Editor’s Note: We’re introducing another new writer with this post. This is Pat. Pat is not a Lakers fan.
As I sit here and watch as the Lakers and Magic come to the inevitable conclusion of the Lakers hoisting the trophy, I find myself getting angry and frustrated that Houston, Denver, and now Orlando have failed to take them out. Then ABC flashes to an up close of Kobe Bryant sticking his bottom teeth out like his jaw is dislocated and my Kobe-hating meter is now off the charts. I have never been a fan of Kobe or his frequent ball-hawking style of play. I respect his talents and believe he is a top ten all time player, and getting a ring this year without playing second fiddle to Shaq cements his place in history as one of the best to play the game. Similar to Bryant himself, Kobe fans are often smug and arrogant and for some reason insist that he is the best player ever despite there being little, if any, statistical evidence to back this up. That being said, I decided to write some reasons/facts that fellow Kobe-haters can use as ammunition against the LA fans who undoubtedly will be signing his praises even louder this offseason.
1) Kobe is 4 for 6 in NBA Finals appearances, and he was the second best man on the team for three of his four rings. Kobe had the luxury of playing for arguably the best coach ever during the majority of his career and he played with the most dominant physical force to ever play the game in Shaquille O’Neal. During the 2003-2004 season, Kobe was playing with three other future Hall of Famers (Shaq, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton) and was regarded at that point as the best player on the team and rightfully so. Shaq’s numbers had dipped and Malone and Payton were nowhere near their prime, but the team was undoubtedly stacked and Kobe failed to deliver in the finals. In his second run as the top man on the team, he lost once again to the Celtics. This year by defeating Orlando, Kobe earned his first ring as the go-to man for his team. You need to give him his props for that, but he doesn’t have the other three without Shaq.
2) Kobe’s supposed legendary ability to hit the game winning shot is more hype than truth. If you look at this site, you can see that Kobe, despite taking the most game winning shot attempts out of an extensive list of NBA players, did not hit the most game winners and shot just .250%. Those statistics include the 2003-2004 season up to February 4th of this season. ESPN and ABC want to make Kobe out to be the next Jordan in terms of clutch shots and have done all they can to promote this idea. The fact of the matter is the more attempts you take, the more you will eventually hit. You don’t see the misses replayed over and over, but the makes are made into some sort of iconic shots.
Kobe fans may point to his better record in terms of game winning shots in the playoffs, as can be seen on the same page. However, after watching his performance in this year’s playoffs, including his game 2 game winning attempt that was blocked by Hedo Turkoglu (as Kobe was triple teamed and failed to pass to a number of wide open teammates…but that’s another story), I am confident that his shooting percentage will drop once this year’s playoffs are factored in. Anyone who tries to deny that Kobe takes to many shots, and even more so at the end of the games, just needs to look at the numbers.
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