In Kobe Bryant's initial meeting with Mike Brown, he cautioned the Lakers' newly hired coach "not to pull back," to coach him "like everyone else; otherwise the players will turn on you," he told me during dinner in Los Angeles just before Christmas.
Kobe said he had heard Brown didn't yell at LeBron and acknowledged Phil Jackson didn't yell at him.
"Phil coached everyone different because he's Phil," he added. "His rings gave him license to do that. Pat (Riley) and Pop (Gregg Popovich) also have earned that right; nobody else."