Los Angeles Lakers: Appreciating Kobe Bryant
Going into the season, most Lakers fans were not all too excited about the prospects of the team, but rather the fortunes of Kobe Bryant. The superstar was returning from injury, and the only wins that really counted for Lakers fans were the records that he was going to be assaulting while the roster around him crumbled into dust.
Among those records, passing Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. Finally, that day has come and passed, and Kobe Bryant now sits alone as the third all-time leading scorer in NBA history.
As we stand back and applaud his achievement, the age old debate of Kobe Bryant versus Michael Jordan will rekindle. Most understand that this debate is a mistake, but we love to have it, and will continue to do so long after Kobe Bryant has come and gone.
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In the debate of who is better, a debate that entirely subjective in premise, it’s hard for people to separate emotion from the equation. Ask anybody who is in Jordan’s corner that actually saw him play during his peak, and they’ll let you know just how spectacular he was, but will acknowledge that he’s one of those guys you don’t understand until you see it happen in front of your own eyes. For that reason, he remains “The Guy Nobody Will Ever Pass” on the all-time greats list.
Because of this, Kobe Bryant has been cursed from the start. It seems as though we have never truly appreciated Bryant for the amazing basketball player he is due to the battle the media has placed him in with the ghost of Michael Jordan. From the start of his career, and to the end of it, Bryant has been compared in only the light of one of the greatest athletes to grace the face of planet Earth. His failures magnified, and his successes dissected by those judging on “The Jordan Scale,” Kobe Bryant has remained a fantastic basketball player through and through.
If anything, Kobe Bryant is a disciple of Jordan rather than the second coming. He replicated things that Michael used to do, and did some things better during his peak; he did things not at Jordan’s level as well. He carved his own path, and ended up being the NBA’s best answer when they were asked who was to succeed the face of their league. For that he should be commended, and the success that he attained during that period is astonishing. Throughout the majority of his career, Bryant was not compared to his peers, but rather the highest form of basketball royalty that the game knows.
So, as we celebrate this achievement for Kobe Bryant, I suggest to fans, media, and everyone else to simply let it be about Kobe Bryant. The man he passed on the scoring list is a living legend, and one of the greatest ever; but so is the one that accomplished this phenomenal feat of skill and longevity. For once, let us view Kobe Bryant in a light of his own, rather than trying to pick him to pieces in the shadow of Michael Jordan.
Take a second, breathe, and appreciate the final chapters of Kobe Bryant’s career.