The Los Angeles Lakers recently announced that they will be retiring both of Kobe Bryant’s numbers. In what uniform was he more impressive in?
It was no secret that Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers wanted to be the best player ever to play the game of basketball. Not the greatest version of himself to the best of his ability. The greatest of all-time.
That type of ambition is not for everyone. Striving to work tirelessly, day and night to dominate. Not just working out one year, but ever year. Demanding other players to be traded, calling teammates “soft”, to exchanging barbs in order to juice up competitiveness.
To dictate the offense through him and not pass the rock around if he didn’t trust your game. That type of behavior leads to be seen as “un-coachable”.
Then again, 5 rings aren’t for everyone.
The Lakers plan to retire Kobe’s jersey on Dec. 18 this season. Both of them.
You can go over the stats between #8 and #24, and try to determine which jersey should be retired over the other. The arguments can go back and forth with no end in sight. Listen, I’m not going to sit here and try to argue one side over the other, or try and justify why two championships are better than three. What I can do is give you a little insight on the type of competition both jerseys’ had to go up against.
This recollection of the opposition comes, not as a definitive answer for which jersey should be retired, but a quick look back at the road Kobe had to go through in order to achieve greatness. Before we get into each jersey’s case, I’d like to preface this article under a few conditions, which I think the reader should understand first:
- Kobe did not have as much playing time in his first two years compared to the playing time he got for the rest of his career. In 1996, his rookie year, he played 71 games and started only 6, and while getting more playing time in 1998, Kobe only started one game out of a possible 79 games. These early years of Bryant will not be considered or held against into making a case for #8 to be retired. Majority of people born in the late 70s to the mid 80’s remember the Showtime Lakers, but while never winning a championship, the mid-90’s Lakers always were a fan favorite.
Los Angeles Lakers
Side note:
Amongst those 90’s fan favorites were flashy left-handed point guard Nick Van Exel, Derek Fisher, Cedric Ceballos, and the all-too familiar Shaquille O’Neal. It wouldn’t’ be a complete throwback to the 90’s Lakers without mentioning the better left unmentioned-folk. Amongst those: Elden Campbell, who, if had to be given a certain superpower, would be given the ability of turning his hands into stone; Travis Knight, who holds the NBA playoff record for quickest disqualification by fouling out of a game in 6 minutes also contributed absolutely nothing to that team; Corey Blount, a power-forward who averaged 3.6 points in his 14-year career, was sentenced to 1 year in prison on 2 counts of marijuana possession. How much marijuana? 18 pounds. Blount claimed to the presiding judge that the marijuana was intended for personal use and to share with his friends. Still got 1 year in prison. Anyway, I digress.
2. From 1996 to 1998, Bryant played behind starting shooting guard Eddie Jones, one of the “mamba’s” early mentors, and also shared playing time with Byron Scott, Bryant’s former head coach. Amazing how Kobe’s lengthy career in the NBA has come full circle. Can’t say the same for Elden Stone Hands, T. Knight, and Corey Blunt.
At the opposite end of Kobe’s career contains the biggest bunches of missed time due to injury, and happened while Bryant sported the #24. For this reason, it also will not be held against him, nor will add or takeaway how tough the opposition was for the #24-era. Kobe’s onslaught of injuries started as early as 1998 with minor knee/ankle issues, and a broken hand in 2000, but the major injuries began with a torn Achilles tendon in 2013, a fractured knee in 2014, and a torn rotator cuff the following season. Between the 2013-’14 and 2014-’15 seasons, Kobe missed 123 games out of a possible 164 games.
3. In trying to determine which jersey-era had a tougher route to reaching it’s goal, I think the easiest thing to rule out were the years Kobe played against today’s current league of stars, save for Chris Paul, Lebron James, and Kevin Durant. . The Steph Curry’s and James Harden’s of the worlds were left out of serious competition because as their stock began to rise, it signified Kobe’s decline.
In other words the competition between them and Kobe weren’t in line with Kobe’s high points of his career. The up-and-coming players’ relevance weren’t punctuated until Kobe’s twilight. Curry’s Warriors and the current installment of Lebron James’ Cavaliers hit their stride during Bryant’s downfall, as did the majority of the NBA’s rising young stars.