Kobe Bryant: The hallmarks of NBA's biggest post-Jordan Star
It’s been fun!When Kobe Bryant penned his poem for the Player’s Tribune, he ensured that we had a finite number of times to watch the Mamba put on a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. With his play declining and Kobe finally succumbing to Father Time’s undefeated streak, we now know that April 13, 2016 is the last time Kobe will walk out and play an official game in the NBA.However, with so much having been written on his decline, which we all have to remember was inevitable, I would like to look back on a career that gave rise to the NBA star who was ready and willing to fill the void Michael Jordan left when he retired in 1998. Now Kobe was still a year away from blooming into a full-fledged superstar, but he was the right man to come along and take the Jordan torch.Shaquille O’Neal was just a tad old for his career to stretch long enough to be the defining star, Allen Iverson had a cult following but wasn’t quite good enough, and Tim Duncan just didn’t care enough to be marketed as a star.But Kobe, playing the same position as MJ, copying MJ’s moves, having the skill to do a damn good MJ impersonation, and having the business acumen to build himself into a brand was the man to fill this void and fill it he did. When I look back over the last 20 seasons, I know the first person who will drive every conversation, elicit every emotion, and won enough titles to back up all the talk will be Kobe Bryant.
#1 Purple and gold
In order to be THE STAR of the NBA, especially in the early to mid-2000s, you needed to play in the right market that would attract the requisite media coverage, and what better place for that to happen than in Los Angeles, donning the purple and gold of the Lakers.
The Lakers are the premier franchise in the NBA and were about to embark on another tour de force of the league, going to seven NBA Finals in Kobe’s first 14 seasons, meaning we got to see a lot of Kobe on the grandest stage. And not only was Kobe going to the Finals 50% of the time, he was either the best or second best player every time, giving him exposure and success that little else could match.
In addition to being on the most marketable team in the league, Kobe had the business mentality to match, as evident by a story he recounted in his retirement press conference.
Kobe tells of how, at 21, he went to Italy to talk to Giorgio Armani about starting a business and what made Armani so successful at his. For a 21-year-old to take initiative like this shows that Kobe was always conscious of how and where he would market himself, knowing that he could use his great basketball skill and fame to even further his name.
Some of this fame might have been possible if he went to Charlotte, where he was originally drafted, but Kobe’s stardom wouldn’t have been as great if he wasn’t in the Lakers. In Charlotte, there is no Kobe System campaign by Nike, no near king status for Kobe in China, and there certainly aren’t five titles, the biggest thing that furthered his fame in the early years.