Why Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s real “King.”
by Bryan Crawford / @_BryanCrawford
I can’t count how many times I’ve been called a “Kobe Lover.”
In fact, the actual number of times would probably be considered ridiculous if there were a way to count them all up.
What’s funny is that for the people who’ve given me that label as a diss–a diss that I’ll gladly accept anytime–what they don’t know is that for a long time, I wasn’t a big Kobe Bryant fan. I liked him when he was at Lower Marion and when he got drafted in 1996 I think I may have been a fan for maybe his rookie season, but that was it. After that, I became very critical of him and stopped liking him for a very long time.
I can’t exactly remember when it all changed and I became one of the biggest Kobe Bryant fans outside of Los Angeles, but knowing me, at some point I came to the realization that this guy was the second best player to ever play the game and hating on him would only make me look stupid in the long run. By the way, we all know who the first is. The guy that people say Kobe’s been a clone of since day one, Michael Jordan.
That’s actually one of the reasons why people–myself included at one point–tend to dislike Kobe. The other reason has something to do with that thing that “allegedly” happened in Colorado that one time; emphasis on allegedly. But I’m not going to get into a moral discussion here because I don’t care about any of that stuff. I’m a basketball head to the bone, so the non-basketball things doesn’t matter to me anymore.
Unlike a lot of people, I’ve learned that in order to truly appreciate Kobe, you must use a filter. You have to filter the MJ copycat stuff out, his perceived arrogance, and the incident in Eagle, CO. Once you’re able to get rid of all of the things that are inconsequential and focus strictly on the basketball aspects, it makes it that much easier to see and accept the fact that Kobe Bryant is a bad mother…excuse me. But you get my point.
So I’ve come to the conclusion that hating on Kobe makes you a hater of the highest order. It puts you right up there in Silky Johnston’s HHOF (Haters Hall of Fame). Even worse, from here on out, any hating on him shall be cause for openly questioning one’s knowledge of basketball. Yeah, it’s that serious because realistically speaking, when it comes to this game, Kobe Bryant is hater proof. For real.
Beginning Thursday, he’ll be competing for his fifth NBA Championship. If he wins, he’ll have the most championships of any active player making him tops amongst his peers, if he even has any of those anymore. He’ll also be playing in his third straight NBA Finals series. That’s right, three in a row. That hasn’t been done since Shaquille O’Neal was playing in La La Land. Remember when all of the talk was that Kobe couldn’t win without the “Big Everything”? Well, you can throw that right out the window. Whether he wins or loses this series, Kobe’s proven that he doesn’t need Shaq. And Shaq’s proven that he’s old.
Kobe’s life mission as it pertains to basketball is to be the greatest ever. Not just in word, but in deed. He’s chasing the greatest player we’ve ever seen in the modern era in Michael Jordan (nothing wrong with that), and it’s scary to think that had things unfolded a different way, he might already be there. Think about it for a second.
This is Kobe’s seventh NBA Finals, the most among any other active players and one more than Jordan played in. Had he not lost to the Pistons in ’04 and to the Celtics in ’08, he could be tied with MJ right now and looking to surpass him in about a week or so. I know what you’re thinking, ‘Well, if MJ hadn’t left to play baseball, he’d have won eight titles’. To that I say, you’re probably right. But either way you look at it, actual or hypothetical, like it or not, Kobe is right on MJ’s heels and he got there by setting a goal and doing whatever it took to achieve it. He’s the epitome of what it means to “aim high.” He doesn’t care about anything else, only his legacy and his place in this game and I hold the utmost respect for him because of the work that I know he’s put in over the years to get where he is today.
Whether you choose to accept it or not, he’s the person that today’s players judge themselves agains. Kobe is the player that everyone is trying to be better than now. Not MJ.
And should he one day pass Michael Jordan in the championship category, Kobe will still never be as loved and revered as Jordan was (and still is). Actually, it may even make him that much more hated by the masses. The love and admiration that is typically reserved for those who win has for whatever reason gone to LeBron James who hasn’t won anything, but real hoop heads know what’s up when it comes to KB24. He is “That man.”
So even if you don’t like him as a person, don’t let that blind you and keep you from admitting that Kobe Bryant is probably your favorite player’s favorite player. Don’t let it keep you from acknowledging his greatness. Don’t let it keep you from admitting that he’s the best basketball player in the NBA. There’s a big difference between being the best basketball player and the best “athlete” and once you can differentiate between the two, it might change the way you view things.
Kobe Bryant works harder at his craft than probably 99.9 percent of the entire League. He leaves nothing to chance and the results speak for themselves. We’re supposed to honor those who show a commitment to focus, greatness, excellence and hard work, not hate on them. He doesn’t deserve that.
I’m not writing this to try and change anyone’s mind because it’s futile. It seems that once someone has decided to hate on Kobe, that’s it. There’s no going back for them. They’ve drank the Kool-Aid that says that winning is unimportant and a player’s greatness is determined by Sportscenter highlights and shoe commercials and not on anything tangible like Larry O’Brien trophies, championship rings and banners. The haters may not want to admit it, but with a straight face they can’t say that 
Kobe Bryant sucks at playing basketball. So why even bother?
