Avishai Sol

I’ve honestly been surprised by how much Kobe’s death has affected me.  In life I would always cheer against him.  My family being from the Boston area I’d always pull for the Celtics during those playoff duels in the late 2000s.  I opposed and argued against Kobe’s shoot-first playstyle, I stuck up my nose at the cult that was his fanbase.  He was always the villain in the league, on and off the court.  So, when I heard about his tragic passing I was of course shocked by the news, but also by how deeply grieved I was by it.  I couldn’t understand why I was so distraught by the death of an athlete I had hated in life.  And especially on the heels of the death of John Havlicek, a player that I had loved.  Of course, Hondo’s death was not the tragedy Kobe’s was, but it still made we wonder.  I feel like I need to write about him, if not for my readers than for myself.  There have been thousands of Kobe tributes this past week crafted by better writers than me with a larger audience, but I need to have a Kobe piece on this blog.  I couldn’t stand it if I went on writing about trade rumours and rookie performances and didn’t address the darkest day in my sports lifetime. I’m not going to write about his life.  There are a kjillion bio-pieces out there right now and mine won’t be the most accurate or the most interesting.  Instead I’m going to write about what I can, what I know, Kobe as a basketball player and where he ranks within the basketball pantheon.  If nothing else it will be a lighter way to remember him. ——————————————– Like many basketball legends Kobe Bryant has three primes.   Some legends have more, some have less, Kobe has three.   Prime 1:  A new hope -) Kobe Bryant is a young hotshot NBA star who competes in dunk contests, scores buckets, and is the “two” of the best one-two punch basketball has had this millennium.  Kobe spends most of his time in Shaq’s enormous shadow, and until really the last year of this chapter he’s ok with that.  Kobe’s competitiveness and need to win allowed him to take a step back here and recognize that a prime Shaq was the most effective way to win basketball games, and no matter how big Kobe’s ego got he always was able to recognize Shaq’s dominance while it lasted.  This version of Kobe didn’t have the killer midrange game that became a staple of his offence later on.  Instead he was more of a slasher, showing off a smoothness and athleticism that rivaled Vince Carter’s at the time, and mirrored a young Jordan.  The threepeat is what we remember from this era, and rightly so, only five teams have ever been able to do it.  The reason I call this chapter of Kobe’s career a “prime” is because it proved how devastating he could be as a wingman to Shaq.  It pokes a massive hole in the stigma of Kobe’s selfishness and ball hogging on the court.  He was a willing passer when he thought his teammate might actually hit the shot.  So when you watch him take contested midrange faders in the late 2000s, before you judge him, know that that guy wide open in the corner is Smush Parker.   Prime 2:  The Mamba strikes back -) This is Kobe at his deadliest and most evil.  This is post-Shaq Kobe, a player with no help, no coach, and no shame.  Only this version of Kobe would have the gall to score 81 points in a game, and this is maybe the only version that could.  I like to compare this chapter of Kobe’s career to Anakin Skywalker at the end of The Revenge of the Sith movie.  Kobe has gone fully to the dark side, is untethered from his friends and his master, and goes on a murderous rampage that destroys any and everyone in his way, friend or foe.  This is Kobe at his most polarizing, most deadly, and is by far my least favourite version.  I don’t blame him for the lack of team success, but this is definitely Kobe at his least likeable.  This is when he had his no-shooting-game, this is where his reputation as a ball hog sparked.  In retrospect this chapter of Kobe’s career actually helps his legend.  Because he was able to learn and move past all the faults of this era it serves as a picture of his dominance, Kobe at his least abashed, Kobe at his purest.  But only because he was able to learn.  If this picture of Kobe was all he was ever able to be then he would go down in history with the Bob McAdoo’s, Elvin Hayes’s, and Wilt Chamberlains, as a talented, dominant, selfish player.  With his career in the rear-view mirror, this chapter of Kobe’s basketball life looks a lot better now that it’s over.  I’m glad we got to see it, I’m glad it ended when it did.   Prime 3:  Return of the Jedi -) Sticking with the Star Wars metaphors, this brand of Kobe was a bit like Luke as we see him in his opening scene in Return of the Jedi.  Not so much with his newfound power, we always knew Kobe could use the force, I’m talking about how he acted on and off the floor.  When we see Luke walk into Jabba’s palace in his dark robe and watch as he negotiates with the gangster with a newfound maturity, that is what is was like watching Kobe during this time.  Granted it’s much easier to trust your teammates when you’re passing to Pau Gasol and not Kwame Brown, but still.  This is by far my favourite version of Kobe.  A version with a fully developed set of skills and a fully developed basketball mind.  