LOS ANGELES — It was only a couple of hours before they handed out the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award on Tuesday, but there he was, all by his lonesome at the Lakers' practice gym.
Not another reporter even close.
So naturally I seized the opportunity.
I had Coby all to myself.
That would be Coby Karl, last man in the Los Angeles Lakers' roster, not MVP Kobe Bryant.
Hey, you take your Kobes, er, Cobys where you can get 'em.
When the Jazz and Lakers meet tonight in Game 2 of the playoffs, you probably won't notice Coby Karl. He'll be the guy who doesn't dress. The guy who is is behind Jordan Farmar, behind Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, behind Ira Newbie and behind Chris Mihm.
Behind everyone who is anyone with the Lakers except maybe the guy selling peanuts.
He's not the person Tobey Maguire, Jack Nicholson or Denzel Washington will be talking up before the game.
Rather, he's the quintessential happy-to-be-here role player.
"I'm fine with that," said Karl, after Tuesday's practice.
"I'm fine with who I am."
For those not entirely up to speed on Karl, he's the son of Denver Nuggets' coach George Karl. He grew up in various cities, thanks to his father's career. Born in Great Falls, Mont., where his dad directed the local CBA team, he attended high school in Milwaukee and played college basketball at Boise State. Although he was never a Kobe-type superstar, he was the son of an NBA coach, which brought its own challenges.
"Being the coach's kid was always a stigma for me," he said.
He always had to prove he had earned his own spot in the lineup.
Teammates don't tease him about being the "other Kobe," he said, but rather "they give me a bad time about my father. But that's died down pretty much."
Particularly since the Lakers ousted the senior Karl's Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
Coby Karl is no stranger to NBA locker rooms. His father has been head coach at Cleveland, Golden State, Seattle, Milwaukee and Denver.
"I think I'm more in awe because I've been around it and it's weird to me to actually be part of it," said the younger Karl.
During a college career that included second-team all-WAC honors, he suffered thyroid cancer and had two surgeries for the condition. He still takes a daily pill to compensate for the loss of his thyroid, and he gets checked regularly.
A 6-foot-5 guard, he went undrafted last summer but in November was assigned to the Lakers' developmental league team, the Los Angeles D-Fenders. He became one of only two people in history to play in both NBA and D-League games on the same day, logging 15 points, five rebounds and six assists for the D-Fenders and following with five points and an assist for the Lakers later that night.
He has played a total of 71 minutes in the NBA and scored 30 points.
Still, being the last man on the roster isn't something he disdains.
"I've been around some great 15th men — David Wingate, Steve Scheffler ... Michael Redd was 15th man for a while in Milwaukee ... Jason Hart. I watched those guys ... Rafer Alston in Milwaukee. Those are the kind of guys I remember came to work every day."
Some of them moving on to become starters and even stars.
Being No. 15 has its advantages. He can still go shopping without being mobbed, though he says just being with the Lakers has "given me a little taste" of what celebrity is like.
He calls the fuss surrounding teammate Bryant "the madness" and adds, "He can't go anywhere. He goes somewhere, he has to see if the security is OK. It's crazy."
As for the Jazz, he has lasting memories of the Stockton-Malone days, claiming they were the Sonics' nemesis.
"They were kind of like the Pistons were to the Bulls before Chicago broke through," he said.
In the mid-'90s, when he was a teenager, he would sometimes travel with family to games.
"But my parents didn't want me to go to Utah because the fans were so brutal," he said. "It's a tough crowd to be around."
A crowd that's probably going to harass any old Coby, or Kobe, who comes along.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com