Kobe mum on LeBron’s demise

Associated Press

Los Angeles

Nike can put those puppets back on the shelf for another summer. Basketball historians anticipating the real-life answers to a delicious theoretical debate must keep waiting.

LeBron is gone, from the playoffs and maybe from Cleveland. James’ long-anticipated NBA finals clash with Kobe Bryant is off again, and it’s now distinctly possible it will never happen.

Yet if Bryant was even slightly disappointed to learn that James won’t be showing up for a possible career-defining showdown, the Lakers star isn’t letting on.

Bryant had almost nothing to say Friday about the Cleveland Cavaliers’ playoff elimination, which ruined the best chance yet for a finals meeting with James.

“I don’t know,” Bryant said when asked what he thought of Boston’s Game 6 victory, before an awkward silence with the phalanx of television cameras and digital recorders pointed at him in a back corner of the Lakers’ training complex.

Surely Bryant realizes the anticipation was extra-high this spring, after the teams finished atop their respective conferences with two of the NBA’s top three records. Nike certainly spent many months hoping for the showcase of two top clients, building that unusual advertising campaign around their puppet replicas.

But while James begins his offseason, Bryant is still standing — albeit on a gimpy ankle — after persevering through an injury-riddled year. The veteran won’t slow down for the Western Conference finals just because King James isn’t waiting on the other side.

The series against the Phoenix Suns begins Monday night in Los Angeles.

“We have a huge challenge on our hands with the things that they run and how they play,” Bryant said. “You have to control the pace and control the turnovers.”

Bryant didn’t practice again, giving him four straight days off the court following the Lakers’ second-round sweep of the Jazz. Bryant needs every possible minute to rest his troublesome ankle, his arthritic finger and a few other maladies that have turned this season into a grind.