LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant can't make it any clearer.
Asked on Tuesday what it would mean to him to win his first ring with his current group of teammates, he replied: "It would mean everything."
Asked on Wednesday what it would mean to secure his first championship without Shaquille O'Neal he replied, "It means nothing."
Tonight, as Bryant begins his sixth Finals appearance searching for his fourth series win, the man we see today is far different from the boy who once bickered with Shaq about the limelight. That hatchet might not be buried. Their lovefest-like on-court interview after being named co-MVPs of the 2009 All-Star Game was nullified by those who saw them pose for post-game photos with the trophy backstage and hardly mutter a word to each other between smiles. But that old hatchet is not one that's constantly undercutting Bryant's accomplishments anymore either.
And despite some advertisers' best attempts to transfer that ax to grind between Bryant and Shaq to Bryant and LeBron James, that's been just as irrelevant to him.
If it wasn't about Shaq, then it's surely about Kobe then, right? His individual legacy is at stake. A fourth ring catapults him into the conversation of the top 10 players of all time. He'd still be behind Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Wilt, Kareem and Larry Bird, but in the mix with Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving, Tim Duncan, Jerry West and O'Neal for the rest of the top 10.
Yet he remains steadfast in keeping his focus solely on the company he keeps on the Lakers' sideline rather than the faces he'll ultimately be placed beside in the history books.
"Probably" was all Bryant would commit to when questioned whether this title would mean more than the rest because he is the leader of the team this time around.
The way he has changed physically is hard to notice because at 30, Bryant looks just as fit as he did at 20. From the eyebrows down, he looks virtually identical aside from bigger biceps, a jersey number that's three times what it used to be (from 8 to 24) and a couple of tattoos. From the eyebrows up he's gone for a more streamlined look. A silhouette of his facial profile -- a puffy 'fro, sharp nose, jutting chin, rounded adam's apple -- used to be his logo plastered on his adidas sneakers. Now his head is nearly bald as subtle tufts of white follicles dot the middle of his hairline.
Perhaps they are evidence of the wisdom that's been cultivated under his scalp.
His formative NBA years were spent being out of the loop when it came to the inside jokes and nights-out-on-the-town stories of his 30-something year-old teammates. It led to an isolated way of being. He came in as a rookie touting "my talents" that he was bringing to the league and continued to seek individual milestones for the next decade -- All-Star appearances, scoring titles, endorsement dollars. But he learned from it.
"He was perceived as the little brother -- he played his role," said Rick Fox, one of the playboys that Bryant teamed with in those early days. "When conversations were had, his wasn't the first word that was heard.
"He wanted to be the big brother. He had the desire to lead a team."
Eventually Bryant became the elder statesman and he forged friendships his own way. Shaq cultivated camaraderie after hours, Kobe built bonds before practices.
"Since day one he accepted me like his younger brother and we had a great relationship," said Sasha Vujacic, a role player whose 3.8 points per game in the Playoffs belie the impact he's had on Bryant's trust. "In my rookie year I didn't play at all, but we practiced together in the mornings."
It's still Bryant's team. He leads the Lakers in scoring average (29.6), assists per game (4.9), steals (1.7) and minutes (40.1) during L.A.'s run through Utah, Houston and Denver. Yet he has readily deferred to teammates -- like in Game 7 against the Rockets when Pau Gasol took over, Game 2 against Denver when Derek Fisher got (and missed) the last shot and Game 5 against the Nuggets, when Bryant had eight assists and only 13 shots in the win.
Before that could happen, Bryant made teammates added to the fold in recent years feel welcome in a way he missed out on when he started off in Los Angeles. He spoke Spanish to Gasol and the triangle translated to the 7-footer's game almost immediately. He set Trevor Ariza up with his offseason training regimen last summer, the same Ariza he signed an autograph for in the arena parking lot when the starting small forward was a teenager. Shannon Brown, a mid-season trade acquisition, said he felt like he had Bryant's trust after their first practice.
"Two years ago there was a change," Jackson said. "[Kobe] ended up racing away with the scoring championship, when we came back the next year we just said we don't want that type of ball to happen again. We want more inclusiveness."
If it started two years ago, it was fortified last summer. He made up for lost time during the Olympics, leaving Beijing with a gold medal and glowing appreciation for his teammates. All season long, he brought them up -- raving about his time in the weight room with Dwyane Wade, complimenting Deron Williams' all-around game, trumping LeBron's defense and even unabashedly admitting a feeling of brotherly love with Carmelo Anthony during the conference finals against Denver. It wasn't exactly man-code compliant, but it was Kobe showing how he's grown as a man.
"It's been a long haul to get back here for all of us," Bryant said. "It makes you hungry and it wasn't just me, it was everybody on our team. They want to have that feeling in the NBA. I've had it three times already. Once you've had that celebration and that feeling of winning and accomplishment, you want to have it again." If you want to know how much the Lakers' mood has changed from last year, reflect on Bryant's introductory press conference in Boston last June. He was letting it all hang out, wearing a bright red and white tank top and shorts, delivering one-liners about reviewing game tape from L.A.'s regular season losses to the Celtics ("I watched them just to torture myself") and about the gravitas a ring adds to a player's legacy ("Depends what club you want to get into, the 21-and-over or the 18-and-under").
On Wednesday, Bryant wore a black and white tracksuit with the jacket zipped all the way up to his chin. He barely cracked a smile, much less a joke.
"I admire his hunger as a player," Gasol said.
"He's a great leader and somebody you look up to," Vujacic says. "There are no words to describe him."
Orlando didn't have a problem orating about him. Mickael Pietrus, who will be guarding Bryant in The Finals, called him a "legend" at Wednesday's practice.
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy called him "one of the greatest players ever in this game."
J.J. Redick recalled the "surreal feeling" of two summers ago, when Bryant asking him to stay after practice and help him with his shot during a USA Basketball minicamp.
Jameer Nelson said he has been watching Bryant play since middle school, as they both matriculated in the Philadelphia prep scene.
"You want to hold your standard to a guy like that, but sometimes you have to be realistic," Nelson says. "Growing up watching him play, on offense he was the point guard, on defense he was the center."
Sounds almost as impressive as the different roles we've seen Bryant play as a teammate while watching him grow up.
