Jellybean's kid certainly is a polarizing figure.

There's not much middle ground when it comes to Kobe Bryant.  Fans either love him or hate him and seem to do so with equal ferocity. 

Detractors cannot, and will not, be appeased.  To them, his headline-grabbing 81-point barrage against the Toronto Raptors in January was merely a sign of his selfishness, a deliberate attempt to push all of his teammates off the stat sheet so he could soak up the media love all by himself.  Never mind that the torrential downpour of jumpers and slams that went uninterrupted for four quarters was done so in nearly historic proportions, with only Wilt's 100 in Hershey, PA trumping the accomplishment.  

Skeptics dismissed his one-man show at the Staples Center that night as all sizzle and no steak, a meaningless regular season win against a truly bad Toronto team in which Bryant took 46 of the Lakers' 88 shots in the game and took 20 of the team's 33 free throw attempts.

Similarly, detractors point to his 50-point, Game 6 performance against Phoenix last Thursday as another example of Bryant's me-first, team-second attitude.  With a chance to put the hammer down on the Suns and send them packing back to Phoenix with a scathing 4-2 first round playoff loss, Bryant forced the final shot in regulation and had it partially blocked by Shawn Marion.  In OT, Bryant scored 12 of the Lakers' 13 points in the extra period.  And Phoenix won by 8.

Off the court, Bryant has been at the center of a number of troubling storms, the most disturbing of which was an allegation of sexual assault in the summer of 2003.  Although charges in the case were ultimately dismissed, the anti-Kobe crowd is quick to point out that there was enough merit in the case to have it proceed to trial before the prosecution decided to drop the charges.  In fact, Bryant's voluntary statement after the dismissal included an apology in which he acknowledged how the young woman who had filed the charges could have felt that their physical encounter was non-consensual.  And the shadow that whole episode cast goes a long way towards explaining the degree of uneasiness many have with Bryant.

In other off the court matters, Bryant's relationship with now-former Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal deteriorated during the 2004 off-season to the point that the franchise felt it was forced to choose between the gifted shooter (Bryant) and the dominant big man (O'Neal).  They chose Bryant, shipped Shaq off to Miami, and the team hasn't been a serious championship contender ever since.

In a related matter, Coach Phil Jackson blasted Bryant in a tell-all book, berating him as being uncoachable.  In the wake of that public trashing of his star guard, Jackson packed his bags and vowed his preference for the Montana wilderness over the bright lights of the NBA sideline.

So, there was Kobe, left holding the remnants of a once-perennial title contender and, viewed by many, as the sole reason the Lakers had turned to dust in an instant.

Not surprisingly, supporters see things slightly differently.

To them, his 81-point game against the Raptors was, as it says right there in the record books, the second-greatest offensive performance in the history of the NBA.  That sheer number of points in a single game is impressive at any level, that it happened against NBA talent makes it an unquestioned act of sports greatness.  In addition, the Lakers won the game and, as a team in the bottom half of playoff hopefuls, the win did, in fact, mean something.

In fact, the entire 2005-2006 NBA season was a non-stop highlight reel for Bryant, a continuous loop of a superstar player lifting a decidedly average roster to a place they should not have been able to reach.  His 35.4 ppg average was the 8th highest of All-time in NBA history, and many would argue that that elite level of performance was the only reason the Lakers made the playoffs this season.

Once in the playoffs, Kobe led the underdog Lakers to a 3-1 lead in their first round series against Phoenix, culminating with Bryant hitting a game-winning buzzer beater in Game 4.  The Suns, who had finished the regular season with the Western Conference's 3rd best record at 54-28, rallied to win Game 5.  However, Kobe's defenders will note that Bryant only took 17 shots in the game and dished out 5 assists in an effort to get his teammates more involved in the game.  The 17-pount drubbing that resulted (which very notably included Rajah Bell's WWE-style takedown of Kobe) likely had a significant effect on how Bryant approached Game 6.

Where critics blasted Bryant as being selfish in Game 6, others point to the Game 5 failure of the kinder, gentler Kobe and would assert that Bryant's 50-point, 5-assist performance had the Lakers on the brink of eliminating the Suns if not for Tim Thomas' dagger of a 3-pointer that tied the game with 6 seconds to go in regulation.  While some argued that Bryant actually prevented his team from winning that game, others claimed the very opposite, that it was only because of Bryant's stellar shot-making in the closing minutes that the Lakers were even in a position to win that game in the first place.

