A Taiwanese aboriginal child places a traditional aboriginal headdress around the head of NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant, yesterday. - Reuters

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP):

NBA STAR Kobe Bryant received a tribal headband from a Taiwanese teenager yesterday, and was told his gift of a basketball court to a mountain village lifted the boy from also-ran to local hero.

Xiao Fen from Wufeng township in the northern county of Hsinchu told Bryant that after the Los Angeles Lakers guard donated the court during his first visit to Taiwan last year, his play had improved significantly.

"I was only averaging about five points a game before the court was built," the junior high school student told Bryant at a Taipei press conference. "But now I'm scoring in double digits."

Bryant donned the headband, a gift emblematic of leadership in his tribe, which is one of 13 recognised aboriginal groups in basketball-crazy Taiwan.

Many young people in the Taiwanese aboriginal community of 450,000 see basketball as an escape from the poverty and isolation that characterise many of their villages.

The game is also popular among the majority population of 22.5 million ethnic Chinese, many of whom follow NBA broadcasts live on local television.

Atthe press conference, Bryant viewed a film about his court, which was constructed from scratch in an abandoned building.

The film showed the '81' figure in the centre of the court, signifying Bryant's highest ever NBA point total.

Bryant, who is on a five-stop Asian tour, said Taiwanese players had to push themselves beyond levels they thought they were capable of achieving if they were to reach the top.

"After that, you open the door to many possibilities," he said.

But Bryant cautioned against taking things too far and foregoing the spirit of the game.

"The important thing is to have a good time," he said.