Kobe Bryant’s
story is an interesting one. Filled with
talent, promise, money, fame, set-backs, slumps, awe-inspiring finishes, dunks,
friendships, friends he says would not have been successful without him, and
friends that call him super old. He’s
produced some of the NBA’s greatest plays and moments of my brief
lifetime. He’s also produced some of the
more character-less acts done by professionals - which is saying something.
And yet,
despite all that, “Kobe!” is what any kid calls out when he practices his
buzzer-beating fade-away. (Ok, let’s be
honest – it’s also what all high schoolers, college students, and young adults
call out as well.) Take a poll – who is
the “clutchest” player in the NBA, who is the best closer, who would you most
like to have taking the final shot for your team? Kobe. (Challenged in the last year by Kevin
Durant.) Who sells the most jerseys
around the world – most notably in China? Kobe.
Not too long
ago, Kobe Bryant was pushing the envelope to have the conversation about who
was the greatest player of all time. For
a while, at least, it appeared that the straight-out-of-high school shooting
guard would at least present a credible challenge to Jordan for this position.
And now it’s
gone, poof, disappeared - just like $100 dollars in a money-market account. Somehow, a man with only one
fewer championship ring than Jordan, ranks 5th on the all time scoring list
(Jordan is 3rd), and has long been considered the best “crunch-time” player in
the NBA – who still has two or more seasons left in his career – isn’t even
given a chance. Jordan has been deemed
safe, at least until Lebron wins 7 of the next 9 championships and 5 of the
next 9 MVP awards.
When did this
happen? How did one of the most talented
figures in the league’s history lose his chance to be the greatest player of
all time before his career is even over?
There are 4 dates on which I believe you could pinpoint this loss, and I
believe there’s a strong case for each one (meaning I could be convinced any of
them are Kobe’s true denouement). Here
they are…in order of how much they affected Kobe’s opportunity at complete
greatness.
July 14,
2004 Shaq trade
The
continuing feud between Kobe and Shaq had plenty of ups and downs. Neither player found it easy to hold their
tongues around the press, even when required to do so by their coach. Kobe didn’t attend Shaq’s wedding; Shaq had
his bodyguard call Kobe during his legal issues; Shaq criticized Kobe’s shot
selection; Kobe criticized Shaq’s weight.
Before I even get to what could have been if Shaq hadn’t been traded, it
is wildly important to note that the disagreements with Shaq (and some
injuries), potentially cost the Lakers the 2004 NBA finals, and disrupted their
entire 2002-2003 season. That’s two
titles they have left on the table already. Ok…onward.
Together they
combined one of the greatest duos the game has seen. Not just because they were two perennial
all-stars, franchise players, and phenomenal talents on the same team, but they
co-existed on the court in entirely separate spaces. The overlap in playing area experienced by
more recent co-stars, Carmelo and A’mare, Wade and Lebron, Monta Ellis and
Brandon Jennings (jokes…kind of), was never an issue. This is not to say they functioned well
together on the court, as both wanted more touches than they received, but they
were both so dominant in their own space.
Which is the
travesty of the trade executed for Shaq on July 14, 2004. A variety of factors led to this decision by
LA ownership (Shaq’s contract demands, the departure of Phil Jackson, and the
issues with Kobe, but an amicable relationship could have held the potential
for another 2 or 3 titles. At some point
Kobe would have needed to make a name for himself and show he could win without
Shaq, but the case is much simpler if he has 6 rings before the two part
ways. If Kobe enters this season with
8-9 championships and a few finals MVPs…how is the great story of this season
about anything other than whether or not Kobe can gel enough with Superman and
Nash, get himself 10 titles or more before he retires, and become the greatest
player of all time?
(I guess it
should be noted that since Shaq has left the league he has labeled Kobe as the
greatest player of all time, but the drama at the time certainly cost Kobe a
handful of chances.)