As for Bryant's off the court troubles, his defenders will note that the sexual assault case was dismissed before the trial even started.  And the fundamental principle that guides our legal system is the presumption of innocence in criminal cases until proven guilty.  That Bryant was never proven guilty of the charges and that he never even faced a trial before all charges were dropped is enough to erase any doubt for many that he did not commit any of the alleged crimes.

Regarding the relationship between Kobe and Shaq, many will assign Shaq as much or more responsibility for the way things turned out for the Lakers.  Simply, there were two big egos that got in the way of each other, and Shaq was at least as adamant as Kobe in not getting out of the way.  And Shaq did little to dispel the notion that injury-plagued, 30-something centers who weigh in at well over three bills are a slightly more risky investment than sleek, 25 year-old scoring machines (as Kobe was in 2004).

As for the Zen Master, he's back pacing the sidelines for the Lakers.  So whatever rift he had with Bryant was temporary, as is evidenced by his willingness to return as Kobe's head coach.

So, as Game 7 between the Lakers and Suns loomed this weekend, yet another opportunity for Kobe Bryant to polarize the masses presented itself.  And he did not disappoint.

In a "win or go home" showdown, the Lakers were run out of the gym and all the way back to LA by the Suns.  Phoenix handed Kobe and his mates a 21-point thrashing, and it was unheralded Phoenix guard Leandro Barbosa who controlled the game by hitting 10-of-12 from the field and 5-of-5 from the line to finish with a game-high 26 points.

Bryant finished the game with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting but scored only a single point in the second half and attempted only 3 shots after the break.  Again, reaction to Bryant's performance in the game was swift, and it was divisive.  Critics who had labeled his Game 6 performance as "selfish" now blasted him for not doing enough to help his team win.  Bryant was damned if he did (35 shots, 50 points in Game 6) and damned if he didn't (16 shots, 24 points in Game 7), with the bottom line being that he simply did not lead his team to victory in either game.  Others maintained that it was Bryant's teammates that shared, and shared significantly, in the Lakers' failure.  In Game 7, Kobe shot 50% from the field while the rest of the team shot 32%.

And both sides have a fair degree of merit.

A 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series is the equivalent of a massive sleeper hold. The team in the lead simply continues to apply the pressure until the other team goes out.  It is supposed to be a nearly invulnerable position, and a true superstar is supposed to make sure his team doesn't ever lose its grip on that hold.  However, the 2006 Los Angeles Lakers are on the growing list of teams that now knows how tenuous that grip can be and how quickly a seemingly insurmountable lead can go from black to red.

And in team sports, it tends not be a single play or player that causes such a massive slide (or from the Suns perspective, a huge comeback).  Rather, it is a series of plays that involve several players that trigger multi-game swings.  So, while Kobe didn't do much to help win Game 7 for LA (emphasis on "not much"...3 shots in the final 24 minutes!), he also wasn't solely at fault for allowing the Suns to absolutely dictate the tempo of the game.  They had been pushing that pace for the two games prior as well.

As a team, Phoenix simply does not like to wait.  The faster the scoring opportunities present themselves the better.  If a game is projected to reach a final score of +100, it tends to include the things the Suns do best: fast break points in droves and open looks from 3-point range.  And in Games 5, 6, and 7 against the Lakers, Phoenix had those things and more.

And at the end of the day, there was a reason the Suns had the 3rd best record in the conference while the Lakers had the 6th best.  Phoenix simply had more quality players than LA did, and that is probably the biggest reason the Suns are moving on and the Lakers are going home.

But in a Kobe-centric universe, he must play a definitive role in everything.  So, the haters will continue to do so while their opposite numbers will exonerate and embellish his every move.  And his recent 4th place finish in the NBA MVP voting shows this dichotomy to exist even amongst the sportswriters and broadcasters who participate in that balloting.  Bryant finished with the second highest number of 1st place votes but wound up 4th overall, which suggests that the he was largely considered either the very best or not even close.

Like I said, Jellybean's kid certainly is a polarizing figure.