League Hands Bryant a $5,000 Fine

The NBA had some good news and some bad news for Kobe Bryant.

The good news: He’s the league’s player of the month for December.

The bad news: He owes the league $5,000, his fine for failing to leave the floor fast enough Saturday when he was ejected from the Lakers’ game against the Clippers.

Bryant averaged 32.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists last month, winning the monthly award for the first time. His fine made it two firsts in two days.

“I think it’s a nice award,” said Coach Phil Jackson of the former. “Shaq [O’Neal] won it a couple of times last year. It says something about how people are going to queue up for MVP of the year.”

Said Bryant: “It was a hard month for us [the Lakers went 11-5]. We played so many games. We did a decent job.

“For me, personally, it’s a nice accomplishment to have, but we all know the big . . . accomplishment is coming, winning the championship. That’s a much, much, much larger accomplishment than winning player of the month.”

Bryant on the fine: “There wasn’t much that I did wrong, aside from getting two technicals and getting ejected. There was a timeout on the floor. It wasn’t like the game was continuing on. So it wasn’t like I was holding up the game, I understand. It’s fine.”

Bryant has complained more to referees this season. Jackson, noting that Bryant is among the league leaders in free throws, thinks the officials are basically getting it right, but there’s a good reason for his star’s impatience.

“He gets fouled a lot,” Jackson said. “People are going to keep coming after him. In this game, you don’t get a free shot very often without someone on your arm or someone tapping your elbow or someone on your hip, pushing you off balance. It’s very rare that you get a clean shot, especially when you go one-on-one like he does.”

Oh yes: Jackson thinks Bryant is doing a good job of improving, but the project continues.

“We watched a little tape of the game we played them [Utah] the last time,” Jackson said. “He got the ball taken away right in the clutch. [John] Stockton forced him to go behind his back and he lost the ball and they ran [time] out in a critical situation in the ballgame.

“We didn’t go back and emphasize that [at the time], which is something normally I would have done because I do know it’s registering on him, and he’s much better on that now.”

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Brian Shaw missed the game, flying to Oakland to be with his son, who has been hospitalized because of a bacterial infection.