Kobe Bryant is good.  He can play basketball as well or better than nearly anyone in the entire world.  He is loved and hated at the same time by fans all over the planet.  Why? 

People try to compare Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant all the time.  The way they could take over a game and carry a team on their shoulders for wins.  People compare the way they so easily could get endorsements and even have accused Kobe of trying to be just “like Mike”.  But he isn’t like Mike.  Not even close. 

Kobe came into the league as a brash young player who wanted to change the game right out of high school.  He wanted to prove to everyone that he not only belonged, but was a top tier player.  I don’t think it helped him that he started his career in LA.  I compare the Lakers to the Yankees.  People either love them or they hate them and the players that play for them.  The Bulls were that way for a while in that people hated the Bulls but rarely did you hear someone say they hated Michael Jordan.  But I hear daily how bad people hate Kobe Bryant.  He’s the basketball version of Barry Bonds.  People go to games to boo him and give him a hard time.  Kobe had the rape accusations against him that didn’t help his cause either and subsequently lost a lot of his endorsement deals.  At the time I thought that was ridiculous because he hadn’t been found guilty of anything and wasn’t found guilty of anything.  He bought his wife a multimillion dollar ring and she stayed with him.  Still, that made him more of a villain in many people’s eyes. 

Michael Jordan was a known gambler and someone who cheated on his wife.  He has had all sorts of attacks on his character but it never effected the way people truly looked at him.  He kept his endorsement deals and still has a bunch of them.  He is the hero.  He is Superman and to our country he is nearly our favorite sports son.

Kobe Bryant plays on the largest stage in the NBA and is loved by all Lakers fans but is even starting to turn them off by his recent trade demands.  To them he is a hero and the man who is partly responsible for bringing the Lakers their most recent titles.  What it boils down to to me is that Michael Jordan was the man for the Bulls but didn’t care who took the shot as long as they won the game.  Kobe wants to be the man who is credited for a title like Michael was or Magic was or Larry was.  Instead he’s dealing with Shaq’s presence and Shaq is the one credited for those rings. 

 I believe that Kobe Bryant will go down as one of the top 5 best players to ever play the game.  I think he’ll hold a number of records that may not be broken when all is said and done.  But to me, something is missing and Kobe is the villain.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under Discussion, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.