Top 10 Players of the 2000's: #2 Kobe Bryant
Yes, he is indeed the greatest basketball player to ever play the game and in his much eulogized and bedizened journey in the league, he in many ways changed the game itself; its strategies, its perceptions and its implications.
Jordan left behind memories that will never be soiled, a legacy that will forever be decorated and eulogized on the grandest pantheon of all. But in the mesmerizing frenzy and euphoria surrounding his indomitable exploits on the court, the hierarchy-driven savants have wronged many players who they believed attempted to equal Jordan’s feats.
Since always, objectivity in sports has been a scarce resource, and with players being graded and judged on the basis of sheer numbers alone, no player stood a chance against Jordan. Comparisons, exemplifications, segregations as well as separations; Jordan stood head and shoulders above most players, and I have no issue giving him credit for that. However, in the sheer adulation that Jordan demanded and received, anybody else who dared to equal him was treated with a sense of contempt and audacity, as an agnostic defying norms that were too important to the game’s preachers. Jordan, in short, was too divine to be tangible, and in the awe-inspiring spangle of his reign as the king, suffered a player, who despite exhibiting a repertoire that far surpassed the standards of the league in the last decade, found the most gracious compliment about him being: “The closest that anyone will ever get to Jordan”.
Yes, the player in question is none other than Kobe Bryant, or the ‘Black Mamba’ as he is famously known. Five Championship rings, a league MVP, a two-time Finals MVP, and many other such plaudits. Amazing stats indeed, but to the NBA he has always been an enigma. He is maybe the most popular player in the league, but unlike Jordan he is not the most liked by any means.
He is clutch, has the nerve and the guts to take on the toughest of circumstances and overcome stipulations. Not so surprisingly even as a rookie, he was not afraid of shooting the ball in clutch play-off moments. He air-balled two shots against the Jazz, and many believe he cost the Lakers the series. But in the process the league had its first true introduction to the defiance and competitiveness of Bryant, and he made many people uncomfortable. Most of all his teammates, who believed that with all-stars like Van Exel, Eddie Jones and Shaq, he would have been much better off playing the role of a sidekick.
But Kobe didn’t come into the NBA to be a sidekick. He wanted to be the best player that he could be. Alas, his philosophies mirrored the revolution that Jordan had brought upon the league. And the savants in their amaurotic dedication to Jordan saw nothing but an insolent kid who desired to challenge Jordan. The prying eyes were on him, and the cruel daggers were out. They watched him shoot the most impossible of shots, but the only thing they bothered to remark was: Jordan won more, won better.
However, Jordan could do his thing with the Bulls franchise because he revelled around players and a system that was designed to accentuate his insuperable basketball genius. The biggest stars beside Jordan were Pippen and Rodman, and both were more than happy doing the dirty work and letting Jordan do the glory deeds. The league too was more than happy hailing him for that. Kobe was doing the same, but he wasn’t expected to try such heroics. He was supposed to be the number two guy, and the ally to the Herculean basketball talents of Shaq. He was expected to be the guy who would feed Shaq off pick and rolls, get him the ball on the post and design his game to suit the talents of the Big Diesel. It was designed to be Shaq’s team, and Kobe was never supposed to be the star man. Unlike Jordan, he didn’t get the window to showcase his abilities, and like any competitive player, he didn’t like it.
He didn’t like it but such rejections were also part of his comfort zone. It was the “me against the world” psyche that Kobe had imbibed from his days at Lower Merion High and his growing days in Italy.
Nobody believed that a kid from Italy could lead a mediocre high-school team in Philadelphia to the State Championships. When he decided to skip college and join the NBA, many believed he still was too raw for the league. He turned out for practice and burned Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones.
So Kobe had his share of experience fighting prejudices, bigotry, repugnance and ageism. And when faced against the situation in LA, he again gathered his inner strength and decided to out-fight and out-work everyone that wouldn’t give him his due. He trained harder than anybody bothered to, he worked and re-worked his moves and was fast developing the best offensive repertoire in the league.
The thing that Kobe failed to realize was that this wasn’t Lower Merion High. This was the NBA, and one still needs all five players on the same page to win. All players are professional basketball players; they take home a huge salary and play the game not just because they are good at it, but because they are so good that they could make a livelihood out of it. Everyone may not be equally great, but they are all special and drafted because they have hyperbolic collegiate reputations. It is a man’s game, and people are recognized more for their will to sacrifice for a team and to win.
Kobe was shunned by his teammates because he chose to alienate himself. He didn’t go out to parties, avoided night-clubs and beyond the court had no intention of having any contact with his teammates. He was much too happy developing as a player, but to his teammates he was just a juvenile over-obsessed kid. Shaq openly said that he had no intention of baby-sitting him and considering his popularity with the team, it became a common feeling among the whole roster.
Kobe wasn’t too bothered, and his inexperience may have cost the Lakers dear. The team’s two best players were not on the same page, and the rest of the team was in no mood to accommodate Kobe either. Jerry West did his bit to ensure that Kobe got comfortable and to increase his minutes, traded away Eddie Jones and Van Exel. West had stuck his neck out to help Kobe realize his potential, and it was about time that Kobe realized that.
