Okay, I don’t “love” Kobe Bryant, but I love his game.
There’s a good article in Sports Illustrated this week that a friend of mine pointed out as evidence that Kobe Bryant is America’s number one douchebag. But I took it a different way. In one instance, he challenged a player on his high school team to one-on-one hoops, first to 100 wins, except Kobe always beat the guy by a score of around 100-10. I look at this as a guy with a pure killer instinct, looking to improve his game, never wanting to back down. Kobe practices and works out more than any player in the league. While he takes a lot of heat for being a dick, he gets little credit for the fact that the guy outworks his teammates. When you’re the hardest working guy out there, don’t you deserve to be somewhat of a knob-gobbler?
There is an excellent quote in the article by Kobe’s high school coach, Gregg Downer, where he explains, “I think Kobe’s actually a little bit embarrassed by his love of basketball. People called [Bryant] a loner, but it’s just that basketball is all he wants to focus on. I think he’s part of a dying breed that loves the game that way.” Kobe is a dick, but it’s all about the game. He’s making all of his teammates stay after practice, he’s waving off picks from Karl Malone so he can go iso against Michael Jordan. He’s a just a hoopy addict, and he’ll never get enough, and a good deal of his passion and frustration with the Lakers in the past can be chalked up to frustration at not being good enough to win.
I think Shaq’s winning of a championship, where he was carried by Dwyane Wade, must have bothered the hell out of Bryant, and I understand it. When you see a low-post giant like Shaq, whose shit-eating antics are beloved by everyone, get all the accolades while the guy who gets up at 5AM to work on his game every day of his life takes second fiddle, it gets to you. And when Wade carried Shaq to that title, it must have propelled someone as driven as Kobe to go apeshit. I don’t blame him for wanting to be traded after last season; his teammates were weak and the Lakers’ management seemed hell-bent on mediocrity.
But Laker GM Mitch Kupchak had one big trick up his sleeve: the monumentally lopsided Pau Gasol trade, which led to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to remark, “There should be a trade committee that can scratch all trades that make no sense. I just wish I had been on a trade committee that oversees NBA trades. I’d like to elect myself to that committee. I would have voted no to the L.A. trade.”
And boom: Kobe’s happy, the Lakers are winning, and they’re in the NBA finals. Watching him this year, there is a completeness to his game that hasn’t been present before. Tonight, in the Lakers’ loss to the Celtics, he was poor from the field, but when he had an open three, he noticed Pau Gasol and dumped into him, where Gasol was fouled. The old Kobe would have taken the 50/50 jumper over the 80/20 Gasol bucket a couple of years ago, but he pulled back and made the unselfish decision. Bryant often appears anonymous during the first quarter of Laker games, yet his teammates get better involved and he takes over in the second half. Kobe Bryant will never score 80 points again, unless the Lakers are a bad team.
Another reason to like Kobe? Screw the haters. They’re more annoying than the guys they hate on, most of the time.
Story and quotes via Chris Ballard, and photo courtesy of Greg Nelson, SI.