[mary]

"Very surprised. Shocked, actually. Very, very surprised," Bryant said after practice Friday. "Angry and frustrated. I've been hit with a couple of flagrant fouls already this year. I've been hit with a clothesline and no suspensions come of that. And I get two games for this?"

Bryant said his postgame comments were "no different than what everybody else says."

"Somebody comes down the lane, you've got to hit him," he said Friday. "You can't let them come down the lane and just finger roll and get easy baskets. Nothing to hurt anybody like that. That's just basic NBA basketball."

Bryant also said he didn't think the elbow from Miller was intentional.

"You look at the replay, my face was nowhere near him," Bryant said. "My face was nowhere near his arm.

"I wish I could go back in time and take that foul back knowing what I know now, getting two games for it. But no way in my mind did I think it was going to be a suspension for something like that. No way."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he thought Bryant's postgame comments were a factor in the suspension.

"I think that contributed to it somewhat," Jackson said. "So we live with that decision."

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak took issue with the suspension.

"We understand that the league has a job to do in enforcing disciplinary action, but we disagree with and are disappointed with their ruling," Kupchak said in a statement.


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2275494

Do you get the feeling that Kobe believes he is "above the law" so to speak, or maybe he just possesses a gargantuan sense of entitlement and self-importance.. Hmmmm...I wonder if that has manifested itself before. Duh..........