I often find that you’re able to learn how great a star athlete really is if they are able to maintain their dominance once they begin to decline athletically.  We see this in the case of players like Clyde Drexler, who learned to shoot threes, or Tony Parker, who in later years moulded his offensive game to avoid contact and work the in-between areas on the floor.  This final product of Kobe Bryant has adopted the black mamba moniker and has begun to show us a convincing “old Jordan” impersonation to match his “young Jordan” impersonation early in his career.  More jump shots, perfected post play, and switching from a ball handling scorer to a true combo guard.  This shift changed Kobe from a losing superstar to a winning star.  Three consecutive finals appearances and two titles may be Kobe’s greatest career achievement.  It saved him from Shaq’s shadow and showed us that all his pathologic competitiveness was a good thing all along.  You can change a lot of opinions with a championship. So where does he rank all-time?  Depending on who you ask he could rank anywhere from 15th to 2nd.  Here’s my list, maybe you’ll see some blog posts about the other guys on it at some point. 1. Michael Jordan 2. LeBron James 3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 4. Magic Johnson 5. Larry Bird 6. Bill Russell 7. Shaquille O’Neal 8. Tim Duncan 9. Kobe Bryant 10. Wilt Chamberlain 11. Hakeem Olajuwon 12. Oscar Robertson 13. Jerry West 14. Kevin Durant 15. Stephen Curry I’m willing to hear arguments that Kobe ranks as high as 7.  If you want to argue that he’s better than Bill Russell because of the era shift then fine, I disagree, but fine.  The most devoted Kobe fans will argue that he’s better than everyone not named Michael Jordan.  These people are wrong.  I know it’s an opinion, I know the free world provides a right to free speech.  I don’t care, these people are false, and they should know that. It’s hard for us as fans to filter out our personal feelings when trying to rank these kinds of players.  They are all deserving, and more often than not our lists come down to our individual sports values.  Kobe is one of the greatest scorers ever, but not the greatest.  He’s one of the best perimeter defenders ever, but not the best.  He’s one of the most effective winners ever, but not the most.  I think that part of why he’s so loved is also the reason he isn’t better than say a Tim Duncan.  Kobe is a flawed player and an equally flawed man; this is why he resonates so much with fans and peers alike.  Kobe Bryant represents the strive to be great, no matter the pain, no matter the cost, no matter what other people may think.  He represents a drive to be great.  Now, all of the players on this list live by that same drive or they wouldn’t be the legends they are, but it’s because Kobe is flawed and that he was able to push through it, that people point to him as a representative of hard work.  He has a mystique that nobody but Jordan can boast, and in the case of a career narrative, overcoming long odds is sexier than quiet, constant, success.  Even if he helped put those odds in front of him in the first place, he overcame them, and that’s what the average fan remembers. I am willing to agree with anyone who presents a good argument that Kobe is the 7thbest player ever, or the 10th, or 13th or whatever.  He is one of the most beloved athletes ever, even though he’d probably say otherwise.  He was the face of the league, the most popular player on the planet, and that matters.  It’s not purely basketball, but it does matter, if nothing else it sways people’s opinions and changes narratives.  I guess the opinions of millions of people who don’t know what they’re talking about is more important than those of basketball historians and educated members of the media.  He is the defining player of his era.  He was the face of the game for the better half of a decade.  History will remember his bright spots more than dark ones, his fans will sing his praises for as long as they can sing, and his memory will be as a champion and as a basketball legend. I will sincerely miss Kobe Bryant.  I will miss hating him, I’ll miss admiring him, I’ll miss him on and off the court, and I’ll miss watching him be a caring father to his kids.  I was too young to remember Michael Jordan, so the players who defined basketball in my life have been LeBron and Kobe.  I never loved Kobe the way I loved LeBron, but anyone who has been that big a part of your life leaves a hole when they’re gone.  Kobe represented the human struggle to be great, to strive for excellence at all costs.  Basketball was better with Kobe Bryant in it, but don’t worry that we’ll lose the mamba mentality now that he’s gone.  What he stood for will only become more legendary in the wake of his passing, and whatever your opinions on Kobe Bryant the man, the Black Mamba philosophy will last forever, and make the sports world better.  For me, an 18-year-old trying to find his way in the world, Kobe’s message of victory through hard work, focus, skill, tenacity, confidence, and drive, means more than any buzzer beater or 81-point game.  He was an inspiration, everything else aside. Rest in peace Kobe Bryant, Of all the basketball players I’ve hated, I never loved one more than you.