The Takeover: The Curious Case Of Kobe Bean Bryant

Kobe played with Shaq and won three NBA championships.   Because of this, his success is often denigrated.  This despite the fact that Kobe was the clutch go-to-guy in the 4^th and raised the play of Shaq and his teammates’ games in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals against Portland when they were down 15 points in the final period.  This despite the fact that it was Kobe, and not Shaq, who lead the team in the deciding Game 6 of the 2000 Finals by hitting ice-vein shot after shot, making play after play, and pass after pass, to finish off a tougher-than-expected Pacers team that found Shaq, at critical junctures, in foul trouble and unsure how he should attack.

What is missed in this is that Kobe clearly could have averaged 30 points himself as “the guy” on any team and certainly won a few more scoring titles to buttress his own resume.  But he sacrificed for the team.  Yes, Kobe did so unwillingly more often than we’d all like, but he did it nonetheless.  What is missed is that we witnessed what it would have been like to have Michael Jordan playing with Wilt Chamberlain.  Not an easy feat, though Jordan would often muse aloud during his career about what it would be like to play with Pat Ewing, David Robinson, or Shaq.

Kobe understood the game as any knowledgeable student of the game does:  big men are rare, and having a skilled big man like Shaq was a competitive advantage that lead to close, high percentage shots.  That is just the proper way to play the game.  Kobe still posted 18-24 points a game during those years, despite Shaq getting 35 touches a game.  Like Jordan, Kobe was also an excellent defender, especially during these early years, holding players like Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady scoreless for entire halves and 4^thquarters.  Both have similar defensive resumes, with Jordan being voted Defensive Player of the Year during an individually masterful and historic 1988 season.  Still, given the superior conditioning and skill of players today, I’d call it a push here.

Magic recently remarked during the Finals’ telecast that “all of us” have egos – referring to the great players – that they all have a vision about how winning is done, precisely because they’ve been so successful at it.  So, it stands to reason that Jordan would have had issues playing with a Shaq or Wilt because of his own ego; and that like Kobe, Jordan would not have been comfortable playing second fiddle for long with his skill set, work ethic, and knowledge that the No.1 option wasn’t taking the game as seriously on a regular basis and consistently showing up to camp out of shape.

2.  If Michael hadn’t retired the Bulls would have two more championships. 

This is presumptuous at best.  People forget that Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson (and their squads) were in a brutal Western Conference and yet dominated as they peaked during the mid-nineties.  Basketball historians and the detail-oriented fan will tell you straight-out that Jordan’s Bulls team struggled against those Rockets and Spurs teams during the regular season in the 90s.  They were .500 against those type of teams at best.

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