THIS WAS meant to be Kobe Bryant’s stage, the moment when the best basketball player on the planet would win a championship without being burdened by the formidable presence of his former LA Lakers teammate, Shaquille O’Neal. “Fair or not, Kobe is going to be judged on what happens in this series for the rest of his career,” said Will Perdue, three times a winner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship with Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and once more with the San Antonio Spurs. “If he wins the title, that’s the monkey off his back. Finally, everyone can take away the ‘but’ after his name: ‘Kobe won three championships – but with Shaq’.”

The appendage may have to remain, however, for the Lakers are facing a 3-1 deficit against the Boston Celtics heading into Game 5 of the best-of-seven championship series and the Celtics have monumental momentum. No team in the NBA Finals had ever overcome more than a 15-point first-quar-ter deficit before Boston’s Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen mounted a comeback from 21 points behind after the first quarter and 24 points during the second to win 97-91 in Thursday’s Game 4 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The star power at courtside of Lakers fans Jack Nicholson, Denzel Washing-ton, Justin Timberlake and David Beckham could not diminish the Celtics, one of whose supporters taunted Nicholson with a banner: “Jack Flew East, Jack Flew West, Jack Flew Back to the Cuckoo’s Nest.” But if Nicholson went crazy, yelling in his seat behind Celtics coach Doc Rivers, what did that make Bryant?

“We just wet the bed,” Bryant told reporters. “A nice big one too. One of the ones you can’t put a towel over. It was terrible.” And how might the Lakers find a way back? “Whine about it tonight,” he suggested. “A lot of wine, a lot of beer, a couple of shots, maybe like 20 of them, digest it and get back to work tomorrow.”

A mournful Bryant uncorking a bottle of sauvignon blanc before moving on to bottles of Bud and, finally, shots of tequila was not supposed to be the lasting image of these NBA Finals. This was destined to be his deliverance. The 10 All-Star games, 10 All-NBA teams, eight all-defensive teams, three championships, two scoring titles and a Most Valuable Player award, all by the age of 29, was to be topped by a fourth championship and the renewal of his quest to surpass Jordan’s six with the Bulls. “On a skill level, they are equal, no ifs, ands or buts,” Perdue insisted. “Kobe has worked on his game to be better than Michael but he has always done something to screw up his public image.” In 2003, Bryant was charged with raping a hotel employee, Katelyn Faber, in his suite in The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in Colorado. The alleged assault was committed on the night before he was due to have knee surgery. He denied the assault allegation but admitted to an adulterous sexual liaison (he is married to Vanessa, whom he met when she was in high school). The case was dropped when Faber refused to testify in the trial and a civil suit was settled out of court, but the incident still haunts him. During the Lakers’ Western Conference semi-final series against Utah Jazz, a Jazz supporter holding an inflatable doll stood up as Bryant approached the free-throw line. The sign around the fan’s neck read: “Kobe, Not Room Service Again!” When Bryant stood at the free-throw line in Game 1 against the Celtics some Boston supporters in the upper balcony chanted repeatedly: “No means no!”

“He still struggles,” said Matt Delzell, senior client manager for the Davie Brown talent agency, which ranks athletes and celebrities in eight categories to determine their potential as endorsers. “Kobe has a high awareness number, so people know who he is, but when it comes to trust, appeal, influence and such things he scores below the average for everyone else in seven out of seven categories. People are not as aware of LeBron James [the Cleveland Cavaliers small forward] but those who know him think more highly of him and perceive him to be more trustworthy and worthy of being a spokesman candidate.”

Last spring Bryant criticised Lakers majority owner Jerry Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak and issued a trade demand before he became reconciled to staying in LA. “I’m happy to be here,” Bryant now says. “My guys and I, we have a tight bond. Business and basketball sometimes cloud things, but when you get here in your element and you’re around your teammates, having a good time and thinking about them and not about the business of the game, that’s when it becomes fun.” But it is not fun now. No team has recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals. Can Bryant be the Lakers’ inspiration?

“You came away from Thursday’s game ready to draw conclusions because the record-setting rally uncorked by the Boston Celtics amounts to a call-the-champagne-guy comeback,” said Marc Stein of the American Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. “Kobe is on the brink of a second successive five-game exit in the championship round, something you won’t find on Jordan’s résumé, for those of you who can’t resist the comparison.”

LA Lakers v Boston Celtics, tomorrow, Five, 1.50am

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