a dog making his mark on a fire hydrant.
"You have to be able to assert yourself, especially on a team that I'm playing on -- especially on a team I'm playing on," Bryant said with some added emphasis. "Because I don't want chumps, I don't want pushovers, and if you're a chump and a pushover, I will run over you.
"It's important for him to have that toughness and to say, 'I believe in myself. I can step up, I can make these plays, I can perform.' I think that is very, very important.
"The teams that I've played on, the teams that won, we used to do that (wave off teammates) all the time," he said.
"It's like," Bryant said during his postgame news conference, then leaned forward and pounded his fist on the table, "you've got to put your mark down, man."
"At some point, you've got to piss on the fire hydrant."
The Lakers need some other players to follow suit after starting the season 0-3.
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