my  block

where uzairs roam

A certain someone isn’t going to stop badgering me until I say something about the Lakers’ recent loss in the NBA finals, so here goes.

I’ve been defending Kobe more or less since 2000 now. I’ve never been a full-on fanboy, but in a sport populated by egotistical megalomaniacs, I admired his rabid desire to win, and most importantly the pressure he put on himself to excel. His detractors argued this was just a manifestation of his ego, that he was only interested in bolstering his legacy; I didn’t care, as long as he won.

And that’s why this hurts. It’s not the first time Kobe’s lost in the Finals (2004, when he, along with Shaq, Payton and Malone managed to lose to the Pistons), but it is the first time that he’s the sole leader of a team that has been bounced out of the Finals. He was frequently doubled by the best defensive team in the league, but that’s not a good enough excuse. His teammates absolutely disappeared, but after doing enough to get Kobe to the Finals, they can’t be blamed. The Finals are when the Jordans of the game take over and deliver victories, no matter how or what or why or who. It’s only fair that Kobe is the face of the team when they’re winning and when they’re losing. We demand that of our Jordans just as well.

The thing is, Jordans, plural, don’t exist. There was one Jordan, an icon who fortuitously came along at that period between eras where destiny offers individuals the opportunity to immortalise themselves. Magic and Bird were winding down, and the league had no one to rival the sheer athleticism and bloody-mindedness of Jordan. The two ingredients did exist, but separately, in the Drexlers and Isiahs of the world. True, the rules were tighter and players were more skilled, but a little thought reveals these facts cut both ways.

Maybe that’s why, in retrospect, I’m not all that surprised Kobe lost. He’s never been Jordan, not since he was drafted at the unlucky thirteen spot by a team he refused to play for. Not when he was labelled a copycat rather than an iconoclast as Jordan was. Not when forced to be second banana for several years, and having to learn leadership at 26 when Jordan started learning at 21. Not in being reviled by the public for an accusation that was later dropped where Jordan’s indiscretions (which many claim equalled Kobe’s) were carefully handled by Stern. Not in playing before people were willing to replace their basketball god, Jordan. And not in playing in a league where the level of athleticism has caught up to the point that other than Dwight Howard and Lebron, no one has an outright athletic advantage over others.

No, Kobe is not Jordan. But Kobe is Kobe, a guy who has conquered all the odds and the roadblocks fortune has thrown his way, willing himself into a position where the comparisons with Jordan, that most untouchable combination of talent and destiny, have at times not been unreasonable.

That’s saying something. That’s saying there’s good reason to keep watching as Kobe plots and attacks this latest roadblock to his only goal: winning.