Kobe

Kobe

Sunday, January 26, 2020

4:57 PM

Every story needs a villain.

Kobe was mine. This is our story.

Kevin Garnett was starting to become a huge star with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Which I thought was great for 2 reasons. 1. I was a Wolves fan. 2. He went straight to the NBA from high school, during a time when such a thing was criticized. He had a couple of quiet seasons when he first started, but now he was starting to come into his own. So I thought I would get on the hype train of the next big high school star. That player was going to be the shooting guard from Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania, Kobe Bryant. So I started looking for Kobe Bryant highlights on Sports Center and mentions of him in the newspaper (imagine this time before YouTube and other such social media options). He was a great little player, and was being compared to the greatest of all-time, Michael Jordan. Big plans for a big ego…

Then I got upset. He was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets, but with his agent, was able to angle a trade from the Hornets and end up as a Los Angeles Laker. High school players aren't supposed to do this! Show me your humble beginnings, and then if things don't work out, maybe request a deal away or leave when the contract is over. That's what Shaq did, and while he got a lot of flack for leaving Orlando, I thought it was the right way to do it. I decided then and there that I was going to hate Kobe after all. Or so I thought.

Airball. Airball. Airball. I thought it was ridiculous that a teenager kept taking shots, even after sending up a bunch of air balls. Even more so, in a playoff game. Against the Utah Jazz in the western conference semi-finals. With teammates like Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, and Jerome Kersey on the floor as well. My first thought was why is this kid killing his team's season? Then I saw him come back for more. I had a sympathetic moment for him then, I really wanted to see him hit a shot. He didn't and they crashed out of the playoffs.

So I liked him again. He wasn't Jordan, but he had a different competitive fire. A lot of players could have ended up broken after a sequence like that. Not Kobe. It changed his life.

Since the Minnesota Timberwolves were always struggling to get out of the gates during this time (something like 5 consecutive seasons of first round playoff exits), I adopted the Portland Trailblazers as my 2nd favorite team. It was a group full of assholes. JR Rider. Brian Grant. Jimmy Jackson. Damon Stoudamire. Rasheed Wallace. Bonzi Wells. But man were they fun to watch. The year prior to their meeting in the western conference finals, the Blazers were probably the best team in the league. But they ran into a wall when they played the Spurs and David Robinson, Tim Duncan and friends, and got swept off the court. The next year, my adopted Blazers were to meet up with the powerful Lakers, who added AC Green, Brian Shaw and Ron Harper. Unfair, and I started to hate this guys again. Especially in the WCF, when the Lakers were down by 15 points in the 4th quarter, and the referees literally blew their whistles enough times to get the Lakers back in the game again, which they won, and proceeded to go on and win the Finals against the Indiana Pacers. My hatred was back in full force. How unfair! How Unjust! And I found a new team to hate!

They won in 2001. They won in 2002. But I held firm. Shaq and Kobe were 2 of my least favorite athletes around. When I first started writing more creativity outside of school, I remember I did a piece on things that I hate/love. One of the statements was: Things that I hate - Kobe Bryant. Things that I love - Kobe Bryant shooting 5 for 27 from the field.

In 2004, the Minnesota Timberwolves finally became something. They had traded for Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell and it really felt like they were going to take that next step and finally take the Wolves to the finals. We met up with the Lakers again but this time with some nicer weapons: Karl Malone and Gary Payton also chasing that elusive ring. I really hated this group of players because I thought Payton was dirty, I thought Karl Malone was a cheap shot artist (still do), Rick Fox flopped, and Derek Fisher was a snake. We suffered a couple of injuries and had no one to shut down the almighty Kobe. The greatest team the Timberwolves ever created, and all for naught. Another layer to my Kobe hatred.

Colorado. And enough about that.

Then it got quiet. Kobe was missing the playoffs, since the Lakers weren't big enough for 2 egos (which is crazy considering who've they had in their history). And if I had to pick a side, I was always going to be a Shaq supporter. So when Shaq got booted, cheering against Kobe and the Lakers became easy.

And then they got Pau Gasol. And that pissed me the hell off even more. I think the trade was for Kwame Brown and some other random. Are you kidding me?! For an all-star and nothing in return!? If this was any other team, the NBA would step in and say how unethical this trade was. (Haha, Chris Paul). And of course Pau and Kobe would end up winning 2 championships, which left Kobe at 5, and Shaq 4.

81. Who else could it be, but Kobe? I remember thinking, why couldn't it be any other player? Allen Iverson. LeBron James. Dwayne Wade. But it had to be Kobe. This became the guy who I would celebrate when his team got knocked out of the playoffs; or didn't make it altogether. This was the turning point though. I took a moment during this time to wonder why Kobe always seemed to be so successful, even when things around him weren't going so well.

The results surprised me. His work ethic was second to none. His passion was unmatched on the court. He had a bulldog mentality. He lived in a different country as a child. I learned a lot from these findings and they told me a lot about myself. I never had this type of passion for anything in my life. I never worked my ass off to the point where I knew I was going to be successful at something whether it be bowling, or writing, or anything else. I remember thinking around the time of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United, and I thought when and how is United going to find another player that works as hard and shows the same commitment to greatness that Cristiano did on a daily basis. And not long after that Kobe compared Ronaldo to himself. Kobe, who went from 4 airballs as an 18 year old, to a 5 time NBA Champion and an all-time great. I lowered my guard a bit.

During the final years, I found a new appreciation for my greatest sports villain. I never watched more NBA than when I did cheering against the Lakers. I began to realize, that maybe I didn't hate Kobe, but that I respected him so much I just needed some justification for when he actually did fail. But it was the after retirement Kobe that I related to the most. A doting father. Appreciation of the languages and the arts. He is - was (fuck, it's still so unreal) so in tune as to who he was as a person and I thought it was cool that he was able to share the entire depth of himself, whether it be in Sports Illustrated, interviews on Motiversity, Dear Basketball… all of it. Every story needs a villain, but my story somehow found me a hero. He will certainly be missed.

Peace Mamba. 8/24