Still, to the Kobe haters, hate if you must. But know that if you do, when it comes to a debate about his greatness and his place among the best ever to play this game, you’re going to lose that argument every single time. His body of work speaks for itself and one thing has nothing to do with the other anyway.
Kobe Bryant is the best.
Period.
End of discussion.
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tries to snitch Shaq to the po po after cheating
on his wife, quits on his team to teach em a lesson,
and generally acts like the lil’ biotch he is. F him. Give me Oscar. Give me Magic. Give me Jordan.
Give me Lebron. Please give me anyone other than
that lower-jaw stickin’ out self-absorbed A-Hole. Please.
I hope that Lebron (mid range) and Dwight (postmoves) dedicate themselves to developing their games as much as he did..
It goes Jordan, Magic, Kareem, Chamberlain, Russel, Bird… Kobe ain’t better than any of those guys. It ain’t even that CLOSE.
We talking about winning above anything else? Then you gotta put Russel and Kareem ahead of Kobe. You got no choice. Magic got more with a smaller amount of time, Bird has one less but did it all in limit years! C’mon son! Use your own logic! Throw Chamberlain out if you want, cause Chamberlain won when he wanted… but he mostly didn’t want to. That’s fine. But if WINNING IS ABOVE ALL ELSE, you can’t discredit Russell for his eleven, you can’t discredit Kareem for his six, and you can’t discredit Magic for his five— end of story.
If you wanna talk nuances, then I’ll talk nuances.
Magic overcame all egos and was far more versatile… Sure, he couldn’t shoot like Kobe, but the mismatches he caused were undeniable— you couldn’t just let Magic do what he wanted and shut down everyone else like you can Kobe. Magic would get everyone else involved. His passing and leadership raised everyone else up, I mean, f it, he got ego cases like Kareem and McAdoo to fall behind him! He gave Kurt Rambis a career!
So that makes Kobe ONLY the third best guard of all time… and I’m not so sure about putting him ahead of Big O, but from what I’ve read about the Big O recently, I’m considering it more and more.
I also constantly ponder if Kobe’s better than Hakeem and Duncan… but I’m sure you dun wanna/wont hear it.
Yet, the Finals MVPs indicate Kobe wasn’t the man 3/4 times. But I guess, if you like your player, you can extend what ‘counts’ and what ‘doesn’t count.’ Kobe was the second best, so he counts. Robert Horry was the fourth best, so he doesn’t. Okay, cool!
Sorry, guess I really DID get into it.
Good stuff Bryan, props on that.
Jukai – you killed it again. *fist bump*.
Kobe is a better scorer than Russell. That’s it. Russell is a better rebounder, it’s not even close… Russell is a superior defender, not even close… and guess what… Russell’s a superior passer too. Russell’s career averages for assists are 4.3 compared to Kobe’s 4.7… but check out how many assists were handed out in the 1960s: far lower than how many assists are handed out today. After Cousy retired, Russell was literally RUNNING THE CELTICS CHAMPIONSHIP OFFENSE. As a center. Dude was averaging 4-5 assists a game, in today’s game, that’s probably 6-7!
The only thing Kobe has over Russell is his scoring. That’s it. Not leadership. Not the drive. CERTAINLY not likeability.
And I just -love- how people suddenly think Bird was a horrible defender… DESPITE MAKING THREE ALL-DEFENSIVE SECOND TEAM SELECTIONS. Bird was a mediocre (at worst) iso defender. He was too slow laterally to stay infront of quicker threes. That certainly wasn’t a problem though; Bird had great hands to grab the steal, and Bird was famous for letting a guy go by then blocking him from behind.
I don’t blame you for thinking Bird was a bad defender; I’ve heard it from several people on SLAM. The truth is far from the truth: Bird was a pretty damn good defender. Bird only started getting beat hardcore in the last two/three years of his career, you know, when his back started tightening up and it caused him intense pain to bend down.
Read a book or something, kid.
And if (talent+championships+stats-players around individual=rank in history), then Magic/Russell/Chamberlain are still over Kobe. Way over Kobe. I guess Bird becomes debatable in your equation.
Duncan has more FInals MVPs than Kobe does. Just sayin’.
When ya hate yourself this much? http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/05/kobe-white-hot.html Welcome to the minstrel show. Every brother ain’t a brother.
@Bryan Crawford, great article. I too went through a “Kobe sucks” phase, only to have him turn me 180 with his actions on the court. Keep it up.
If Kobe wins 7 in his career, he’s there…but what stand oust to me is how much he needed to do to gain respect unlike lebron who was overrated from the very beggining and Jordan, who was already known as great since rookie season.. Kobe needed to work hard and i tell u one thing…if kobe would get same respect, amount of time like james did all over his rookie season, he would be ROY!!
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