Fans miss seeing Bryant in action
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
Basketball fans in Hawai'i compared the Kobe Bryant-less Los Angeles Lakers to "Kool Aid without sugar" and "rice without shoyu" last night.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
In the first exhibition game between the Lakers and Golden State Warriors at the Stan Sheriff Center, one thing was clear: The fans missed Bryant.
Laker Devean George obliges autograph-seekers before last night's game. Some fans said they were disappointed Kobe Bryant didn't play.
The Lakers star, who was charged with felony sexual assault in July and has a preliminary hearing on the case scheduled for tomorrow in Eagle, Colo., showed up for last night's pregame shootaround, but was not seen thereafter.
Fans waited two years for the Lakers to return to Hawai'i, where they have held training camps numerous times since 1988, and many grudgingly accepted the absence of Bryant. He had announced Monday that he would sit out the two exhibition games here to recover from recent surgery on his right knee.
"I'm a little disappointed," said Tony Jackson, 30, who works in the Army and lives in Waipahu. "I really came out to see (Bryant) and Shaq, but if (Bryant is) not here, just watching Shaq is good enough for me. Not having Kobe Bryant on the Lakers is like having Kool Aid with no sugar."
Scott Kobayashi, 15, of Mililani, attended his first Laker game and he said he would have loved to see Bryant and the eight-time NBA champions.
"(Bryant's) well known and I really wanted to see him play," said Kobayashi, who compared the absence of Kobe to "rice without shoyu. ... It's disappointing, but I understand what's going on."
The apparent saving grace for fans last night was the playing appearances of Laker All-Stars Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal and Horace Grant.
"I wanted to see the whole team together, with all the strength they had, and Kobe's part of that strength," said Mililani's Jim Koishigawa, 53, who brought six tickets at $75 apiece. "I'm kind of disappointed in that sense."
Many fans said they expected Bryant to show up for training camp despite his ongoing sexual assault case.
"I expected him here, after all that happened, he was trying to prove to the fans that he's still OK," said Andrew Koishigawa, 15, of Mililani.
Erin Teasdale, 20, of Mission Viejo, Calif., said she wasn't surprised to see Bryant in Hawai'i.
"He's going to go on living his life as normal," said Teasdale. "He's not going to let the trial stand in his way."
Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2458.
