LeBron: Kobe's self-criticism 'personal challenge'
While Kobe Bryant was angry enough about his performance so far this season to take Monday off, LeBron James isn’t taking the Lakers star’s struggles too seriously.
James laughed when asked about Bryant’s poor performance and harsh self-criticism, telling the Akron Beacon Journal, “He knows he don’t suck.”
“What I see is a challenge to himself,” James told the newspaper. “It has zero to do with his age. Zero. I think at one point in my career, in my 20s, I felt like I sucked. It’s all a personal challenge.”
Bryant, 37, called himself “the 200th-best player in the league right now” after struggling in a third straight start to open the regular season, his 20th with the Lakers.
“I freaking suck,” Bryant said Sunday after the Lakers lost to the Dallas Mavericks.
Bryant was averaging 17.3 points per game but on 31.3 percent shooting from the floor, including 20.7 percent shooting from 3-point range, through the Lakers’ 0-3 start. Los Angeles was hosting the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night at Staples Center.
“I know him. He knows he don’t suck,” James told the Akron Beacon Journal. “C’mon man, it’s Kobe Bryant. But it’s a personal challenge to him. That’s all that is.”
ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes contributed to this report.
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