Thankfully, Kobe’s biggest ambition was to win and slowly with his time in the league he started to realize the rules of team-play. He matured, and coupled with the serendipitous arrival of Phil Jackson, the Lakers had a coach who had the experience of taming high-aired superstars and getting them to perform far more effectively. Jackson had been Jordan’s mentor and Kobe respected that. He was ready to give up the ball, play around and with his team so that they could win. Jackson convinced Kobe that the best way forward for the team was through Shaq. He accepted that, but he was in no mood to allow Shaq to assume the same. Shaq was already the most dominating force in the game, but Kobe believed that he didn’t work with a high-enough intensity. He pushed Shaq to play harder, to work even harder. If Shaq was to be the alpha dog, he would have to earn it. Shaq didn’t see the point and many altercations ensued.
Jackson’s patience was running out, and he unabashedly sided with Shaq. Jackson had long been the perpetrator of the triangle offense that had the Centre as the fulcrum of every single move. With Jordan he had to tweak it, and now as a veteran coach and a multiple NBA Championship winning coach, he wanted to stamp his ideology and prove its effectiveness. Shaq was the only way he could ever do that. Again Kobe was singled out and isolated, but this time he was wiser.
Kobe chose to adapt, to give in to some, to solve the rest. He accepted his role as the number two player, albeit he had to fight his natural instincts. They did surface sometimes, but Jackson always reeled him in and somewhere his sacrifices were pivotal in the Lakers doing their three-peat. Kobe was wining and getting better by the day, while Shaq was having the entire spotlight. And by the summer of 2004, Kobe was ready to be the next face of the Lakers franchise. Shaq was still the best Center in the game, but he was getting older and slower and had his struggles with injuries. After the blowout against the Pistons in the Finals of 2004, the Lakers franchise had a decision to make – to stick with the aging Shaq, or to move on to the belligerent Kobe. West chose the latter, because Kobe was his prodigy. Jackson didn’t agree and was fired.
The next few years were the toughest for the Lakers and Kobe as suddenly from having a league-defining roster, they went to a roster that had the likes of a Smush Parker, Chris Mihm, Devean George and Kwame Brown. Having a locker-room so devoid of talent and general basketball IQ was a transgression that Kobe wasn’t prepared for. He wanted to be the no. 1 man for the Lakers, but now he was the only one. It was like him playing for Lower Marion again. Just that it wasn’t really high-school ball. Kobe went about setting scoring records and achieving numerous individual feats, but with the rest of his supporting cast being dismal, the Lakers patriarch strutted and staggered. The tides had turned on him and it was no easy job leading the roster that he had. For three seasons he struggled to make much out of the team, and even though he was dominating the league in every single aspect, he wasn’t winning.
It was then that the dichotomy of being an alpha dog hit him. The insolent kid in him had had enough, and Kobe demanded a trade. He famously said, “I would rather play on Pluto, than with the Lakers.” Kobe had turned into this demanding kid who expected a lot, without giving much. He didn’t ever bother to hang out with his teammates, but expected them to sacrifice and stand up for him. He openly criticized them and called them out when he could have just as easily sat them down and told them what he expected. With Kobe around, it was like a circus, with his teammates respecting him as a player while still trying to come to terms with his enigmatic persona.
The Lakers’ management saved their franchise by managing to sign Pau Gasol, a player who is maybe the ideal sidekick. He played with Kobe, never bothered with him as an individual but modeled his game to suit him. Kobe relished playing with a player of Pau’s IQ, and for once had a consummate professional who was ready to sacrifice much without asking for anything in return. Kobe called on him time and again, and Gasol responded. He didn’t complain when Kobe raked up the countless impossible looking fade-aways and was always there to help Kobe out. He pretty much set the tone for the rest of the team to follow suit, and suddenly the Lakers had efficient role-players like Odom, MWP and Bynum on their roster. Kobe made it tough for them to play, but the players rose to the challenge that saw the team win two NBA Championships.
The two Championships with Gasol were indeed a huge monkey of his back. Kobe had won two Championships as the main guy in the team, and his two Finals MVP were testimony to the same. He was wiser, a winner and had realized the importance of the rules that Phil Jackson had tried to teach him early in his career. Kobe may not have made many friends, but he had never ever desired such comforts. He still remains a player hated by many for being too selfish. But ask Kobe and he will say, “I just want to win.”
Maturity did come, and his recent exploits as a play-maker may have seen shades of Kobe that the league had wished for so long. Kobe now has the experience to deal with all of the savants’ demands and criticisms, and he has understood the value of team-work. He may still look a little reluctant to give up his role as a primary scorer, but with 30k points in his bag, nobody can now complain. The Black Mamba has for sure stamped his authority and made his way into basketball immortality. He may still be denied the rostrum of a Jordan, but Kobe never cared much for that. He will be more than happy walking away into the shadows, knowing he had worked hard enough to be the best player that he could be. Nothing else ever mattered to the loner.
And that is why the Black Mamba is number two on our list of the greatest players of the last decade.
Read more from this series here.