All things considered, I humbly think I might be one of the more impartial observers of the Kobe Bryant phenomenon you'll find. In the pre-title days, I was a huge fan of the kid's enthusiasm for the game. Like KG, you could see he was one of the guys who was really happy to play pro basketball. I particularly loved his performance in the '98 all-star game, when he tried to take MJ on mano-a-mano. At a time when everyone else crapped the bed when facing No. 23, that was just really impressive. On the court, Kobe was a live wire, prone to bad decisions, but awesome to watch with his crazy creativity, hops, and agility.
When the Lakers started winning championships, however, Bryant's demeanor changed. He became noticeably more arrogant, and was always taking too much credit for the Lakes' success, even though he was clearly Shaq's sidekick. I could not stand dude in those days. The change in Kobe translated over to the court, where he was not nearly as enthusiastic as he was in his younger days. Instead, he tried to be like Mike, all business, and his selfishness stood out on an otherwise unselfish team. He always seemed to want to take over the game at the wrong times, and it was in this period that he started to become the jumper-happy bomber that he sometimes lapses into today.
Post-Shaq, however, the pendulum has started to swing the other way. The losing has humbled Kobe a bit, making his off-court persona a bit more bearable. As a fan of the game, I enjoy watching Kobe, as he is the most skilled and creative scorer in the game by a country mile. What cracks me up though is watching every year the media crowing about how Kobe has finally changed his ways and learned to trust his teammates, only to watch Kobe revert to selfishness when it really counts.
This merry-go-round has been spinning each of the past three seasons, and this year has been no different, this time resulting in his getting the MVP. Kobe changed? Take that garbage elsewhere. Ain't nothing changed about Kobe. The only thing that changed this year was that Kobe got better teammates. Kobe the pragmatist realized that he can win some regular season games by moving the ball and letting Pau Gasol make plays every once and a while. Kobe even stuck with this MO in the playoffs, which worked well against the defenseless Denver and Utah squads. It even took care of_a_game (thanks, Fox censors!), but worn out Spurs squad, where Kobe played more aggressively and took over in the big games. But when push came to shove this season in the finals, when plan A stopped working altogether, where was teammate Kobe? The guy who "put his DNA into the team?" (Note: for a guy accused of rape, could he have had a worse choice of words?) Screaming at teammates on national TV and trying to win the finals by himself. I didn't know it was possible for a star player to lose his team (isn't that the coach's job?), but the eye-rolling and body language of the Lakers in the Finals told me otherwise.
It's still hard for me to digest, strategically, Kobe's performance in the finals. Boston used the same strategy in six games, and LA/Kobe never made the adjustment. The plan was simple: swarm Kobe on the catch and take away his driving lanes, thereby forcing him to shoot with a hand in his face or making him pass the ball. Now, as I see it, LA could have dealt with this in two ways. Because all five defenders were reacting to Kobe, quick ball reversals would lead to open jumpers and layups. This required Kobe to make a quick decision and pass the ball quickly after the catch. Yet he refused to do it except on rare occasions. The few times he did move the ball quickly seemed to always result in a good shot for Odom or Gasol. Why Kobe did not make the obvious adjustment and move the damn ball blows my mind. The only explanation I can see: Kobe wanted to win the game and be the hero by himself. AKA same old Kobe.
The other option for LA to combat Boston's D, which I NEVER saw them utilize, was to take Kobe off the ball. To free him up, the Lakers could have run Kobe off of screens off the ball, or even better, post him up (which woulda worked especially well against Ray Allen). Using Kobe in this way would have given him a fighting chance to beat the Boston D and get good looks. If Boston countered by doubling Kobe off of the ball, LA had the playmakers, with Gasol, Odom, and Vujacic, to capitalize against a 4-on-3 defense. The failure to make this adjustment may fall more on Phil Jackson's shoulders than Kobe, but that its so obvious to an internet blogger like myself really makes me wonder why the experts out on the court didn't at least give it a try. Hell, it couldn't have been any worse than putting freaking Chris Mihm in the game, right? But again, I can definitely see Kobe refusing to play a style which puts him in a more passive position, and doesn't let him be the hero, decision-maker, MJ-alike he wants so desperately to be, even if he doesn't admit it in interviews.
As fun as skewering No. 24 has been, the last sentence gets into the real reason I'm writing this post. The universal message I've been hearing post-finals is that "see, Kobe really ain't no MJ." First of all, is this really a news flash? Did you actually believe the crazed proclamations of the pro-LA fanatics and press, who foam at the mouth uncontrollably when Kobe is brought up? Some writers also like to trot out the "if MJ played now, he'd average 70 billion points a game under these sissy rules." And this is where I have to really draw the line. That's right, it's time to defend the Black Mamba.
I'm not saying MJ wouldn't have handled Boston's D in a better, more unselfish way (gotta love the double negative, but it makes sense here). But what nobody seems to realize is that the rules of the 80's and 90's outlawed the type of defense Boston was playing in the finals this season! Boston was effectively playing a zone on Kobe Bryant, and zones were illegal in the NBA until earlier this decade. Nobody could force the ball out of MJ's hands like the Celtics did to Kobe, because it would have violated the arcane illegal defense rules of that time. And so instead you got MJ shredding single and occasional double coverage, because team D couldn't give any more help. Of course, MJ still could be deterred from going all the way to the basket for fear of getting gang-tackled, but he could still create space in the midrange without worry from being smothered by help defenders. Kobe didn't have that luxury. Not to mention that MJ never had to worry about anybody like KG roaming all over the court with those go-go-gadget arms.
Fact is, the MJ playbook doesn't have anything to deal with Boston's one man zone defense, so Kobe was left to his own devices, and we saw the result. Here's hoping that LA's main man learns from his mistakes of this season, and either changes his mindset or develops the off-the-ball skills necessary to overcome. Maybe then he'll become the team player that everyone is so anxious to anoint him every season.
