Has one man ever confused both defenses and his own teammates as much as Kobe Bryant?  It is difficult to comprehend how a man with all the requisite skills of a franchise player can be so lost at times.  Harder to explain is how a man with three rings could be such a glorious loser.

For years people have awaited a light switch to go on in Kobe's head, expecting the return of the next great player.  But two years into the post-Shaq era, I'm starting to question whether or not Kobe Bryant is even a Franchise player.

No doubt, Kobe has the look of a Franchise guy.  Skills? Check. Charisma? Check.  A clue? Not really.  That's what seperates a great player from a legendary one.  For a while I've searched for how to describe what it is about Kobe that makes him not get "it".  Saying he's selfish is too easy, but watching TNT's broadcast last night, no one could explain it better than Chuck and Kenny Smith.

I believe they said over the course of Barkley's whole career ,he took more than 30 shots just three times.  Bryant, they said, has put up that many already seven times THIS SEASON.

And that's the difference between the NBA's legends and Bryant, and in fact, many of today's superstars.  Michael Jordan, in his prime, took almost every shot in the flow of an offense.  If a defense denied one aspect of his game, he simply found another.  It wasn't until the very end of games that Jordan forced his will upon a team.

Apparantly, the end of those games is all that Bryant remembers.  Instead of letting the game come to him, Bryant sets out to impose his will on ALL games ALL the time.  Like Chuck said, if you have to upfake more than two times, it is not a good shot.

Yet that's what Kobe Bryant continues to do.  Sometimes it is spectacular, increasingly though it's not.  And unfortunately it is what Bryant will continue to do because all that he remembers of his basketball idols are those take-over fourth quarters.  Thanks to the selectvity of Sportscenter, that is what most today will remember of Bryant.

Until Bryant goes back to the film room, and examines the ENTIRE game film of those great Jordan games, he  will be hardpressed to find his team in a position to reenact any of the great fouth quarters he built his game upon.