Kwame Does Not Feel the Love

If you watched the Lakers-Suns match last night (Phoenix won, by the way), you noticed a recurring theme: Los Angeles has little affection for Kwame Brown. The Associated Press captures the sentiment and the response.

It was, surprisingly, many in the crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center, who reacted to Kwame Brown's problems in the third quarter by booing him every time he touched the ball for several minutes. ...

"I thought it was terrible," Lakers star Kobe Bryant said of the fans' behavior. "If they want to do that, they can stay home. He's going to be our guy here for two months. He's going to do fine, he's going to play well the next game. Kwame's sensitive. You boo him, it's going to affect him. I told him I've got his back."

I risk treading into dangerous waters here, but... if Kobe's support helps Kwame overcome his rampant case of the yips (7 turnovers, a terrible missed dunk) and actually appear productive for the next eight weeks, Kobe will have succeeded where Michael Jordan could not.

Kwame's disastrous relationship with former boss MJ is well-documented; it has been clear since then Kwame is the type of person who needs reinforcement, not belittlement. Lakers fans, apparently, don't care about; they're peeved megabeast Andrew Bynum got hurt, and doubly so that this is the replacement. But Kobe... well, I'll be: He's being a great teammate and a great leader. Lesson(s) learned?