Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant officially became the youngest player in the NBA yesterday when the Lower Merion High graduate signed a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers signed Bryant, who's making the jump from high school directly to the NBA, to a three-year, $3.65 million contract. The 17-year-old was selected 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets, who dealt his rights to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac. The 6-foot-6 Bryant, who will turn 18 on Aug. 23, averaged 25 points and 5.3 rebounds in four games for the Lakers' summer-league entry.

The best high school basketball player in America plays in a Philadelphia suburb. This summer, he was so dazzling in venues around the country, from camp to tournament to camp, he zoomed right to the top of the recruiting gurus' charts. Kobe Bryant, the 6-7, do-it-all senior from Lower Merion High, could play in the city next year. Or he could play in just about any big city in America and two in Canada. According to his father, Joe Bryant, the La Salle assistant coach and former La Salle and 76ers player, Kobe is accepting no home visits from college coaches and visiting no college campuses.

Kobe Bryant still isn't revealing his plans, but his father's recent actions strongly suggest that he will declare for the NBA draft by the May 12 deadline. Joe Bryant has spent the last several weeks crisscrossing the country talking to representatives of shoe companies, makers of trading cards, sports agents and NBA front-office types. A book is rumored. Kobe Bryant, of course, is a 17-year-old senior at Lower Merion High and the nation's most decorated high school basketball player.

Kobe Bryant is in town. And the scalpers are asking for $100 per ticket. For a high school basketball game. A high school basketball game! Kobe Bryant is in town. And the autograph seekers are blocking the doorway to the locker room. Three deep, four deep, however many rows deep, Bryant signs for everyone and actually has fun doing it. And opposing fans are ready with the insults. "Overrated, overrated," Erie Cathedral Prep fans chant after Bryant goes scoreless in the first quarter of the state title game.

Kobe Bryant has run around as much off the court this summer as on it. First, the 6-foot-7 Lower Merion star played against some of the best high school basketball players in the nation at the Adidas ABCD Camp in early July in Teaneck, N.J., and earned MVP honors. Then it was off to Las Vegas, where he earned first-team honors at the Adidas Big-Time Tournament in mid-July. Last weekend, Bryant led the Delaware Valley team to a gold medal in the Keystone State Games. He scored a game-high 47 points in the 104-99 victory over Philadelphia for the championship.

In all probability, Kobe Bryant will have made around $3 million playing professional basketball by the time he's 21. (And that doesn't count endorsement income.) At the national median household income of $31,000, you'd have to work 97 years to make that much money. There's much grist for ambivalence in the 17-year-old Lower Merion High School senior's ballyhooed decision to head directly into the National Basketball Association, skipping the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah phase of his hardcourt apprenticeship.

The snow slowed even Kobe Bryant. On Thursday night, Lower Merion High School's gymnasium dedication started about 45 minutes late because the man to whom it was being dedicated was stuck on slippery roads, behind slow-moving traffic. When Bryant finally arrived, it was to the rock-star-worthy shrieks of approximately 4,000 folks - kids, parents, and locals - who seem to consider the Los Angeles Lakers star as the epitome of awesomeness. Bryant's Lakers are in the middle of an Eastern swing that will put them on the Wells Fargo Center court against the 76ers on Friday night.

THE KOBE mess is another case a ballplayer thinking that his name and money could keep his dirty deed out of the papers. Sorry, Kobe. In previous comments, he's stated how happy he is being a husband and father. If that's so, why was he caught with his pants down with someone who was not his wife? Could it be possible he "forgot he was married"? He claims he's innocent of sexual assault, but guilty of adultery. PUH-LEEZE! The only difference is that you can only go to jail for one of them.

The curtain comes down on Lower Merion's season and the high school basketball career of Kobe Bryant tonight. But will Bryant and the Aces be taking a curtain call, or will they be watching Erie Cathedral Prep celebrate after the 8 p.m. Class AAAA final at HersheyPark Arena? Bryant is Southeastern Pennsylvania's all-time leading scorer. He has scored more than 1,000 points this season and has led the Aces to two straight Central League titles and to this year's District 1 championship.

Kobe Bryant's normal life ended yesterday in his suburban high school gym. In front of dozens of television cameras and hundreds of witnesses, the 17-year-old basketball boy wonder announced that he would head straight from the hallways of Lower Merion High to the NBA. Bryant, whom many consider the nation's finest high school player, would be the sixth player in NBA history to make that leap. He wore an elegant double-breasted jacket and tie and spoke with a talk-show host's ease, even hamming for the cameras.

