As recently as last season, during the regular season, I openly detested Kobe Bryant.
I could write a book on why I hated Kobe Bryant.
I hated that he was shooting the Lakers out of games, taking an NBA high 22 shots a game on a team that had the league's best offensive center.
I hated that he was basking in glory for hitting game winners against teams the Lakers had no place being down against: Miami, Memphis, Toronto, a then-mediocre Boston.
It was, to me, a rehash of the Shaq-Kobe "Combo" years, where Kobe would ditch the triangle offense in search of personal glory. As Kobe climbed up the All-Time Scoring list this year, the Lakers posted eight less wins than their previous championship season, finishing 57-25.
But you know what ended up happening in those Shaq-Kobe Combo years? Kobe learned to play as a teammate come Playoff time, and the Lakers managed to Three-Peat.
Kobe's silence during the free agency period was his greatest P.R. asset. Kobe would never dream of running a self-celebrating one hour special on himself; it's not that he's not narcissistic enough to do it, it's that he's always been too smart to expose his deepest emotions on a one hour television special.
Kobe wants to be the greatest to ever play the game, and so his life revolves around the game itself, not the fame and the celebrity that comes with it. With bile tickling my throat, I will admit that he is the second best two-guard to ever play the game.
If Bryant were to die tomorrow, he would certainly go out as the heir to Michael Jordan, and rightfully so. What we need to do, as NBA fans, is to appreciate the fully-developed, maturing, frozen-blooded assassin that this man has become. I will say it once and for all; you don't have to like Kobe Bryant.
Despite his attitude, his past incidences...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
