Kobe Bryant Cares About Winning–Not Being a Good Teammate

Michael Jordan is a complete and utter asshole. He stopped signing “free” autographs while he was still playing, instead opting to eat lunch or something random with a random fan every once in a while (same thing Ken Griffey Jr started doing) – my admiration for Michael Jordan comes purely as a basketball player. Same with Kobe. Both guys, from everything I’ve heard, are complete dick heads away from the court. Jordan moreso than Kobe, and just about everyone in league history.

@twitter-468547200:disqus you think it’s a matter of Kobe pursuing this discourse, or media personnel asking these questions? What does the journalist in you say?

just beating the drum the media nor kb24 haters like u won’t.

they weren’t anywhere near as cruel as Kobe and to an extent MJ are to theirs is the point i was making.

hey don’t get me wrong. I’m a kobe supporter all the way…. but he was still learning back then and shaq was unstoppable

My objective is to tell the truth about every article I comment on. The criticism is warranted. A man respects another man. Kobe didn’t respect Smush. Regardless of how bad of a player he was or how he carried himself. If you call yourself a leader, you set the standard and get others to buy into that example if it’s worth following. You bring others along with you. Kobe didn’t do that. I see a problem there. Simple. Durant working out with LeBron hasn’t kept him from doing anything, that’s why there is no good reason for you or anyone else to have an issue with it. How has it hurt his cause? How did it hurt last season after he worked out with him for more than just one day (which is how much he worked with him this summer)? He won a 3rd scoring title in a row and got to the Finals. They got beat by a better team. LeBron played out of his mind. James Harden didn’t show up. No shame there. There are no mind games. LeBron isn’t in his head. He’s just the best player in the world. Durant is 2nd. You can’t psyche out the 2nd best player in the world. Explain how working out with LeBron is hurting him if you can.

Again, you don’t know the meaning of the word “hater”. Just like a few others here.

When Smush Parker is your 3rd leading scorer on a playoff team you blame management and no one else.
Kobe created success for himself by threatening that trade.
Sounds like the truest of winners to me.

I knew you were a power abuser at least at one point. I could always tell.
Glad you changed your evil ways though man.

This is a genuinely interesting perspective on why kob’s had so much difficulty connecting with others throughout his life. That being said im gonna hafta disagree with the assertion of black self hate. As for the rest of this thread i gotta say its disappointing to see the way so many of yall conveniently ignore facts that dont dovetail with your own perceptions of the situation. To be sure this lack of intellectual integrity is very prevelant in US society nowadays but its just doubly disappointing to see it so clearly affect so many cats in whom i can sense potential for genuine intelligence. As for kobe i long ago recognized him for what he is: an untimely man, born into the wrong era of human history, and thus wont be appreciated in his own time. Get over it, laker fans lol the hate and envy is just too strong

i just wish that smush and kobe meet face to face sometime soon… man it up instead of word war.. not neccessarily violent actions, but a little sparring would fine. lol.

LOL the reasoning he threatened the trade was in response to not succeeding, it wasn’t a pre-preemptive strike for success – I mean, unless you are you, and HAVE to find a way for Kobe to not look like a hypocrite.
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Let’s just say it how it is though, Kobe is trying to make himself look as good as possible. So he is trying to deflect attention from him speaking out on a guy who hasn’t been his teammate in what, 6 years? I mean, see this for what it is. Kobe is a dick, who just realized how much of a dick he looks like, so he’s trying to dress up like a vagina.

I’m talking about as a teammate. If you’re one of the best players on a team it’s real easy to be shady to sorry cats because no one is going to check your behavior. I did that at one point. That’s the only time I had any semblance of power to abuse. Well, that’s not true. I’ve bullied the weak at times as well. It’s a sucker move.

While I don’t think that Royce White’s illness or self hate for Blacks belongs here, I do think Kobe’s background may have a lot to do with how he treats other players who were born and raised here and grew up in a different way than he did. Outside of the game of basketball, there probably isn’t a lot of commonalities there. As a rookie he didn’t really hang out with his teammates not only because of how young he was, but I’m sure their different upbringings played a factor as well. Most of these guys were either in poverty or not far from it before they got to the league. Kobe was the son of a professional basketball player. Most people are products of their environment. Kobe’s environment doesn’t have much in common with the environment of most of the other players he plays with and against.