No Big Three meant one big problem for Miami, and one very big win for Indiana. David West scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, George Hill added 15, and the Indiana Pacers took home-court advantage away from Miami by beating the Heat, 78-75, in Game 2 of the teams' Eastern Conference semifinal series Tuesday night in Miami. LeBron James scored 28 points for Miami and Dwyane Wade finished with 24, but both missed big chances for the Heat late. James missed two free throws with 54.3 seconds left and Miami down one, and Wade was short on a layup that would have tied the game with 16 seconds remaining.

Monta Ellis scored 33 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, as the Milwaukee Bucks held off the visiting Atlanta Hawks, 108-101, on Tuesday night. Brandon Jennings added 18 points for the Bucks, who moved to within two games of the idle New York Knicks for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Ellis, who has struggled since coming over in a trade from Golden State, made 15 of 24 shots, including 7 of 9 in the fourth quarter, sealing the victory with a 15-foot jumper with 1 minute, 27 seconds remaining.

THE LAKERS needed a last-minute basket to hold off the visiting Boston Celtics, and Kobe Bryant knew everybody in green would expect him to take the shot. That's why Bryant suggested Andrew Bynum should do it and the All-Star center leaped at the opportunity to seal Los Angeles' latest win in the NBA's most storied rivalry. Bryant scored 10 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter and hit a go-ahead jumper with 41.7 seconds to play, and Bynum's hook shot over Kevin Garnett capped the Lakers' 97-94 victory yesterday.

KOBE BRYANT has a concussion in addition to the broken nose he sustained in the All-Star Game. Bryant saw a neurologist yesterday, and he diagnosed the concussion. The All-Star guard will see Dr. Vern Williams again today; his status for tonight's home game against Minnesota is day-to-day. Bryant was injured during Sunday night's game in Orlando. He was knocked to the floor by Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, who said that he has apologized to Bryant for breaking his nose. The first of those apologies, Wade said, came during the game when he saw Bryant's face had been bloodied.

Ray Allen scored 22 points, Kevin Garnett added 18 and the Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 86-83, on Tuesday night to snap a five-game losing streak. Boston, which couldn't hold a 16-point lead in the first quarter, avoided its first six-game skid since dropping seven in a row from April 4-15, 2007. Kyrie Irving returned from a bruised elbow that sidelined him late in the second quarter and led Cleveland with 24 points, 19 in the second half. Irving hit two free throws with 1:21 remaining to give host Cleveland an 81-80 lead.

The Los Angeles Lakers say Kobe Bryant has a "nasal fracture" after he was hit in the nose by Dwyane Wade during the NBA All-Star Game. The team said on its website Monday that a CT scan revealed the extent of the injury, and the star guard will be reevaluated by John Rehm, an ear, nose and throat specialist when he returns to Los Angeles on Tuesday. Bryant was knocked to the floor by Wade and examined after the Sunday night game in Orlando. Wade, who made no attempt to apologize after the incident, later said he wasn't trying to draw blood, but that Bryant had fouled him twice in a row, "So he's still got one up on me. " Bryant did not speak after the game.

Kobe Bryant understands that a player's NBA clock doesn't run forever, so at the age of 33 and in his 16th NBA season, the former Lower Merion High star seems to be savoring each and every experience. And whether it's achieving a new milestone, returning to Philadelphia, or doing both - as he did Monday night - Bryant doesn't take anything for granted these days. Of course, the main goal of the evening eluded him. The Sixers spoiled Bryant's homecoming by overcoming a seven-point deficit with less than five minutes remaining during Monday night's 95-90 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at the charged-up Wells Fargo Center.

It is time to stop talking about measuring-stick opponents for these 76ers and just enjoy them for what they are: a very good young team with a great coach and a bright future. Are they threats to win the NBA title this year? Probably not, but neither are 80 percent of the teams in the league. Have they earned the right not to have every win graded on a curve determined by subtracting the quality of the opponent and dividing by the impact of the compressed schedule? Yes, and hell yes. It should be enough, on a February Monday, to find the Wells Fargo Center packed with fans, many clad in Lakers gear and many more bellowing "Beat L.A., beat L.A. " as if Iverson or Erving were in the Sixers huddle.

KOBE BRYANT'S was the second name called during the Lakers' starting lineups last night at the Wells Fargo Center, and when the crowd was informed that Bryant attended Lower Merion High School, the only fan base for whom that information is unequivocally meaningful greeted Bryant with a mixture of applause and jeers. Perhaps the cheers came from Lakers fans sprinkled throughout the sold-out arena, and the boos were likely fans who still haven't forgiven Bryant for his cold-blooded proclamation during the 2001 NBA Finals.