Paul Coro

The Republic | azcentral.com

Kobe Bryant did not like the Suns. He said as much with words and actions in 2012 after a 48-point game to beat them.

Kobe Bryant liked the Suns. After eliminating his Los Angeles Lakers in the 2006 and 2007 playoffs, the Suns were on his short list for cities where he would accept a trade.

Bryant’s love/hate relationship with the Suns ends on Wednesday night, when he makes a final appearance in Phoenix with his 20-year Lakers career four weeks from the finish line.

Bryant has felt at home on many Phoenix visits with massive throngs of Lakers fans, a triple-double, five 40-point games and a 2010 conference finals game in which he advanced the Lakers with 37 points on an artistic array of clutch shots.

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Bryant has been made to feel unwelcome in Phoenix, whether it was Raja Bell’s 2006 playoffs clothesline takedown, first-round playoff exits or an 18-23 record over the course of three name changes at the Purple Palace.

Bryant thrived off the relationship, using Steve Nash’s back-to-back MVPs for motivation, boos to draw smiles and brushes of his shoulder and a 2005-10 Suns era of success to push his game.

It began simply with a scoreless, five-minute appearance in Phoenix on Christmas Day 1996 and will conclude with Bryant’s 87th regular-season or playoff game in Phoenix on a night when a meeting of bottom-three teams is the undercard to Bryant's first Phoenix appearance since the 2014-15 season opener.

Bryant, 37, has missed 16 games this season but has not skipped a chance to say goodbye, especially to a team against whom he's scored more of his points than 24 other teams.

A sold-out crowd will applaud/boo/respect the 18-time All-Star and five-time champion but it might be even more special for Suns with a connection to Bryant.

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The fan

Suns rookie Devin Booker was four days old when Bryant made his debut for the Lakers at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., in 1996.

He is living some of the same life now. He was drafted 13th overall, like Bryant. He made his debut as the NBA’s youngest player at 18, like Bryant. It is all mind-boggling for Booker after growing up wanting to be like Bryant.

Booker called out “Kobe!” while throwing up fadeaways on his home court as a kid. He can do so on his new home court in Phoenix, where they will be opposing starters.

“I don’t care if it’s five minutes,” Booker said. “I just want to be on the floor with him.”

Booker actually wants an entire day to visit with him. He will at least get some time. When the Suns played the Lakers on Friday in Los Angeles, Bryant agreed to Suns interim head coach Earl Watson's request for Bryant to speak privately with Booker on Wednesday.

“Best player of my generation,” Booker said. “My dad always talks about Michael Jordan. I talk about Kobe Bryant. He means a lot to us.”

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Booker has much to model after Bryant for being NBA teenagers at off-guard. Booker goes beyond that, studying vintage Bryant video and using Bryant's work ethic as a template.

“Just never settle,” Booker said. “Can’t get complacent through success or failure. If everything is going good, you still have to work like everything’s going bad. And if everything is going bad, you still got to work like good things are happening."

Booker’s rookie play already has put him in the same conversation as greats such as Bryant at times. Only three players in NBA history have posted more games of 15 points or more (Booker has 26) at Booker’s age: LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Bryant.

Watson has talked to Booker about envisioning an ending to his career like Bryant is enjoying this season. He has put Booker in clutch situations with the challenge of finishing like Bryant. He also sees some of Bryant’s bravado in Booker.

“I always tell our coaches, ‘If he talks at 19, what are we going to tell him when he’s 26?’ " Watson said. “He’s going to talk so bad to opposing teams, like Michael Jordan legendary conversations and Kobe.”

The college kid

In the summer before his freshman year at UCLA in 1997, Watson and roommate Baron Davis had daily encounters in Westwood with another teenager who could have passed for a college student had he not been coming off his Lakers rookie season.

Watson and Davis walked cross-campus to a freshman-orientation program each day. On the first day, they saw Bryant heading for the John Wooden Center, a campus gym, before 8 a.m.

“What’s up Kob? What’s up Kob?” Watson and Davis yelled out.

“He would talk to us for a second and then we’d run to class,” Watson said. “We were obviously always late. We get out of class about 1:15. We get to the Wooden Center to go back there to change because everyone knows there were legendary games there at 3 o’clock. Three courts of pros. It was amazing.

“About 1:30, we saw Kobe just leaving the gym. We said, ‘Kob, have you been here all day?’ He said, ‘Yeah, all day.’ We said, ‘Kob, you playing at 3?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be here at 3.’ So that was his extreme workout. He came and dominated the games at 3. Kobe set the tone for Baron and I to work hard and stay focused and be an extreme addict to the game. Everyone has an addiction. The game of basketball is his addiction and it became ours.”

The teammate

Ronnie Price had been in the NBA for nine years and heard all the stories of Bryant’s intense dedication and competitiveness before he became his teammate.

It was all confirmed last season, when Bryant came off a fractured knee at age 36 on a bad Lakers team.

“What’s real is that he is who people say he is,” Price said. “He’s dedicated to the game at a level that no one else is dedicated to. All he thinks about is basketball. He bleeds basketball. He has a true love and passion for the game.

“I gained another level of respect for him from the type of person he was and his true dedication to basketball was second to none. He is the greatest player of our era. To see his work ethic is crazy. At that age, all the injuries he was suffering and battling back from, it was crazy to see him practice let alone play in the games.”

Price is eager to be on the other side of him, just as he was last season when two intense practice personalities collided.

“I still have six fouls waiting on him,” Price said.

Price faced Bryant in the glory years but practiced against a man fighting time and health last season.

“He didn’t have to be that way but that’s how much love he had for the game,” Price said. “If you saw him bringing it the days he could practice, it made you seem like a fool if you didn’t try to match it.”

The defender

Suns forward P.J. Tucker and Bryant are less than seven years apart in age but that does not stop Tucker from considering Bryant to be his favorite player.

Over the past four seasons, Bryant became Tucker's favorite player to defend.

“I grew up on Kobe,” Tucker said. “He was my favorite player growing up. I really idolize him. Over the years, just being able to play against him, really study him and compete against him has been second to none.”

Bryant has the third-most points in NBA history but Tucker admires other facets. The shoe fanatic has worn 11 versions of Bryant's Nike line. The Suns' brashest talker appreciates Bryant's unique court talk.

“He asks you questions about why did you do this or that,” Tucker said. “It’s crazy. If you do something well, he’ll tell you why you do it. It’s unbelievable. It’s all drill work for him. Just crazy.”

Reach Paul Coro atpaul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him at www.twitter.com/paulcoro.

Wednesday’s game

Lakers at Suns

When: 7 p.m.

Where: Talking Stick Resort Arena

TV/radio: FSAZ/KMVP-FM (98.7).

Lakers update: Los Angeles (15-55) is the only team besides Philadelphia with a worse record than the Suns (19-51) this season. Entering Tuesday night's 107-100 home win against Memphis, the Lakers had the lowest field-goal percentage in the NBA (41.0) and the second-highest opponent field-goal percentage (47.0). The Lakers have lost two of three meetings with the Suns this season, including a 95-90 Suns win in Los Angeles on Friday. Lakers sixth man Lou Williams has three 30-point games this season, including two against Phoenix. Kobe Bryant returned to action from a two-game absence Tuesday night, getting 17 of his 20 points in the second half. He played 30 minutes and made seven of 18 shots from the field.