You have no response to what I said about KD. What this boils down to is some idea you have that KD should stop working with LeBron. You can’t give me one good reason why he should. Except that you would like him to stop. You can’t give me one example of how this has been bad for him. That’s why you won’t take the bait. Because you don’t have a good response that will challenge what I said. There’s no need for KD to change. So you’ll continue to complain about it. He doesn’t have to prove you wrong because you have no ground to stand on with your complaint. What’s keeping him from winning a championship and from being the best player right now is LeBron James. It’s not the fact that he practices with him. It’s the fact that LeBron James exists. Whether they practiced together or not, LeBron would be LeBron and KD would have to get through him.

Not following what your saying.
I disagree i’m sure though.

Minus the part about Kobe being a dick. He’s an ass clown.

Yeah I have met him at the air port also and a couple other times at Staples. (met, meaning said ‘whats up’) He is rude. He’s not a conversational individual. Still my favorite ball player haha.

Kobe didn’t need 2 years. He just needed one day to want to be traded, and then decide not to leaving everyone confused. Dwight never really stopped wanting to be traded. Find the facts. He only opted in because he wanted to make people around him happy.

okay chief… keep drinking the cool – aid. carrying bron bron’s back pack, bringing orange slices, & paying for pizza parties, while making sure to hug the world is great for children but not competitors in my humble @ss opinion. Take the “I love KD” t shirt off. KD needs to look within to get the gold ball and its funny how hard you front for him that maybe your on the payroll or wish to be.
what’s even more funny is how u pitball kb24, lol, but support a finals failure, kd, bc he was given or earned some progated awards. if you ask bball fans who won the last 10 scoring or mvp awards 99% would not be able to answer, but if you asked who won the last 10 titles 99% would.
Rings count & the other awards are future garage sell items.
The mental side of the game is just as important as everything else, if not more.
What flavor cool-aid are drinking today?

Again, you’re ignoring the context. Kobe was coming off a rape trial, a Finals loss that was being blamed on him, and he was the most hated man in all sports in 2004. He was trying to regain endorsements and fan support…its why he didn’t start saying anything controversial until about the time he won his first ring post Shaq.

Why? Do you think those guys were happy sitting around losing? Lebron openly admitted jumping to Miami because he didn’t think the Cavs roster that was assembled could beat the Celtics. All-time great players should not be stuck with inept players surrounding them. I mean seriously, Luke Walton played heavy minutes for the Lakers at Bryant’s physical peak as a player. Have you seen that 05-07 Lakers roster? Half the players are not even in the league anymore, and if they are, they are bench guys.

The second best player on those teams was Lamar Odom. Read that again.

dog, Kobe just dropped about 30 different gems in that….was that written or all off the cuff?? dude is brilliant man, flat out

this is why i love Kobe, cause this man wanna win no matter what!
if u dont put in the work then he dont need you!
u dont think Jordan did the same thing? Teammates was scared of Jordan because he will get on them if they dont play well. They wasnt scared of Phil they was scared of Jordan.
and Kobe is the same way!
i love it!! and to all u people saying Kobe is this and Kobe is that, one thing u cant say is that he is a loser. he is a winner.

A person goes to extremes when they are incapable of basic rational thinking. Your love of everything Lakers related leaves you unable to think rationally. Which is why you compare me to Shock Exchange. If you were capable of basic reading comprehension, you would have understood the analogy I made. You are as biased as anyone on this site about your precious Lakers. Kobe shoots a lot. JR Smith shoots a lot. Did I compare them? No. I simply said that one person who is widely known for shooting a lot telling another is the same as you, the most biased dude here, telling me I’m biased. You never even pointed out what my bias is. Which is hard to do because I’ve shown no bias. I’ve said nothing about disliking your guy Kobe Bryant.

If your objective was to sound as ridiculous as possible, you succeeded.