Morrison seeks return to relevance

Adam Morrison remembers being matched up against Kobe Bryant in one of his first practices with the Los Angeles Lakers. Coach Phil Jackson was trying to get a sense of what the new arrival was made of, less than three years after Michael Jordan had made him the third overall pick of the 2006 NBA draft for the Charlotte Bobcats.

The results were as lopsided as one would expect. "He was killing me," Morrison said.

But Bryant didn't just welcome Morrison to the Lakers with a barrage of post-up moves, pull-up jumpers and fadeaways. Bryant saved his best work for the locker room after practice, when he posed a question to Morrison.

"He said, 'Can you guard me without S.O.S. on the back of your jersey?' " Morrison said, adding that Bryant never let up with the trash talk during his time in Los Angeles. "Some of the stuff I can't repeat."

Morrison said being around the Lakers, and Bryant specifically, the past few seasons helped him become a better player and gain an understanding of what it takes to improve individually and accomplish the ultimate team goal. Morrison left Los Angeles with two championships, but the 26-year-old also acknowledges that most of his time in Los Angeles was spent as a spectator in a sport coat.

"I didn't get on the court - at all," said Morrison, who appeared in just 83 games the past two seasons in Charlotte and Los Angeles. "I always tell people I was a fan with an all-access pass, pretty much, and I got a check every week. I felt part of the team but, being the draft pick that I was, I got a lot of flak for not playing. People don't understand - it was a very good team. Wasn't like I was playing somewhere that wasn't good."