Kobe Bryant will soon enter his twentieth season in the NBA, a feat that very few players in any sport have ever achieved. Yet his career has always been marked by controversy, and his legacy will be complicated. On the one hand he is an international global superstar as evidenced by the rousing reception he receives even in foreign countries such as China. Whenever Laker games are televised from arenas throughout the United States hordes of fans can be spotted wearing Bryant’s jersey with the number “24” proudly displayed. At the same time, he is often called aloof, selfish, overly demanding, and ill-tempered. It is frequently reported that other stars do not want to play with him, but curiously, those who do join the team inevitably say they can’t wait to have him as a mentor. The more he speaks to the media – which he has done with increasing frequently in recent years – the less we feel we really know him. In many ways, Bryant, for all his visibility, fame and fortune, is a walking paradox.
Hoops Habit
There are many positives – more aptly described as superlatives, to recount. For one thing, when his playing days are over, Bryant will be remembered as one of the all-time greats at his sport. The accomplishments are endless: Five-time NBA champion, 17-time NBA All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA team, 12-time member of the All NBA Defensive Team, the third leading scorer in the history of the league for both regular season and post season games. He has been MVP of the league, MVP of the All Star game, and MVP of the NBA finals. No one who witnessed it will ever forget Bryant’s 81 point performance against the Toronto Raptors some years ago, a feat no one imagined could occur in the modern era. Along the way he amassed a fortune estimated at over a quarter of a billion dollars. He is married to a beautiful woman whom he has known since she was in high school, and they have two beautiful children. He has made a seemingly idyllic life for his family in a desirable beach community in Orange County, far from the glitz of Hollywood.
Another positive one must comment on when speaking of Bryant is his loyalty. In the modern NBA, and in all other major sports for that matter, even the biggest superstars jump from team to team. A generation or two ago this was not the case, principally because there was no free agency. You were drafted by a team and you retired from that team unless they decided to cut you or trade you along the way. Today, even the top players move freely from team to team, chasing money, championships, or both. Whether you are Peyton Manning leaving the Indiana Colts after so many years, LeBron James going from Cleveland to Miami and back to Cleveland, or Albert Pujols leaving St. Louis where he was revered and heading west to the Angels, loyalty is an outdated concept. Yet Bryant has chosen to play for one team only, though he easily could have gone elsewhere. There was a time after Shaquille O’Neal retired where reportedly Bryant almost did just that, but in the end, he started his career and will end his career a Laker. Despite the hard times which have befallen the franchise, where the team is publically ridiculed in the media, he has remained generally positive and has rarely criticized the franchise. In fact, in recent years, with upheaval all around him, Bryant has consistently given the front office his vote of confidence.
But there is another side of the Bryant story which cannot be ignored. For all his virtues, he has never been the kind of player who elevates his teammates. Beyond their towering individual skill, men like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson made – or at least appeared to make — everyone else on the roster play better. They brought out the best in their teammates, who often seemed to overachieve because of it, and that helped their teams succeed on the court. Bryant, on the other hand, is just Bryant. Often it is as though he plays a one man game, or more descriptively, one against five. At the end of each quarter, each half, and with the game on the line, he will always be the one at the top of the key with the ball in his hands, and he will always be the one to take that final shot. It does not matter who, or how many opponents, are guarding him. A joke was going around the league a few years ago, a parody of a long-running beer commercial, where Bryant says of himself: “I don’t always pass the ball, but when I do it is off the backboard to myself.” In fact, when Bryant is on the court, other players on the team tend to stand around watching him. Needless to say, lack of ball movement on the Lakers has often been a problem in recent years.
In the modern NBA, players recruit other players. James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh famously got together a few years ago and orchestrated a way that they could all be on the same team. Players of this ilk are often seen out on the town together at parties, at weddings, or in clubs. For example, it is often reported that James, Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul, are hanging out. They appear to be genuine friends. Bryant, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have any close friends among NBA players, and he admitted as much recently. Of course, one could offer as an excuse that he is a mature adult with his own family, but all the players mentioned above are in this same position. In short, for all his talents, Bryant is not a recruiter, and rumors persist that other NBA stars do not want to play with him because he doesn’t trust anyone and insists on commanding the entire spotlight at all times.
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Which brings us to the point of this article. It is often said that Bryant is all about championships, that he is desperate to stay ahead of Tim Duncan and catch up with Jordan who won six. Yet, paradoxically, Bryant took steps to ensure this would never happen. A few years ago, following a player’s strike, the league adopted a very strict salary cap. In the midst of this happening Bryant signed a two year extension for nearly $50,000,000 making him the highest paid player in the league despite his diminished skills and the foundering roster of players around him. This virtually ensured the Lakers would not be able to afford to sign other prominent players in his final years in the league, which meant the team would not contend for a championship. In fact, the franchise has sunk to depths previously thought unimaginable, in part for this reason. At the same time, players like James and Duncan accepted lower salaries just so their teams could sign other good players and continue to be in contention.
No Laker fan wants to hear this, but here is the plain truth: Bryant is not going to win a sixth championship. The Lakers are not going to make the playoffs this season, presumptively Bryant’s last, and even if a miracle were to occur, there is no chance of a deep run once the post season starts. The team’s goal at this time is not to win a championship, it is simply to show some progress while determining who among the young players may emerge as someone who can be a good player on a good team. More likely, the team will suffer through another horrific year record-wise, and Bryant will be surrounded by young, untested players which will sorely try his patience. Inevitably, one must ask the question, why does he want to put himself through this mess in the twilight of his career?
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No one knows the answer to this question for sure. Is it for the money? He has all the money in the world, but still, if someone foolishly offered to pay you $25,000,000 to play basketball for a few months of the year, would you say no? Besides, can you ever really have too much money? Could it be his ego, that he just doesn’t want to end his career on such a low note? If that is the case I’m afraid he will be disappointed, since the odds appear to be very low that he will return to a semblance of his former self at age 37 following major, season-ending injuries three seasons in a row. Or could it just be for the love of the game, and win or lose, at the end of the day, life is better when he can just play.
I hope Bryant proves us all wrong, but I fear it will be sad watching him struggle to regain of his former skills while losing nightly surrounded by virtual strangers as teammates. Likewise, if this is going to be a year of lavish celebrations and whistle-stops, where the team hopes to distract us from the product on the court by continuously honoring Bryant for his NBA lifetime achievements — which Jeannie Buss has hinted — it could prove off-putting to his teammates and tedious for the fans who just want to see their team win games.
At the end of the day Bryant’s true reason for putting himself in this undesirable position is anyone’s guess. It is one last testament to the mystery of a man who has always done things his way and will forever remain a paradox.