EL SEGUNDO -- The next time Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol meet on a basketball court, they'll be on opposing teams at the Summer Olympics.
Bryant has shared with Gasol his thoughts on how it's going to turn out.
"I said, 'Pau, being that we lost this (NBA Finals) series, you (expletives) have no chance at a gold medal,' " Bryant said Thursday. " 'No chance. I ain't going 0 for 2, homie.' "
On the day they, and most of the other Lakers, held their season-ending exit interviews following the six-game loss to Boston in the NBA Finals, Bryant and Gasol looked ahead to playing in Beijing.
The 12-member U.S. team won't be announced until Monday, but it's a pretty safe bet Bryant will be part of it -- putting him and the rest of Team USA on track to meet Gasol's team from Spain on Aug. 16 in the fourth game of pool play in Beijing.
A smiling Gasol said Bryant's comment wasn't anything he hadn't heard before.
"That's been the threat the whole time," Gasol said. "He talks a lot of, you know -- he talks a lot. And that's fine. They have a great team. We know they're going to be the favorite team and the team to beat.
"I think it's a good thing we have them in our group, just because we won't have to face them, no matter what, in the quarterfinals, and that's a big thing, because they're dangerous and they're very powerful. Hopefully we'll meet them down in the end, the final. That would be great."
The U.S. and Spain are part of Group B in the Olympic tournament, along with Angola, the host Chinese team, and two teams to be determined in a qualifying tournament July 14-20 in Athens, Greece.
Coming after a full NBA season, the Olympic tournament will cost both players most of the period of rest and recovery that usually comes during the summer, but neither has any hesitation about participating.
"I'm ready to go," said Bryant. "I'm chomping at the bit. ...
"It's competition at its highest level. You're not representing a particular brand or a state. You're representing your country. You're representing the USA. And to me, that's beyond special. And it's our opportunity to go out and make our country proud."
Then there's the Olympic experience itself.
"You get to see the top athletes in every sport in the world, and they're all in the same village," said Gasol, the leading scorer in the 2004 Olympic tournament, when Spain finished fifth. "I think that's cool. My experience in Athens was fun. It was good to be around that."
Beyond that, he said, "It's special, and you want to represent your country, and you want to get a medal for your country, and your whole country is pulling for you. It's an event that's followed worldwide, and that gives it a special touch, a difference from any other tournament."
For both players, it will make for a summer like no other -- for Bryant, because it will be his first Olympics, and for Gasol, because it follows his longest NBA season ever.
"It's different," said Bryant. "But the formula (for workouts and rest) pretty much stays the same. So it shouldn't be too difficult to figure it out."
That, he said, is why he has trainers he works with in the offseason.
"This is what they do," he said. "I just listen, and do what they say in terms of resting my body and strengthening it, and conditioning. I just listen to them. They're fantastic."
Gasol has a similar support staff, but knows that the summer is "going to be pretty crazy.
"I've never finished the season June 20th," he said. "I've always finished April 15, at the top, May 4th (while with Memphis). The fourth game of the playoffs we were out, the three years that we got there. That in itself is a big difference.
"Then the fact of the Olympics being earlier than other competitions internationally, it also makes it difficult, because it gives you a very short period to recover from our season here. So that's going to be a challenge again."