For one of the ten greatest NBA players of all-time, at 36, Kobe Bryant still understands exceedingly little about the game of basketball. That, or he’s wilfully ignorant to its lessons.
All the truly transcendent superstar players throughout history, the Russells, Jordans, Magics and Birds of the world, approached basketball with the following mindset: what can I do to help my team win?
Kobe, like Wilt Chamberlain before him, has always approached the game with the opposite mindset – what can my team do to help me win? He’s an individual athlete eternally burdened by the inconvenient fact that he plays a team sport.
That’s why, when I was walking out of Staples Center Sunday evening in Downtown L.A. after yet another embarrassing, meaningless Lakers loss in an utterly meaningless season, I had one overarching thought: you deserve this Kobe, you really, really do.
Kobe Bryant is not the player he used to be, that much was clear on Sunday evening. Scoring used to be effortless for #24 but now he has to work incredibly hard to get his points.
Bryant used to be the most versatile offensive threat in the league – someone who could get to the rim, the line and pull up and get off a decent shot from anywhere on the court.
That versatility is gone. On virtually every possession Sunday night, Bryant did the exact same thing. He works hard to establish position on the perimeter, receives the ball then backs his man down in the mid-post before turning around for a fadeaway jump shot. Every. Single. Time.
Bryant doesn’t have the explosion to finish at the rim anymore and he doesn’t have the lift to reliably shoot threes. He remains effective (offensively anyway) purely because of his guile and legendary basketball IQ.
It was a joy to watch Bryant up close and witness his incredible footwork and immaculate timing. He still reads his opponent’s movement and the wider team defence as well as anyone in the game.
On Sunday evening Bryant had a third quarter post-up on Arron Afflalo where he weaved into the lane, turned to his left with perfect balance and footwork and swished a hook shot with his opposite hand, all in one perfect smooth motion. It was basketball poetry. Of course, for the Los Angeles Lakers, none of this really matters.
Kobe Bryant is the best player on the Lakers (and it’s not even close) but he has destroyed this team.
Statistically, the team plays much better with him on the bench. He is a defensive liability, consistently missing rotations (one glaring lost assignment occurred in the third quarter Sunday leading to a wide open Afflalo three in transition).
He is a black hole on offence, eating up the shot clock and taking the most inefficient shots in basketball. Bryant is a phenomenal passer, he often delivers insane anticipatory passes reminiscent of an older, injured teammate of his, but he’s also an unwilling one.
Bryant only passes when he has to or when he’s bitterly proving a point. He does not make his teammates better, he makes them worse. And he’s made his team worse, to the point where they’re now arguably the most deplorable team in the NBA (the Sixers aren’t an NBA team).
The Lakers were unwatchable Sunday evening. That they took Denver to OT says a lot about the state of the hideous Nuggets. Their roster is a farce. There’s a credible argument to be made that Ed Davis is the third best player on the team.
While many forces have contributed to this debacle, Bryant is the most culpable party. His ego kicked Shaquille O’Neal out of town and ended a dynasty. His pride and combativeness led to Dwight Howard leaving, and exiting with him was any chance of a sixth ring for Bryant.
His ludicrous contract (2 years $48.5 million) makes it impossible for the Lakers to build a contending roster. Sure, he’s entitled to whatever he can earn, but as someone who claims to be ‘all about winning’, his contract spits in the face of that.
As selfish and egotistical as Bryant is, there is something admirable and unquestionably captivating about him. He is fearless and still competes as hard as anyone in the league. His dogged willingness to take big shots and, in Stephen Jackson’s words, ‘make love to pressure’, is commendable.
Even in his diminished state, Bryant does still have a religious aura around him. Despite the statistics and common sense dictating otherwise, in Staples Center Sunday night every time Bryant took a shot it felt like it was going in. That counts for something.
But as credible and effective as Bryant still is as an NBA player, there was something incredibly pathetic about the entire spectacle surrounding him Sunday night.
Bryant has been reduced to being the feature of awfully played meaningless games where Wilson Chandler and Ty Lawson are the best players on the court. The fact that the crowd still reveres him somehow only adds to how pitiful the whole affair is. He is a god in an abandoned parking lot.
Kobe Bryant is one of the ten greatest basketball players of all-time. He is the second best player of the post-Jordan era behind Tim Duncan. He has won five championships, including two where he was the unquestioned alpha dog – I’m not giving him ‘best player’ status for both; Pau Gasol was the real MVP of the 2010 Finals.
Right now though, those accolades are only adding to the indignity of his situation. The Basketball Gods have passed judgement on Bryant spending years playing the game his way instead of the right way.
They have sentenced him to the fires of Ronnie Price and Wayne Ellington. Kobe Bryant is finishing his career like Daniel Day-Lewis finished There Will Be Blood; old, hopeless and bitterly vindictive. Enjoy your milkshake Kobe, you’ve brought the brain freeze upon yourself.
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