In a political culture of red versus blue, a sports culture of you versus us, and a general culture of black or white, Kobe Bryant might have been more aptly nicknamed for the areas his career spent the majority of its time in: the ambiguous shades of gray.
This season, and especially this week, has been marked by breathless thanks to Kobe for what he meant to the writer. This isn’t to say those articles haven’t been touching, nor that the sentiment is lost on me to any extent whatsoever. One of the greatest traits of Kobe’s career is just how much he meant to his fans. Few athletes in the history of sport will come close to that relationship, but, I can’t help but feel like that’s telling only a part of the story.
To me, the greatest takeaway from Kobe’s career is how it forced us to recognize the shortcomings of black-and-white thinking. As such, looking back at his career without thinking of both the achievements and shortcomings would be selling his time in the NBA short.
Look at how this current generation of athletes is covered. LeBron James was a choker, until he wasn’t. Peyton Manning couldn’t win the big game, until he could, and the second of those big games came because of a dominating defense. Still, it didn’t matter. He walks away with two Super Bowls. Steph Curry is the greatest thing to happen to the NBA since lord knows when, unless folks think his style of shooting is bad for basketball.
Where is the room for actual critical thinking? How is this a decent way to analyze our sports? Conversely, listen to conversations about Kobe.
To take it a small step further, LeBron is mocked for his Instagram photos and high-school-level subtweets. Analyzing Bryant was so much easier and more interesting when he put himself on video to say something to the extent of “Of course I want Jason Kidd over this Bynum kid.” Was it the best way to handle it? No. But did it make for a more meaningful conversation? I’d say so.
“Sure, he won all those rings, but he wouldn’t have won those three without Shaq.” “Great, he walks away with five rings, but look at the state in which he’s leaving the Lakers.” “Sure he’s a closer, but might it be time to turn away from the hero ball he made his name off?” “Yes, he was one of the most exciting players we’ve ever seen on a basketball court, but there’s also that whole situation he had to deal with off of it.”
At few (if any) points in his career has Kobe been considered anything singular. Just as in the sentences above, there seemingly always remained that “but”. This is what I’ll remember him for, and it’s something we should hope we get back to, especially on the larger platforms on which sports are covered.
Nuance is fun, after all, isn’t it?
Waiting for athletes to fail just to point our fingers from on high when they do is about as cynical way to watch what should be entertainment.
We will continue building athletes up, only to tear them down. In the era of the internet, this will never go away. Only the great ones will find a way to climb that mountain we built up for them with abstract and arbitrary expectations based on some impossible-to-define grading system that always favors the critic.
When I’m asked how I’ll remember Kobe, the great plays will obviously stick out. The championships will race across my memory. The losses will stick into my heart like the daggers Kobe dealt out to countless opponents. To go with that, though, I’ll also think about this last contract and his refusal to take substantially less than he did to bring in another star. I’ll think about how Byron Scott was hired and remained employed — at least partially — to placate this farewell tour.
The cool part: Of course that’s how we should remember him. If all athletes thought like Tim Duncan or Dirk Nowitzki, owners would have all the leverage to basically demand stars take pay cuts while they make millions hand over fist. Without Kobe’s undying desire to take that final shot (and in his prime, make quite a few of them), we don’t have the ammunition to have some passioned conversations on how late-game possessions should go.
For me, the greatest compliment I can offer and what I’ll forever cherish about Kobe is that, here, as we are mere hours away from his retirement, a larger part of me than I ever would’ve anticipated is ready to move on. This sentiment would be impossible without Kobe’s own incredulous honesty as the years went on. I can only hope we see more like him, and the shades of gray return to how sports are covered.
Congratulations, Kobe.
KevTheBold says
Whew~!
What a write up.
So honest, and rightfully so.
For me, having grown up on the most majestic dunker of all times – Dr. J,
then Lew Alcindor, and later, the Showtime Lakers, I immediately saw the potential that Kobe glowed with, even before West said a word.
To me he was more than human, some sort of super being who could be in several places at once, shooting, rebounding his missed shot, tipping it, missing again and rebounding again of the other side of the rim to shoot again.
He was relentless and a killer the likes that rarely come along.
I was an instant fan, and stuck with him through thick and thin from his spat with Shaq, to his legal troubles and his resurgence back to the top, which proved that he was no coat tail rider, but a zoot suit king, with tails a mile long.
Like most however, I believe he overstayed his time by 3 years, and now,.. and I never thought I would say this,..but I am weary of seeing him, and reading about him.
Why?
Because his shadow has held us in limbo, not allowing us to move into the next phase and reboot.
Of course, the front office is to blame for half of it, yet Kobe’s ego was a partner in the situation as well. The very ego which made him great, also blinded him to the reality of his body, and of how he was hurting the very franchise he loved.
I also believe a percentage of his decisions were based on a selfish desire to bolster his finances at our expense.
So to me, Kobe day is the celebration not of his career,.. I settled that 3 years ago; no, it’s to celebrate a new beginning which I am optimistic about.
Hail the Goodbye Kobe day !
KevTheBold says
To: rr, and all the pessimists wearing masks of realists,..
I’ve read what was posted in the last thread, and all the previous ones which label hope, as naivety by using the previous 3 years as your gavel; when in reality, they have no resemblance to what lies ahead since we will no longer be held hostage by the ghost of Kobe’s gatling gun.
Yes we lack proof, and guarantees to justify our hope.
Yet, in sports, those elements don’t exist !
What we do have are the examples of past Laker teams, the Spurs, the Warriors, all which prove that combining a core of hard working, open minded, talented youth, with Continuity, and the right coach, has the potential to pay off big dividends.
