OKLAHOMA CITY – They passed in a corridor of the Ford Center, Kevin Durant(notes) and Russell Westbrook(notes) on the way to summer vacation and Kobe Bryant(notes) to the Western Conference semifinals. Bryant reached to hug them and blurted, “You all are two bad mother … . I’m glad I’m done with you.”

Suddenly, those sullen kids brightened and thanked Bryant for the kind compliment and the cutthroat competition.

As much as these young Oklahoma Thunder stars needed to learn the lessons of playing Bryant and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, Durant needed his debut tutorial on playoff perseverance and persistence. For as much as Oklahoma City’s young star needed Bryant to deliver him the right of passage, the oddest thing happened for Bryant. In a way that Kevin Durant needed Kobe Bryant, well, Bryant needed Durant.

One of these days, the Western Conference will belong to the young star, and rest assured the suggestions that Durant threatens to pass him sooner than later haven’t

SAN ANTONIO – The best owner in the NBA rolled back his head, roared with laughter and confessed to the truth: These San Antonio Spurs had never so tested his belief, never so tried his patience. The months and weeks of the season had come and gone, and Gregg Popovich would meet his eyes with such a confounded gaze. Who the hell knows, the looks told the owner. That’s the beauty of the Spurs. They never think they have the answers, but they almost always do.

“It just didn’t jell,” Peter Holt said. “There were a lot of frustrating moments for all of us. We could’ve just fallen apart.”

They’d never had a team so sluggish to come together, never extended so deep into a season when the front office and coaches felt like they were so without an identity. All those doubts, all those second-guesses and yet Holt always held onto that voice in the reaches of his mind that always assured him there would be validation to the vision of Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford.

“I’ve just got a lot

As the Charlotte Bobcats were being swept by the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference playoffs, management abandoned most expectations that Larry Brown will return as coach next season and quietly has begun sorting through candidates to replace him, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Charlotte considers the chances of Brown staying as “minimal at this point,” one league source said. “They’re proceeding like they’ll be looking for a new coach.”

Brown is angling to take the Philadelphia 76ers' presidency, and has targeted Washington Wizards front office executive Milt Newton as his general manager and the Atlanta Hawks’ Mike Woodson as coach, sources said.

As they’ve known for months, Brown wants out and that’s the reason owner Michael Jordan understands there’s no use holding an unhappy Brown to his contract. Jordan has said that he wouldn't keep Brown to his contract based on the coach's expressed desire to be with his family in Philadelphia.

Brown is likely gone, Jordan and GM Rod

LOS ANGELES – The locker-room doors swung open, and Kobe Bryant(notes) marched down the Staples Center corridor wearing big shades and bigger defiance. He ingested the relentless proclamations that his battered body had cut too deeply into his greatness, that his fragile state demanded that for the good of the Los Angeles Lakers' championship chase he turn them over to Pau Gasol(notes) and Andrew Bynum(notes).

Everything balled up inside Bryant and ultimately uncoiled in Game 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.

"After 13 years," Bryant would tell Yahoo! Sports on his walk to the interview room, "you'd think [bleepers] would know better by now."

Know better than to think that they could keep him down in these Western Conference playoffs. Know better than to think that Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant(notes) could strut into Staples Center and beat Bryant in a fourth-quarter shootout. Most of all, they had to know better than to think Bryant wouldn't still dictate the terms

LOS ANGELES – Between the locker room door and Game 2, Kobe Bryant(notes) stopped to share a private lament to the most public issue of his championship chase.

“I can’t stand it,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports. “I really can’t stand it.”

Bryant wasn’t talking about trying to cleanly shoot a basketball with a broken finger, but the incessant questions about how he’s going to do it now. What does he do? Say it’s nothing and ignore the obvious? Or tell the truth and make it sound like an excuse? For everyone else, that taped finger would be an easy out, but Bryant is too ferociously proud to ever make excuses. Every time the questions about that finger come, you can see him stiffen.

“I never [bleeping] do it,” Bryant said inside the Lakers’ practice facility. “That’s why I don’t like talking about it.”

The hardest part for Bryant is that he’s never had to listen to questions about what’s wrong with him, with his shooting. Across the past decade, Bryant’s been basketball’s best player.

LOS ANGELES – The longer Ron Artest(notes) talked, the more the contradictions tumbled out of his mouth. This hadn’t been impressive to him on Sunday. You’re kidding, right? Once, Artest reminded, he had held Latrell Sprewell without a basket. Everyone used to fear Ron-Ron, but there was the NBA suspension, the exile to the Sacramento Kings and it started to feel like the best years of his basketball life had been lost.

No, this was nothing. Nothing at all. Here at Staples Center, Artest sold the climbing inside the body and mind of Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant(notes) as an ordinary course of basketball business for his most extraordinary old self.

"If someone else did that, they'd be happy," Artest insisted. He was talking about Durant's air balls, the flustered forces and misses. "I've been guarding the best player my whole career. … I'm not going to fool myself and think that I did anything special."

Only Artest kept talking, and the question came, "Do you think that this was a

An old playoff bully had delivered everyone a good laugh at the expense of basketball’s most earnest young star. Phil Jackson had baited Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant(notes), eliciting a visceral response while smirking his way to a $35,000 fine. In the immediacy of the moment, those words about preferential referee treatment felt like an insult to an uninitiated 21-year-old.

Kobe Bryant has helped the Lakers repeat twice.
(Getty Images)

Repeat performances

NBA defending champions have won the NBA Finals nine times with a 60-16 series record since the playoff field expanded from 12 to 16 teams.

Season	Champ.	How they fared the next season
		1st round	Conf. semis	Conf. finals	NBA Finals
2007-08	Celtics
2006-07	Spurs
2005-06	Heat
2004-05	Spurs
2003-04	Pistons
2002-03	Spurs
2001-02	Lakers
2000-01	Lakers
1999-00	Lakers
1998-99	Spurs
1997-98	Bulls
1996-97	Bulls
1995-96	Bulls
1994-95	Rockets
1993-94	Rockets

Chicago Bulls executive vice president John Paxson shoved coach Vinny Del Negro twice in the chest and had to be restrained in a postgame confrontation late last month, multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports.

After a loss to the Phoenix Suns on March 30, an irate Paxson walked into the coach’s office at the United Center and confronted Del Negro over a narrow breach of a management-imposed minutes limit on injured forward Joakim Noah(notes). Sources said Paxson first grabbed a hold of Del Negro’s tie and seemingly tried to provoke him with two successive jabs into his chest. Paxson was even heard to angrily challenge Del Negro to a fight.

There were several staff members present, sources said, and assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff stepped between Paxson and Del Negro and pulled Paxson away.

Sources said Del Negro did not retaliate, mostly out of fear the incident could be used to void his contract without pay or hurt future career opportunities elsewhere. The Bulls have dispatched