June 17,
2008 Loss to Cs
The last
point of the previous section is simply reiterated here. Yes, this one loss only adds one title to his
collection instead of 2 or 3. Yet if the
Lakers had won this series, as well as the following two, Kobe has 6 titles
heading into the Dwight Howard era in LA, and he likely has 3 finals MVPs to go
with those titles. Moreover, he has now
done the same thing as Jordan did before him: two sets of 3 rings, a few years
removed from each other. That grows the
comparisons significantly.
And it
provides the platform for Kobe to only need one more championship to pass
Jordan. He could be comfortable during
the regular season, riding Dwight and scoring enough each night to keep on pace
to break the record if he wanted to, and give it all in two rounds of playoff
appearances. Instead, even if the Lakers
win titles in the ensuing two years, Kobe still falls short of being able to
compete for the title of “greatest of all time”. Lacking the NBA season MVP titles Jordan has,
it will take significantly more than one more title to have any reasonable
claim in that debate.
July 1,
2003 Rape charges
Perhaps this
should be the most important thing. A
ruined public image destroys the public’s ability to label an individual as
“great”. What father would want to tell
his son, “Kobe is the greatest of all time,” only to have their son google Kobe
and read all about his legal struggles and accusations of assault, battery, and
rape.
(In this way,
Kobe and Chris Brown have remarkably similar career paths. Promising and lucrative beginnings, and then
just when they are hitting their prime they have massive public-persona set
backs. Both were self-inflicted, so I’m
not trying to defend anyone. Just sayin
– Graffiti has easily been CB’s best album, and if he doesn’t ruin his image
with the Rihanna situation it probably becomes one of the best selling R&B
albums ever. And who knows how much
Kobe’s legal issues messed with the next season (when they lost in the finals),
the feud with Shaq, the confidence of his teammates, the ability of LA to
recruit players after Shaq left, etc.
I’m just sayin…)
At any rate,
you can more talent than everyone else combined, but if you aren’t a pleasant
person to be around, much less have severe legal issues that involve the abuse
of a woman, people will be more than a little reluctant to label you the
greatest at anything. Except maybe
destroying your shot at greatness.
October 29,
2003
January 19,
2005
March 20,
2005; Lebron
Since Kobe’s
entrance into the league, the world has changed. Now, everyone wants to know what is
next. Comparisons are constant: among
analysts, players, bloggers, social media followers, etc. As the boom in human connections through the
internet took off, there were plenty of people who wanted to compare Kobe and
Jordan. Plenty wanted to give Kobe the
chance to over-take Jordan. As we’ve
covered, he, with some occasional help from others, squandered some of these
opportunities.
But Kobe had
no control over what I believe has been the greatest obstacle to his quest of
greatness. On October 29, a young man
named Lebron James played his first NBA basketball game. He shot 60 percent and recorded 25 points (a
prep-to-pro player record for a debut), 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 4
steals. The hype was real.
Lebron was
impressive in his first season, and Cleveland was a much-improved squad over
the previous year. But in just his
second season, Lebron cemented his ascension into the upper-stratosphere of the
NBA’s current talent levels. First, in
January of 2005, he became the youngest player in league history to record a
triple double. Almost exactly two months
later, he smashed Cleveland’s individual game scoring record and put up 56 on
the Raptors. In just his third year in
the league he would convincingly lead Cleveland into the playoffs.
The next year
Cleveland would make the playoffs (and Lebron would debut with a triple
double). The year after, the Cavs would
reach the finals after a performance in the series winning game against the
Pistons that drew “Jordan-esque” comparisons.
Honestly, there were just too many dates to list.
Lebron was,
and is, the next big thing. Despite
Kobe's fame, talent, and pension for hitting game-winning shots, when someone
else showed up who may challenge Jordan’s hold on the greatest of all time, he
was quickly left behind. Perhaps his
legal transgressions made it easy to do so, perhaps his feud with another great
had turned off some fans, and perhaps he still had opportunities to create his
own legacy in spite of Lebron. But the
focus on greatness shifted, and unfortunately for Kobe, it isn’t coming back.
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