Doyel: Fans enjoy 105 seconds of vintage Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant didn’t know which version would show up Monday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Good Kobe, or bad? Young(ish) Kobe, or old?

S--- Kobe? Or shinola Kobe?

Excuse the language, but those were his words two hours before tipoff. He was meeting the media, as he does in every city of his farewell tour after 20 seasons, five NBA championships and two scoring titles. He was answering questions before the game, so I asked him this one:

You’ve had a run of good games recently. Did you have any idea those would happen?

“Nope,” he said, smiling.

So, tonight. No clue which Kobe shows up?

“Nope,” he said, smiling some more. “Either s--- or shinola, man.”

Is either one good?

“One’s better than the other,” he said.

The game started. And Kobe was ... the other.

Pacers play villain in Kobe's last game in Indy

He missed his first four shots. He made his fifth on a breakaway, but wow. He jumped off two feet and almost missed. No dunk. Not enough elevation. The ball bumped the front of the rim and crept over for two points. On his way back for defense, Kobe smiled sheepishly at the Lakers bench.

Then came an air ball on a vintage Kobe Bryant shot. Posts up Glenn Robinson 15 feet away, backs him down to 12 feet, fades away. Nothing but … nothing. Then another air ball. A 3-pointer this time.

Kobe started passing the ball. In the second row, Sam Crowley of Cincinnati was yelling at him: “Nobody came here to see you pass!”

On the court, Kobe was answering.

“I can’t shoot it 40 times every night,” he said.

Yes you can, Crowley told him.

Said Kobe: “Ain’t gonna happen tonight, buddy.”

Nope, not when Kobe was more s--- than shinola, whatever shinola is. An internet search tells me shinola is shoe polish. Something that gets smeared on top of the shoe — not on the bottom. Ahem.

Kobe was bad — he was 2-for-16 midway through the fourth quarter — and then he was spectacular. It started with 4:15 left, Lakers down 77-71, and Kobe grabbing his own rebound and scoring.

Then came a 3-pointer. And another. And another. Kobe Bryant had scored 11 straight points in less than two minutes, the Lakers led 82-79, and the crowd was screaming:

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe …

This wasn’t just fans in Kobe jerseys, though they were everywhere. Christian Barth of Zionsville, who turned 10 on Sunday, wore a No. 24 Kobe jersey. Jarrod Haskins of Louisville, 27, wore a No. 10 Kobe jersey from the U.S. Olympic team. And then there were the Lazzara kids from Chicago, a 13-month-old girl named Gianna in a tiny No. 24 jersey and her 6-year-old brother wearing a No. 24 Kobe jersey and a No. 8 Kobe hat. The brother’s name is Kobe. Well, that’s what his sign was saying, a sign he raised in a plea to meet his favorite player:

Kobe, meet Kobe.

I asked the kid’s dad, Joe Lazzara: Is your son really named Kobe?

“He is,” Joe said. “Look.”

Lazzara rolled up his right sleeve to reveal the tattoos there: Gianna Lee, said one. Kobe Benjamin, said the other.

So anyway, the chant.

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe …

Now the Pacers were losing 84-80 and trying to play spoilers in their own building. After sleepwalking for so long, Paul George woke up. Fouled on a 3-point attempt, he hit all three free throws with 1:11 left. Then he attacked the rim for a 3-point play. Pacers led 86-84.

At the other end, young Kobe was gone. Old Kobe missed a 27-foot heat check, then another shot, then another. Monta Ellis hit two free throws for an 88-84 lead, Kobe missed again, and it was over.

"Made a shot," Kobe would say later, "and then couldn’t make s---. Pulled a rabbit out of the hat, and then the rabbit disappeared."

Bryant was removed with 10.8 seconds left and the Pacers ahead 89-84. Kobe waved to the crowd, tapped his chest, clapped for Indianapolis. In return he received a standing ovation and a chant for the road:

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe …

"They’ve always been pretty tough on me here," he said. "Tonight at the end to get a thank you chant from them, it was pretty special."

A 3 at the buzzer by Los Angeles’ Julius Randle made the final 89-87, a Pacers victory on a night the most popular player in the building played for the other team. Kobe Bryant didn’t play well — he was 6-for-25 from the floor — but he had those 105 seconds when he scored 11 points and the crowd was screaming and front-running ex-Pacers head case Roy Hibbert was nodding his head to the chant: Kobe, Kobe, Kobe.

Hibbert was sitting out this game, his first DNP of the season, with a sore ankle. But in the fourth quarter as Kobe was heating up, Hibbert was standing and dancing and being yelled at from a guy in the third row.

“Siddown, Roy — we’re trying to see the goat!”

As in, G.O.A.T. Greatest of all time. Kobe Bryant, in other words. Just not on this night. Well, not for most of it. For most of it, he was the Kobe that Pacers coach Frank Vogel wanted to see.

“I hope he goes 1-for-15,” Vogel was telling me before the game.

He almost did. With 10 seconds left in the third quarter and the Pacers leading 64-59, Kobe had the ball on the wing, just him and George Hill. Kobe was dribbling, stalling. The crowd was standing, screaming.

Kobe was rising, firing. The horn was sounding. The shot was clanking. It was his 14th shot. It was his 12th miss. He would get hot later, but even with that brief stretch from yesteryear he was 6-for-25 Kobe, which means he was old Kobe, bad Kobe, the other Kobe.

After missing that shot at the third quarter buzzer, Kobe walked back to the Lakers bench. He said a word. I read his lips, and I can tell you this:

He didn’t say shinola.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.