my  block

where uzairs roam

Read Scoop Jackson’s piece on Kobe’s 81. For the first time since the first article he wrote after Wiley’s death, Scoop has hit the nail on the head. Nice — Scoop’s finally paused his assault on the English language (in this piece, ‘He against the world’; ‘We hate he’; ‘You ain’t Thee’) long enough to focus on the game. The ultimate point that Scoop’s making (implicitly) is that Kobe is basketball’s Barry Bonds: the athlete that loves to be hated. He feeds off it, and he’s lost all sensitivity to it. He’s decided, after all these years of being second-guessed and all-out hated, that the public and the media have no idea what they’re talking about, and that he should just do what he has decided is the right thing to do to accomplish his goal: a legacy defined by amazing statistics and W’s. If that means hogging the ball and putting up 36 points a game on 28 shots a game (1.28 points per shot — not the greatest), then so be it.

As Scoop put it, with his play this season, Kobe’s made the Lakers — and himself — relevant again. I was reasonably confident he wouldn’t fall from grace the same way Penny-after-Shaq or Vince did, but I wasn’t sure if his ‘pretty good’ would be enough to keep us interested, given the freaks today’s NBA features. LeBron, in particular, threatened to make anything Kobe did irrelevant: why bother making the G.O.A.T. argument for Kobe when LeBron was clearly going to rewrite every NBA record in the book? With the Lakers’ success however, led by our intrepid/selfish hero, the media are scrambling to reposition themselves on the fence so that they can resume their Kobe-bashing if he fails to get the Lakers to the playoffs while heaping praise on him for now.

Relevance is by far the most important thing Kobe can achieve right now. History has shown that great champions are remembered with reverence and affectionate nostalgia, regardless of how much disdain or plain old hatred is heaped upon them while they perform. That 15-22 demographic that has been much maligned for fawning over Kobe will hit middle-age right around the time he retires, and will have plenty of time to watch Lakers games with their kids, filling their ears with stories of his achievements. True or false, that’s the way it’ll play out.

Interestingly enough, LeBron’s been put on hold for now while the media re-evaluate Kobe’s credentials as Air Apparent. Since this debate has been settled for many years, their conclusions are hardly surprising: Kobe’s doing some whacked out s*** right now, but until he learns to make his teammates better — ostensibly through winning a title or two — he will rank second. The Sports Guy wrote a piece that suffered from his losing all credibility with his last Kobe piece. At this point, I don’t think there are enough diehard SG fans to deny that his recent blathering is getting tedious.

I think the important point that needs to be made in Kobe-vs-MJ is shot selection. There can be no argument that MJ took way better shots than Kobe’s attempting right now — there’s no way a fallaway jumper with 2 defenders in your face counts as a half-decent shot. The pro-Kobe point to be made (at least in the context of the 81-point performance) is that MJ never managed to manufacture enough shots in a game to hit the 80-point plateau. The two-step proof? He was never afraid to hog the ball, he just didn’t take bad shots. Therefore, the fact that he never made 80 was because he couldn’t create enough good shots to get him there. (Completely arguable, and included only as a starting point for discussion.)

Of course, every time Kobe-vs-MJ comes up, we are told that today’s NBA is a watered-down league and that Kobe’s achievements can’t be compared directly to MJ’s. First of all, it’s hilariously interesting that the people most likely to make that sort of statement are players from the 80’s or, in other words, people trying to protect their legacy. Still, I’ll concede there’s a point to be made there, since major rule changes (eg, hand-checking no longer allowed) have taken place and the league as a whole is younger and less knowledgeable. The counterpoint is that the game as a whole has evolved, with carefully designed team defenses (particularly the zone), more versatile players and world-class athletes — there are at least 12 players playing right now whose athleticism would stack up favourably with the unrivalled jets that left MJ’s defenders stumbling in his wake.

Back to Kobe.This article suggests people are beginning to rethink the Shaq trade, which is interesting. BTW, that writer has donkey cojones for bringing that topic up. There are reports that Shaq told his teammates to get him 50 shots after watching highlights from Kobe’s performance. Ahem, ’nuff said.

All that remains to be said is that I hate Lamar Odom. The SG’s absolutely right when he says LO’s miserable playing with Kobe. But why the hell does he not

1) set up properly — he should never shoot a 3-pointer unless it’s been diagrammed for him

2) demand the ball more — this wouldn’t be an issue if he would do (1) properly

3) speak his mind instead of spewing crap like, “It’s like God put Kobe here for us to watch him play basketball”. There’s obvious sarcasm there (which the media haven’t done their part in highlighting), but subversion gets us nowhere. If he’s unhappy, he should get the hell out of LA.