Kobe's had good games against the Spurs, but he's way down on the list of causes of dashed hopes of riverwalk parades. I'd put Phil, Shaq, Fisher, George, and Malone above him on my all-bitterness playoff team.
It has nothing to do with that, it has more to do with the fact that the ESPN driven celebrity sports media are dying for another Michael Jordan, and they've been trying to find someone to force into that mold for a long time. Kobe's similar in some ways, and so superstar worshipping LA and their giant Laker fanbase resort to hyperbole to build him up. Jordan never failed to take a shot in the second half of an elimination game, and he certainly never lost by 40 in the last game of the finals. All kudos to Kobe for being able to score on Ime Udoka, really. I mean he should get another trophy just for that, and god forbid anyone mention Manu's ankle, because that had nothing to do with the team's success.
None of that changes the fact that Lebron James is actually better at everything Laker fans want to give Kobe credit for being great at. It's funny how we have to resort to an olympic game that was never really in doubt or a quote from the usually classy and respectful Lebron James to cite as evidence of Kobe's greatness. Now we get to listen to Lakerfan pointing to Barkley calling Kobe "The Closer" as though they don't realize that TNT certainly put their NBA crew up to assigning that le to someone in order to promote their show. At least they didn't call Kobe "Without a Trace".