BEIJING - In China, Kobe Bryant is loved.

In China, Kobe Bryant is greeted with cheers.

In China, Kobe Bryant is a shut-in.

Well, at least for the duration of the USA men’s basketball team’s run at the Beijing Olympics, he is.

“The military won’t let me go out,” Bryant said, talking about the crowds that congregate wherever he goes.

Bryant has been able to attend other Olympic events and visit the athletes’ village but even the few times he has done that have caused some angst for Chinese security worried about crowd control.

“If I go out in public, the military will be more than happy to walk with me and tell me to get my butt back to the hotel,” Bryant said.

No other USA player attracts more people, more cheers - “Kobe-a!” the Chinese call him - or more love than the Los Angeles Lakers star and 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player.

“It’s a little weird when people walk past you and they scream and start crying,” Bryant said. “That freaks you out.”

When the U.S. arrived in Beijing, thousands cheered, climbed fences and attempted to photograph the three-time NBA champion.

When Bryant was introduced before the USA-China game at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium on Aug. 10, the building erupted with nearly as much applause as had greeted Houston Rockets star Yao Ming.

Whenever the U.S. team goes to Beijing Normal University for practice, they’re greeted by hundreds of Chinese pressed up against fences surrounding the entrance to the practice facility.

The U.S. team tried to go to the silk market early last week but didn’t get far before mobs of picture-taking and autograph-seeking fans noticed them.

“We’ve all had some experience with that, Kobe most of all,” USA guard Michael Redd said. “Fans are passionate. We have security with us. At the same time we’re not untouchable. We can move around and shake hands.”

Bryant takes plenty of ribbing as a one-man Jonas Brothers sighting. USA guard Jason Kidd says he hates traveling with Bryant. USA power forward Carlos Boozer said they can’t take Bryant anywhere.

“Yeah they do leave me,” Bryant said. “We go to the village and I look up and they’re nowhere to be found while I’m standing in the middle of a crowd of people.”

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