Ric Bucher's post on LA Sports | Latest updates on Sulia

Caught up with Kobe Bryant over the weekend and he wanted to clarify his trash-talking to Russ Westbrook and

Kevin Durant during Olympic practices in London: he hopes to kindle in them the competitive spirit -- and jawing -- that his generation had. Same goes for going at Kyrie Irving in a similar manner. As for guarding Russ and being complimentary of his game during Olympic training, he says it wasn't to make RW's head big and foment unrest between KD and Russ (despite what some in OKC think) because he has too much respect for both of them. He still wants to kick their respective asses, but he insists that, in his pursuit of that, he's not quite as devious as some might want to believe.