The Lakers, yet again are in the Finals.
And once again, half the people you know are rooting for the
other team because of Kobe Bryant.
Despite the LeBron James love fest that blazes across your TV
screens and newspaper back pages, Kobe Bryant is the best
player in the NBA right now. Without question. Go ahead, name
another player on the Los Angeles Lakers that can carry the
team like he does. I'll wait. He's got four rings and could've
had two more if not for the Detroit Pistons and the Boston
Celtics more recently. He's an Olympic gold medal winner and
in his prime, looks to be almost as unstoppable as Michael
Jordan was. Despite all this however, Bryant strikes me as being
the loneliest winner out there. Even more than Tiger Woods, I'd
say.
Think about it...who do you see visibly with Kobe Bryant off the
court outside of his wife and daughters? No one. He doesn't
have a posse, or a childhood friend. The obvious answer is,
'That's 'cause Kobe's a punk-a## lame' but you have to get a
bit more involved than that. Kobe Bryant is one of those people,
let alone athletes, that has a one-track mind combined with a
good deal of arrogance. From early on, he's been told he's the
greatest, and using that along with a heavily dedicated work
ethic it enabled him to get into the NBA right out of high school.
He came into the league when the Hornets were still in Charlotte.
But Bryant's struggle is to find that line between supreme and
validated confidence and petulant arrogance. At first, cats in
the 'hood loved his swagger. As the years went on however, the
mood turned real quick. 2004 was the blast zone for Kobe...a
shocking loss to the Pistons led to the eventual breakup of the
duo he formed with Shaquille O'Neal. Then, Colorado. A moment
which saw him almost at the brink of losing everything. And to
make it worse, he flat-out tried to offer Shaq up to police in
order to get off. A grade-A punk move caught on videotape.
But Kobe has bounced back and seemingly hasn't shown himself
to be the worse for wear. He's got it all. A city that loves him no
matter what, endorsements, championships and enough dough
to buy part of Central America if he so chose. But when it is his
time to retire, when he has to leave basketball behind because
his body is getting too old, how will he handle it? Can someone
who has been a winner apart from others, too aloof for teammates
and other players alike handle just being...Kobe?
Time will tell.