Kobe Bryant: Is Making Teammates Better Part of Kobe's Job Description?

The new version of Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol continued to show off his newfound assertive attitude when he suggested to a Spanish website that the Lakers offense should be geared to all players not just Kobe Bryant.

Gasol absolved Kobe of any blame, and rightly pointed the finger at head coach Mike Brown and the Lakers system.

At least Gasol understands what Kobe's job is, because no one else really seems to.

For years Bryant has been criticized for not making his teammates better when in reality he has been one of the all-time best at performing the duties his position calls for.

Kobe's main responsibility as a shooting guard is to score, and currently he has done that better than all but five players in league history, and once he passes Shaquille O'Neal sometime this season he will reside in that hallowed group.

I can understand why critics take Kobe to task for not making his teammates better because his enormous talent suggests that he could do so much more if that was his purpose.

And at times Kobe has shown the ability to impact a game in multiple arenas, but he will always have a scorer's mentality and heart.

As a Lakers fan I really don't have a problem with that.

In my opinion the only player on the court whose job description includes making other players better is the team's point guard.

A point guard is responsible for not only running the offense but also understanding where his teammates are more effective on the floor, and getting them the ball in the best possible position to score.

Kobe's 81 point game against the Toronto Raptors is the second-highest scoring performance in the history of the game, and the best illustration of why the the above paragraph does not describe Kobe.

Any player who scores more than 60 points in a game clearly does not have his teammates' best interests in mind when it comes to sharing the wealth, but Bryant's ability to fill up a score sheet has helped the Lakers win five championships.

And his presence on the court may not have made any of his teammates better, but the defensive attention paid to Kobe has certainly created easier scoring opportunities for others, which is similar to what Michael Jordan did in Chicago.

Jordan is often credited for making his teammates better, but all he really did was give shooters like Steve Kerr, B.J. Armstrong and Craig Hodges more room to operate.

Jordan's teammates certainly benefited from playing with him, but Scottie Pippen is still the only player from those teams a person could really argue Jordan made better.

Jordan, like Kobe, was a scorer first and his string of 50 and 60 point games also indicate that he understood what his primary responsibility on the court really was.

There are times when I wish Kobe would pass the ball instead of trying to shoot himself out of impossible situations, but I understand that's not in his nature.

Kobe himself hears the criticism but scoffs at the notion that he should stop shooting because some people do not think he makes his teammates better.

Kobe's five championships, MVP award and two NBA Finals MVP awards are only part of what is one of the most impressive resumes in NBA history, and Bryant has achieved it by doing exactly what works best for him.

Some people may label Kobe as a ball hog, shot chucker or a show boat, but in the end they also have to call him one of the greatest players to ever grace an NBA court, and that works for me.