The Evolution of Kobe Bryant
I have always been a Laker fan ever since I learned about the NBA (National Basketball Association). I grew up watching Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when there was no cable. I don’t remember how I first saw them play. I know I first saw them play on TV but I quite vividly remember renting betamax tapes to watch their games. I never changed allegiance when they went from perennial contenders to perennial doormats, back to perennial contenders etc. My loyalty is to the team and not to its players. (You hear that Shaq?!)
Anyways, you could say that I watched Kobe grow in front of my very own eyes. This article very articulately documents his evolution. I have never seen Kobe this way (how the author put it all together elegantly) and yet it seems like I have always known all along what this author is trying to say.
At age 24, Kobe was remarkably like Jordan — and somehow, not him, akin to a musical prodigy, capable of playing any sonata the seasoned concert pianist could, yet somehow, lacking the intangible quality that distinguished the genius from the flawless imitator…
I always saw Kobe as being a very good basketball player - the best in the world today, since maybe year 2001 when they won their 2nd championship, but I didn’t find him graceful enough (unlike Michael Jordan) and wasn’t quite the basketball god as Jordan was. It seemed to me that Kobe was trying hard in everything he does in the basketball court. When jumped for a shot, it seemed like he was not comfortable with his pose. When he ran, it seemed like he was dragging with him an invisible chain. Don’t get me wrong. He was still graceful, just not graceful enough.
The fact is that whether by coincidence or conscious effort, the similarities between Bryant and Jordan’s mannerisms are unmistakable. The steady, loping strides as Bryant drives the ball upcourt, tongue wagging; the backward strut, head nodding, after he buries a jump shot; even the timbre and rhythm of his speech when he addresses the media are all vintage Jordan. And with Bryant’s new bulk, the physical similarity between the two — they are the same height and virtually the same weight — is impossible to ignore.
Today, I see him prancing like a gazelle going from coast to coast, making the fadeaway jumper effortlessly, a la Michael Jordan, and I see something that will finally make me think that Kobe is a basketball god in his own right. It’s not that he runs or shoots that fadeaway jumper like Jordan. It’s how he does it - finally doing it like he’s dancing in the wind, almost unmindful of the defenders around him.
Yes, Kobe’s teammates are better, but it’s not because he’s suddenly passing them the ball where he wasn’t before. A season ago, he gave them the ball plenty.
They’re better because for the first time, they’re matching his effort.
This is the first time I’ve read an article, in so little words, explain what I wanted to explain to the whole world - that Kobe doesn’t really want to win a ballgame all by himself (but he’ll do it if he has to).
They’re better because for the first time, they’re matching his effort.
If a Laker game is a beautiful painting, the opposing team is the frame, the Laker team is the paint, and Kobe is the painter.
