He鈥檚 Beethoven Bryant鈥?Now Hear the Music!
By Ted M. Green | Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Column
You wouldn鈥檛 think a man who seems to have everything would need anything.
You wouldn鈥檛 think a man loved by millions might need a friend.
Kobe Bryant has oodles of talent, tons of money, a pretty wife, beautiful young family and the respect, if not unconditional affection, of most of his peers. So what could a man with all that possibly need?
Oh, just understanding, appreciation and, finally, an end to the hating.
Understand what, you say?
That he is the best player in the NBA by eons and quite possibly more skilled than even Michael Jordan.
Appreciation? Yup, by finally naming him MVP of the league.
And hating? That鈥檚 right, it鈥檚 time to put a merciful end to the petty envy and ugly jealousies, time to stop holding Colorado over his head, time to stop penalizing him because he鈥檚 ridiculously gifted and kinda comes across like he knows it.
It seems crazy to me that for every Kobe jersey you see in arenas around the country, for the millions of Number 24鈥檚 that are worn in China, there seem to be an equal number or more who refuse to give this generational treasure his just due.
I鈥檓 not talking about naming him to All-Star teams or All-NBA first teams or even paying him the 20 mil or whatever it is he makes in salary each year. He鈥檚 earned all that.
I鈥檓 talking about recognizing how hard he plays, how hard he works to make his teammates better, how he leads by words and example.
The rap in the past that he didn鈥檛 make his teammates better? Bullfeathers. He passed to them. They missed. What was he supposed to do, shoot it in the basket for them?
Look at the Lakers now: If you don鈥檛 think Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf are all light years better than a year ago, you鈥檙e just not paying attention. Heck, playing in the backcourt with Kobe, Derek Fisher at an age (33) when lots of guys are fading, is having a career year, with all-time bests in every shooting category. Coincidence? Not hardly.
I鈥檓 also talking about how when it comes to being The Closer, Kobe makes Kyra Sedgwick look like a helpless little girl. Look under 鈥?th Quarter锟?and Kobe鈥檚 probably got a copyright in the government patent office.
Know what? Forget all that.
What I鈥檓 REALLY talking about is, for Kobe鈥檚 detractors, the haters, to drop the pretense and stop the posturing and just admit that as a shooter, driver, finisher and defender, as the ultimate basketball Jedi master as we speak here in the late winter of 2008, Lebron James with all his Nike marketing power and funny/cutesy Old Man commercials, can鈥檛 hold Kobe鈥檚 jock. Or gym bag.
Oh, he can hold it, all right, but only if he asks real nicely.
By having the b*lls to light a fire under Laker management and calling them out last summer when they were derelict in their promise to put a team around him; and then, by putting those unkind words and bad blood behind him as if it never happened once he hit the court in November, never shortchanging his employers with his herculean efforts; by maturing into the kind of leader who pushes and encourages his teammates instead of scolding and demeaning them (see Andrew Bynum); by scoring points as if they鈥檙e bunches of grapes; by making more highlight plays in any given game than most other so-called superstars make in a month; by hitting hundreds of shots that make you shake your head and wonder if he鈥檚 even human; by leading the Lakers to the top of the Pacific Division and third best record in the NBA when many experts had them as an eight seed or worse; and dammit, by still playing like a genius virtuoso with a pinky finger that is so broken and mangled, a top hand specialist recommended immediate surgery; for dropping 41 on the Suns in Phoenix with a freaking half-broken shooting hand!; for all those reasons and probably 100 more I haven鈥檛 thought of, Kobe Bean Bryant has finally earned the unconditional respect and admiration he has never quite received from a public that has never embraced him with the same affection they showed for MJ and now the new darling of Hip Hop Hype, Bron Bron.
I鈥檝e got your Bron Bron right here.
It is absolutely incomprehensible to me, but yet fully expected given the history of Kobe Bryant, that not one major national NBA writer, far as I know, has been smart enough, fair enough or honest enough to come out right now and say what is now startlingly obvious:
That if Bryant isn鈥檛 the MVP this year, that award needs to be put on the shelf forever, never to be dusted off again.
Know who the other candidates are this season?
KG? Nope, been hurt. Lebron? With 26 losses in a conference that is dreck? Sure, whatever you say.
In other words, there are no other candidates, not in the no-spin universe free of East Coast bias that I live in.
In the real, un-spun NBA, it鈥檚 Kobe鈥檚 world and everybody else is just living in it. And if you don鈥檛 believe me, ask the players. Trust me, they鈥檒l tell you.
Now I鈥檒l be the first to admit: I鈥檝e always respected Kobe, appreciated him, understood his athletic genius, but I never quite embraced him, either. There is, inarguably, something cold, clinical and a little too detached about his public persona, and his postgame sound bites. There is something, the hard edge, that slight chip on the shoulder people perceive, that does stop many fans from feeling warmth for him. But that鈥檚 Kobe鈥檚 vibe.
It must be how the real assassins roll.
Turns out that off the court, Kobe is giving, outward reaching, socially aware and generous with his time; he鈥檚 warm with kids, busy with lots of community and charity work that never makes the papers. In fact, he wants it that way.
But from this point forward, let me suggest to the haters that it isn鈥檛 Kobe鈥檚 fault some clever Nike marketer never had him be the one to dive into the pool or play four different characters including a grumpy old man.
MJ, he gambled, caroused, [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.] teammates, smiled at all the right times, became Nike鈥檚 Jumpman, hit the very last shot of his Bulls career to win his sixth and last title (I can still see it in my dreams in slo-mo, the pushoff on Bryon Russell, as if it happened five minutes ago)鈥nd now Michael, his Airness, lives in our hearts forever.
Let me be the one to suggest to the haters that if you don鈥檛 begin realizing that a true basketball Beethoven is passing your way again, Kobe Bryant is going to be gone before you had a chance to genuinely enjoy and embrace the show. the best player in the nba, with the best team right now I'm not a Kobe hater but here's my Definition of so-called flight 24.. - A PURE IMITATION OF FLIGHT 23... NUF SAID |
