I hated Jordan, hated him for the way he constantly bit the hand of every media mook that genuflected in his presence, hated him for the way he left the game and then didn't leave the game, hated his ridiculously tailored, shoulder padded suits, hated his arrogance toward an owner who quietly and willingly made him the most highly paid player of his era, hated his adherence to the most boring offense and thuggish defensive concepts this side of rollerball, hated the way he singlehandedly spearheaded Bird and Magic's showtime NBA of the 80's into the thugball, "me first" 1990's. Oh yeah, and I hated the way he singlehandedly removed grace and fluid movement from the game. But let me put my despising his airness in perspective. I was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan in the 70's (still am) and it meant I would hate the Dallas Cowboys, I couldn't help but respect them too. Being a lakers fan, I hated Larry legend in the 80's, along with McHale and DJ and Parish and the rest. But if you asked me who I would choose to take a last second shot to save my life if a man put a gun to my head and made me pick, it wouldn't be Earvin, or Silk, or James, it would be Larry. He was that good. Jordan, however, was the best. He was as good as I hated him, and that's really good. What a lot of folks fail to remember, or never knew is that he wasn't always the best. He didn't come ready made. Jordan came into the NBA with one of the ugliest outside shots, significant defensive liabilities and the kind of glue-handedness that sent a lot of great talents before him home. He was never the most physically gifted and certainly not the most graceful player, but what did that ever do for David Thompson or Darrel Griffith? Still, he made himself into the greatest ever, using his head and heart to do it. One of his opponents once said, if Jordan faked you right and dipped left on the 276th tile of the floor at the end of the third quarter and you bit it, he just catalogued that move and he never forgot it. You only had to watch Jordan at his peak to understand how real that was, because of the way he always seemed to choose the right move, the right shot, or the right pass at the right moment. He also knew how to lock a guy down on defense, because he never gave up and he never forgot. Jordan was so right so often, he just broke the other guy's heart. There's more to it than that, but you get the idea. I was so glad, though, when Kobe came along. You can say a lot about Bryant when comparing him to Jordan, but one thing is for sure, Jordan always looked like he was working. Kobe can make the impossible look easy. Kobe is so physically and naturally talented, one almost wonders why he doesn't drop 81 every night. Bryant threatens nightly to bring back the kind of grace, fluidity, and magic back to the game that we haven't seen since Magic. And he consistently falls short, because when Bryant is on, he doesn't even see the other guys wearing Gold and Purple. He doesn't want to. But I forgave Kobe forever because I knew he was just "young" or "growing" or whatever euphesim for selfish was handy. Still it was fun to watch the Shaq experiment, however doomed it was. The 3peat returned my Lakers to prominence, and it looked like the 4th trophy was in the mail. Then of course, the blow-up doll replacement for Jerry West, Mitch Kupchak had to go and get a career loser, Payton, and a career choker, Malone to try and close the deal. That move ranks right up with Leon Hess saying, "I want the Jets to win right now, get me Rich Kotite!" It was clear though, win or lose, that Bryant's contract would precipitate a move for one of the dynamic duo after the debacle ended. Maybe no team can bear the cost of two giant egos these days. And not many of us were surprised that PJax packed his bags too, Phil had his fill of the whole soap opera. So Bryant got what he wanted. He became the face of the Lakers. The face was the kind of "I could care less about the team or the coach, I just beat a rape case and all I want is the scoring title" ugly even I didn't expect from Bryant. He, unlike Jordan singlehandedly turned a loser into a winner on the court, turned a winner into a loser from off the court. Then PJax rides into town with a pocketful of I told you so for Jerry Buss and even gets the Lakers to impersonate a basketball team for a few games in the NBA's annual "you have to be utterly disgraceful not to make the" playoffs. Problem solved? Kobe's learned his lesson? No. What's the difference bewteen Kobe and Jordan? Jordan, love him or hate him, was all heart. Kobe, has a heart problem. Kobe will do whatever it takes to be a scoring Champion, Jordan did whatever it took to be a champion. Jordan was real and his team knew it. Kobe is Kounterfeit and his team knows it. Jordan scored when he had to, and it made his team mates more confident because they knew he'd show up when and if they needed him. Kobe scores when he wants to and makes his team mates less confident because they never know when he'll go into a pout to prove how important he is. Jordan made his team mates better by getting them the ball when it was the right thing to do. Bryant makes his team worse by treating his team mates like accessories when he's "feeling it". Why did the LA Kobe's krumble? Because Bryant playing team ball was just a mirage. When the pressure was on, Kobe was Kobe, Lakers lose. So will there be a "next" Jordan, probably not. But one thing is for certain, it won't be Bryant. Write this down folks. Unless PJax pulls the ultimate card and wheels this gutless, self-absorbed, punk out of town, we're gonna be hearing Kobe drops 50, Lakers lose, for a while. There's hope though. There's a guy in Cleveland who's so old school, they should call him "the calculator". It makes me sad to think he's going to be dispatched in just a few more games by the Lakers antithesis, the Pistons. But maybe there's some poetry in the idea that losing to the Pistons was the same lesson Jordan had to learn in order to raise his game. As for James eclipsing the resident disgrace in LosAngeles for top star power in the NBA, I can't wait.