Bewerbungen » ve a chance to win a Super Bowl.

LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant isnt sure hell be ready to play when the Los Angeles Lakers open the season on Oct. 29, although he remains ahead of schedule in rehabbing his surgically repaired Achilles tendon. Bryant turns 35 next week and he vowed that his 17-year career is "definitely not over." "I just want that jewelry," he said, referring to the possibility of claiming his sixth NBA championship. "People just dont understand how obsessed I am with winning." Bryant made his comments to late night host Jimmy Kimmel during "Kobe Up Close," a one-on-one conversation with the NBA superstar on Thursday night at Nokia Theatre across from Staples Center. He had a one-word answer when Kimmel asked whether he would finish his career with the only team hes ever played for: "Yeah," Bryant replied. The 7,100-seat venue was full of Bryants fans that cheered, jeered and interrupted freely during the one-hour program. Ticket proceeds benefited the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation, which works to help end homelessness. In keeping with the reason for the event, Kimmel asked, "If there was only one homeless person in the world, would you be happy if it was Dwight Howard?" The audience roared, mere weeks removed from Howards decision to leave the Lakers for Houston after one season. "Dwight is a great kid," Bryant said, nearly drowned out by boos. "We have different perspectives on what it takes to win." Kimmel kept the questions light while touching on a variety of topics well known to Bryants most ardent fans. Bryant recalled that before he was drafted in 1996 by Charlotte and then traded to the Lakers, he worked out for Boston and the Clippers. "I had a really fun and good workout with the Clippers," he said. "They told me, This is the best workout weve ever seen." But he said the team told him it wouldnt be drafting him out of high school. "We want to turn things around with our organization and we felt like if we drafted a 17-year-old kid, the city of L.A. wouldnt take us seriously," Bryant said the Clippers told him. Kimmel retorted, "They always make the best decisions." Bryant said Chris Paul should have ended up with the Lakers instead of the Clippers. The NBA office, which owned New Orleans at the time, decided against a deal team officials had agreed to with the Lakers. "Chris called me and told me it was a done deal," Bryant said. "Then he calls me back 30 minutes later and says, You wont believe it. David Stern killed the deal." Before Bryant jumped directly from high school to the pros, he said he was recruited by Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and West Point. The military academy sent him his first college letter. If he had gone to college, Bryant said he likely wouldve chosen North Carolina because Vince Carter had gone to Chapel Hill the previous year, and Bryant would have wanted to compete with him at practice every day. As a teenager with a lucrative NBA contract, Bryant said he wasnt interested in big expenditures. "The game consumed me," he said. Bryant recalled his first meeting with Shaquille ONeal over dinner at a Beverly Hills restaurant. "I thought it was the coolest thing in the world that he had a cellphone that was the biggest in the world," he said. Together, they won three consecutive NBA titles from 2000-02. But they eventually fell out and ONeal was traded after the Lakers lost in the 2004 finals. "It was a tough period. He and I just werent going to play together anymore," Bryant said. "I had to prove I could win without him." It would take a while, though. Bryant and the Lakers didnt capture another NBA title until they won two straight in 2009 and 2010. Bryant credited Michael Jordan for giving him "phenomenal advice" on how to elevate his teammates. "My demeanour and my temper probably calmed down a little bit," he said. "I go into games today looking at what are my guys going through, who is struggling, what can I do to help." Among the famous faces in the audience were Lakers owners Jeanie and Jim Buss, general manager Mitch Kupchak, Hall of Fame baseball player Dave Winfield and former NFL receiver Terrell Owens. Jeanie Buss was visibly touched when Bryant spoke about why so many Lakers players loved her late father, Jerry. "He knew exactly what his vision was," Bryant said. "He was very patient, he was very understanding. He allowed me room to grow as a person." Bryant said his daughters, ages 10 and 7, are playing sports, although he didnt specify which ones. He described them as "insanely, insanely competitive." Air Jordan 1 Australia Online . Heck, we might just miss the BCS. Maybe? It sort of worked out this season. Top-ranked Florida State (13-0) was the only team to get through the regular season unbeaten, and the Seminoles did it in dominating fashion. Air Jordan 1 Australia . A night later, he was back to help lead a rout of the Detroit Pistons. John Wall had 20 points and 11 assists, and Beal scored 10 of his 15 points during the second quarter as Washington pulled away for a 106-82 victory on Saturday. http://www.airjordan1australia.com/ . -- Former NHL star Jeremy Roenick shot a second-round 69 to take the lead after 36 holes and former LPGA great Annika Sorenstam and Chad Pfeifer, who lost his left leg above the knee serving in Iraq, are among several players in contention in the American Century Championship tournament on Saturday. Buy Air Jordan 1 Australia . 