The only valid questions about the front office as far as I’m concerned, is if they are smart enough to keep these kids together, build around them and hire a coach which will get the best out of them.
If we win the lotto,…even better, but it’s not a team breaker, we can always obtain one of the proven ones later via free agency or trades.
So in closing, here’s to closing a rusted door, and opening a new one !
Anon#1 says
Kev: You have a ‘however long it takes is how long it takes’ approach to getting back to being truly competitive. If that works for you that’s fine.
The realists feel that in a hard cap league management, FO, coaching and organizational strengths (analytics/medical/training/scouting) play important roles (to varying degrees) in talent indentification, acquisition and development.
We don’t believe that the current Lakers leadership is providing the franchise with the best opportunity to return to a competitive level in as short of time as possible. Business as usual has produced the worst three years in franchise history.
Bottom line: the team would benefit from a new GM with a vision of basketball that can help shape the future of the organization, which can be articulated to a potential new coach and to prospective free agents.
We feel many Lakers fans have come to accept mediocrity which is a state of affairs that Jerry Buss and Jerry West were never satisfied with.
TempleOfJamesWorthy says
KevTheBold largely stole my thunder. I will, however, encourage Kobe/Lakers fans to read three articles about Kobe (2 quite recent, 1 from a couple of years ago)
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15193525/kobe-bryant-personal-mount-rushmore-mentors-starting-michael-jackson
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15186931/last-true-days-kobe-bryant
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11717596/is-kobe-bryant-reason-los-angeles-lakers-downfall
I think one way to look back over Kobe’s career is to consider that Kobe was always who he was. The same qualities (obsession, narcissism, indomitable will, etc.) which drove him to be the great player he was are what made him an (often) crappy teammate and ultimately an organizational boat anchor.
Was Kobe correct about Shaq’s lack of conditioning and cavalier approach to the game? Sure, but even a fat out-of-shape Shaq was one of the three best centers in the league. A more mature well-rounded person would have made accomodations for Shaq’s foibles because it helped the team win. My Way or The Highway Kobe couldn’t do that.
Similarly, that Kobeness enabled Kobe to drag the Howard/Nash/Gasol Lakers to the 2013 playoffs. A more mature globally-aware Kobe would have understood making the playoffs by burning himself out was a hollow victory. Kobe being Kobe, he couldn’t see past “I MUST WIN” (by his own narrow definition).
And, in the wake of the Achilles tear likely created by Kobe being Kobe, Kobe being Kobe couldn’t accept the inevitable (34-year-old guards who tear an Achilles will be role players, at best).
The Lakers, for business/marketing reasons, decided to play along with Kobe’s Kobeness, and gave him the boat-anchor contract (paying him superstar money for D-leaguer production). Had Kobe retired or accepted being a West Coast version of Vince Carter on the Grizzlies, much of my ambivalence about Kobe (and, frankly, willingness for him to be gone) would have been alieviated.
But Kobe…Kobe never changes.
Side note on superstars taking reduced contracts: In a salary-cap league, any dollar that goes to a player (e.g. an aging superstar) whose production doesn’t justify it is hurting the team. That’s the way it is. Yes, owners make cubic yards of money. Yes, superstars are arguably underpaid based on the revenue they generate. If the players don’t like it, they need to either collectively bargain “fairer” terms, or abandon collective bargaining completely.
Perhaps a true “free market’ league where Mikhail Prokorov can pay LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony $50 million each and Generic Backup Power Forward $1,500 per game while other owners have to figure out how to beat that might be a more interesting league.
rr says
Good to see the Haters like TOJW going out hating. KB would not have wanted it any other way.
rr says
I’ve read what was posted in the last thread, and all the previous ones which label hope, as naivety
—
I have never said that hope=naivete, and I have specifically said that there is nothing wrong with hope. The point is that hope is pretty much what the Lakers have right now–along with three young guys with some value, maybe a high lottery pick, a lot of cap space (and as noted a lot of teams have that) and some value in the brand. The rest is…hope. Have fun with it if that is how you roll and believe me, I hope things work out for the Lakers. Rooting for a team this bad is not much fun.
TempleOfJamesWorthy says
@rr — I don’t hate Kobe.
I respect the heck out of Kobe. When he was at the top of his game, I was a big Kobe fan.
But I don’t really understand Kobe. I don’t understand how someone that talented, that dedicated, that hard-working, that intelligent, and that much a student of the game couldn’t understand the simple concept that passing the ball to an open teammate who’s in a better position to score makes the game easier, more involving, more satisfying, and ultimately more successful.
If Kobe played every game of his career with a 25-lb weight strapped to his back and justified it by saying, “That’s the challange man. You have to push yourself through that. It isn’t really winning unless you do with a 25-lb weight strapped to your back” would you consider him The Ultimate Competitor or a deluded narcissist?
Yet, because Kobe couldn’t pick his battles or learn to revel in contributing to group success in any way that boiled down to “I have to shoot the ball more,” that’s essentially what he did. Pointing that out doesn’t make me “a hater”
Yes, when Kobe was at the peak of his powers, it was worth it because he was THAT good. Once he was no longer at his peak…well, you’ve seen what the past 3 years were like.
I find it fitting that on the same night Kobe goes out doing His Way (60 points on 50 shots in 42 minutes for a 17-65 team) the Warriors break the single-season win record with Steph Curry scoring 46 points on only 24 shots, while former Alpha Dog Andre Igoudola is content to come off the bench, take 4 shots, grab 4 rebounds and dish out 7 assists. Isn’t amazing what can happen when you get a team full of players who genuinely only care about winning, not about individual accomplishment?
There is a time-tested Right Way to play basketball. Kobe could play that way when he chose to. For reasons I will never fully understand, that wasn’t his default choice.