2008 Woodie Awards
The Way It Is
Explaining Kobe's Glory
Issue date: 2/8/06 Section: Opinion
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Guest Writer
Kobe Bryant is good. Kobe Bryant is real good. No one disputes either of these two statements, but the question remains "Just how good is Kobe Bryant?"
In an era where the National Basketball Association is desperate to find the second coming of Jordan, Magic, or Bird, Kobe Bryant continues to glide smoothly into the limelight (normally of a high screen) and calmly proclaim "I've got it from here fellas."
However, many critics and fans refuse to pass the superstar ball to Bryant, too selfish, too cold, then there was that business in Colorado a few years ago that made him the poster child for the NBA's new bad boy repertoire. Even after the charges were drooped and the case tossed, Kobe was still labeled as Kobe the adulterer, Kobe the liar, he held the fragile trust of the national media and lost it one lonely night in Eagle, Colorado.
So who is Kobe Bryant? Do we trust him to guide our generation's National Basketball Association the way the greats have led in the past? Is Kobe following Michael Jordan's footsteps or stumbling over them?
Kobe's talent is undeniable. He has three championship rings, a scoring title, and is possibly on the hottest streak of his career.
Kobe is racing into February coming out of a monstrous January in which he averaged 43.4 points a game. Then there was that cold night in Los Angeles when the Raptors were in town. Kobe dropped 81 points, the second highest single game total in NBA history, and a jailhouse beating of Toronto 122-104.
After a game in which Kobe outscored the Raptors in the second half by himself (55-41), Kobe downplayed the game saying, "I'm kind of embarrassed actually, I'd rather score 25 points and have 10 assists and have everyone in the flow of the game.
"Embarrassed?" Embarrassed that you scored 81 on a lethargic Canadian defensive squad, or embarrassed about only having two assists in the same game?
Bryant's performance was only second to Wilt Chamberlin's 100-point game of which Kobe said, "That's not me, I'm not Wilt, I'm not even thinking about the record." Once again Kobe is saying all the right things but is anybody listening?
Kobe's record is unmistakable. He will forever be remembered as the player who ran Shaquille O'Neal out of Los Angeles, the player Coach Phil Jackson said he could not be coached, the player who took the blame for the dismantling of a Lakers team that went to four NBA finals in six years.
The Lakers are Kobe's team, gone are the days of Shaq, Gary Payton, or Robert Horry. They have been replaced by role players such as Luke Walton, Lamar Odom, and Smush Parker. Yet as much as everyone wants Kobe to fail, he continues to keep the Lakers treading water at a respectable 24-21, almost to the all-star break. If the playoffs are in the Laker's future, they will most likely be the NBA versus the Los Angeles Kobe's.