42 sitting next to the bench. The 57-year-old with greying hair couldnt box out or grab a rebound, but owner Ted Leonsis waved his red towel and egged on a cheering crowd that chanted "Free Nene!" The Wizards did just fine without the suspended Brazilian forward. Air Jordan 1 Retro Australia . - Andrew McCutchen went 4 for 5 and finished a home run short of a cycle, and Jordy Mercer drove in a career-high four runs to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to an 8-2 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.NEW YORK, N.Y. - NHL general managers made some progress toward implementing a coachs challenge system, but could not finalize plans to do so at their annual Stanley Cup final meeting. At this point the issue is trying to define what cases would be subject to challenges and how the process would work. Because of that, GMs sounded optimistic something would be agreed on, but there was no certainty about whether it would start next season or in 2015-16. "It would be related to a coachs challenge and so instead of jumping right into it, maybe everybody understands when the coaches are going to challenge," Jim Rutherford of the Pittsburgh Penguins said. "So maybe just try it internally for a year. These are real tough changes so you want to get it right." Coachs challenges and the possibility of expanded video review dominated Wednesdays meeting several blocks from Madison Square Garden on the day of Game 4 of the Cup final. One thing that seemed clear was that goaltender interference would not be part of any such changes because theres so much room for interpretation. "I think Commissioner (Gary) Bettman says it best: You want certainty, you want black-and-white where we can say, This is it and, This is not it," Don Maloney of the Phoenix Coyotes said. "Goals going over the line, thats certainty, black-and-white. When you start talking about goalie interference for example, now you start talking about judgment calls. ... Thats when it gets grey." What coaches might be able to challenge includes goals scored on plays that shouldve been offside, the puck hitting the protective netting, the wrong player getting penalized and the puck going over the glass for a penalty. Rutherford stressed that coachs challenges wont be there next season, while Maloney said he wasnt quite sure if it was too late for that possibility. That just added to the lack of clarity ouut of Wednesdays meeting.dddddddddddd Discussions also centred on cracking down on embellishment, and changing the draft lottery for 2015-16 and beyond to be more like the NBAs that allows the first three picks to be attainable. Any draft-lottery changes would not go into effect until 2016, leaving the much-anticipated Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel 2015 event subject to the same system there is now. GMs gave their approval on those competition committee recommendations, including allowing a more liberal definition of kicked-in goals, expanding the trapezoid, doing a dry scrape of the ice and changing ends before overtime, and making some faceoff changes. Consensus wasnt so clear on expanded video review out of Torontos situation room or coachs challenges. One problem is the possibility of delaying games, which Major League Baseball is dealing with in its first season with replay beyond home runs. "We dont want games to be 3 hours long, 3 1/2 hours long," Maloney said. "I find myself going to football games with the stoppages there, I really cant stand it." One thing GMs did seem to agree on is the desire to have more correct calls. "Thats all were concerned about: making sure we get it right," Dale Tallon of the Florida Panthers said. "And then if we do further reviews, weve got to make sure that when we do the reviews, its black and white. Theres still a lot of grey areas in all of this stuff." The discussion will continue. The NHLs board of governors convenes later in June and must approve any changes along with the NHLPA executive committee. "Were on the right track. We just have to make sure what were doing is giving us the results we expect," Maloney said. "The coachs challenge, expanding video replay — those are the big topics right now and were still searching for ways to help the game, not hurt it." ' ' '