Kobe Bryant, who questioned coach Mike D’Antoni’s decisions during Game 1 of the Los Angeles Lakers’ series against the San Antonio Spurs, vowed to not use Twitter in tonight’s second game. But teammate Metta World Peace wants him to continue.
“Kobe should tweet for Game 2 the whole time, every possession,” World Peace said after practice Tuesday. “Critique us, criticize us, chew us out. I’ll tweet him back. I’ll direct message him.”
Bryant and World Peace don’t follow one another on Twitter, so they wouldn’t be able to direct message one another. Bryant “unfollowed” all of his teammates in March, tweeting, “not sure why I’m following my teammates when I see them every damn day.”
World Peace only follows four user accounts on Twitter. The Dalai Lama made the cut; the Black Mamba didn’t.
“He’s a great tweeter,” World Peace said of Bryant. “I don’t follow him. I don’t follow Kobe because all I follow is four people. I follow the Dalai Lama and I follow a couple other people. But it’s easy to follow Kobe. Just go online and [search] ‘Kobe Bryant Twitter’ and you’ll see what he says.”
Bryant wrote Monday he would not tweet during Game 2 because, “Focus should be on the team not my insight.”
World Peace was asked if Bryant’s 140-character contributions from were distracting to the team.
“Absolutely not,” World Peace said. “I’m a distraction. I’m much more of a distraction than Kobe.”
Dwight Howard barely seemed to notice Bryant’s tweets.
“I don’t check my Twitter during the game, so I don’t know,” Howard said. “I think we just got to go play. We can’t worry about what anybody is saying. We all understand [Bryant] wants to be here and he wants to be a part of the playoffs, so we wish he was here. We wish he was healthy. Other than that, we just got to go play.
“Our concern is the San Antonio Spurs. We all tweet, so we shouldn’t have to check each other’s Twitter after the game or during the game.”
Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni, who said sarcastically, “It’s great to have that commentary,” when asked about Bryant’s tweeting after Game 1, did not want to delve into the issue again.
“I’m not going there,” he said Tuesday. “It’s different. Tweeting is different. I didn’t grow up tweeting, so I don’t even know. I can’t even comment, because I can’t even tweet. So it’s not up to me to say anything.”
World Peace seemed to get a kick out of what D’Antoni said about the subject Sunday, when the coach characterized Bryant as “a fan” for expressing his opinions about the game through social media while watching it on TV.
“That was funny,” World Peace said. “That was good. I liked that. I read that. I saw that. That was funny. That was a great joke. Mike D’Antoni is slick, boy. That was awesome. … Kobe was awesome tweeting out at coach’s decisions on the court and then coach messaged him back through the media. That was great. It’s all about that. The media has got something to talk about.”
Bryant tweeted that he will join the team at Staples Center for Game 3 on Friday, but will not be able to sit on the bench because he has to keep his left leg elevated as he continues to recovery from Achilles surgery.
World Peace would rather have him out with the team holding a clipboard and diagramming plays.
“He should coach,” World Peace said. “Put a suit and tie on, a bowtie, with the Mamba symbol [on his lapel] and get on the bench and coach. Drag that leg here. I love when Kobe coaches. Kobe’s a great coach, though. Too bad he’s not going to coach when he ends his career. He would be a great coach.”
