ducks
03-25-2007, 05:49 PM
http://www.gvnews.com/articles/2007/03/24/sports/sports01.txt
By Nick Prevenas
Saturday, March 24, 2007 10:33 PM MDT
Kobe Bryant is an amazing basketball player.
This fact is irrefutable, and perhaps the only thing any basketball fan can agree upon regarding Bryant.
Since entering the league in 1996, few players have been as compelling and divisive as No. 8. Wait, I mean No. 24.
Bryant has topped the 50-point mark in his last four games, single-handedly pulling his Los Angeles Lakers out of its post-All-Star-game funk and back into the playoff picture.
In the past, Bryant’s scoring binges typically had little to no effect in terms of wins and losses. In the past, he was a cold-blooded assassin, consumed solely by his individual accomplishments.
Now, Bryant’s otherworldly play has captivated teammates and fans alike—but not all fans.
Since the avalanche of tabloid stories that followed him out of Eagle, Colo., Bryant’s image restoration program has gone into overdrive, but not all basketball fans have bought into the “new and improved” Bryant.
This anti-Kobe contingent never focuses on what he is—a supremely talented athlete. Instead, they focus on what he isn’t—namely, Michael Jordan.
Comparisons between Bryant and His Airness began when Bryant was still getting his feet wet with the Lakers. Over the past few years, Bryant has even stolen Jordan’s patented fist-pump after game-winning shots.
While Bryant won three consecutive championship rings at the turn of the century, he knew he could never reach that rarefied Jordan status with everyone (rightfully) crediting Shaquille O’Neal as the primary reason for the Lakers’ dominance.
After O’Neal’s acrimonious departure, Bryant remained as the league’s most unstoppable scoring force, but his squad was mired in mediocrity.
Even though he became only the fourth player to average more than 35 points a game last season, a 45-win season and a first-round exit at the hands of the Phoenix Suns—which included Bryant’s genuinely bizarre Game 7 performance—sent his stock plummeting with the average NBA fan.
He can’t win without Shaq, they said. He’s a ball-hog and a jerk, they said.
Now, after accomplishing something that only Wilt Chamberlain has done, Bryant’s name has vaulted into the league MVP discussion with Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.
Currently, his Lakers sit in the No. 6 spot in the playoff standings, where the No. 3 San Antonio Spurs have to be positively terrified of the possibility of meeting Bryant in the first round.
For most of the past two years, I’ve been torn on the Bryant issue. On the one hand, he does things on a basketball floor that defy all logic. On the other, he occasionally represents everything that is depressing about the modern NBA—especially in that final game of the Suns series.
But there’s something different about this current 50-point streak. For the first time in years, I’ve been inspired by Bryant’s play. He has me racing home, just so I don’t miss a potentially historic evening of basketball.
No NBA player has more on the line these next few months. If Kobe can continue this phenomenal run, he might be able to finally convert the thousands of anti-Kobe basketball fans scattered across the world.
He might even be able to convert me.
By Nick Prevenas
Saturday, March 24, 2007 10:33 PM MDT
Kobe Bryant is an amazing basketball player.
This fact is irrefutable, and perhaps the only thing any basketball fan can agree upon regarding Bryant.
Since entering the league in 1996, few players have been as compelling and divisive as No. 8. Wait, I mean No. 24.
Bryant has topped the 50-point mark in his last four games, single-handedly pulling his Los Angeles Lakers out of its post-All-Star-game funk and back into the playoff picture.
In the past, Bryant’s scoring binges typically had little to no effect in terms of wins and losses. In the past, he was a cold-blooded assassin, consumed solely by his individual accomplishments.
Now, Bryant’s otherworldly play has captivated teammates and fans alike—but not all fans.
Since the avalanche of tabloid stories that followed him out of Eagle, Colo., Bryant’s image restoration program has gone into overdrive, but not all basketball fans have bought into the “new and improved” Bryant.
This anti-Kobe contingent never focuses on what he is—a supremely talented athlete. Instead, they focus on what he isn’t—namely, Michael Jordan.
Comparisons between Bryant and His Airness began when Bryant was still getting his feet wet with the Lakers. Over the past few years, Bryant has even stolen Jordan’s patented fist-pump after game-winning shots.
While Bryant won three consecutive championship rings at the turn of the century, he knew he could never reach that rarefied Jordan status with everyone (rightfully) crediting Shaquille O’Neal as the primary reason for the Lakers’ dominance.
After O’Neal’s acrimonious departure, Bryant remained as the league’s most unstoppable scoring force, but his squad was mired in mediocrity.
Even though he became only the fourth player to average more than 35 points a game last season, a 45-win season and a first-round exit at the hands of the Phoenix Suns—which included Bryant’s genuinely bizarre Game 7 performance—sent his stock plummeting with the average NBA fan.
He can’t win without Shaq, they said. He’s a ball-hog and a jerk, they said.
Now, after accomplishing something that only Wilt Chamberlain has done, Bryant’s name has vaulted into the league MVP discussion with Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.
Currently, his Lakers sit in the No. 6 spot in the playoff standings, where the No. 3 San Antonio Spurs have to be positively terrified of the possibility of meeting Bryant in the first round.
For most of the past two years, I’ve been torn on the Bryant issue. On the one hand, he does things on a basketball floor that defy all logic. On the other, he occasionally represents everything that is depressing about the modern NBA—especially in that final game of the Suns series.
But there’s something different about this current 50-point streak. For the first time in years, I’ve been inspired by Bryant’s play. He has me racing home, just so I don’t miss a potentially historic evening of basketball.
No NBA player has more on the line these next few months. If Kobe can continue this phenomenal run, he might be able to finally convert the thousands of anti-Kobe basketball fans scattered across the world.
He might even be able to convert me.