Kobe Bryant's Legacy is Intact

I am not a Kobe Bryant fan. I spent last year’s Finals celebrating his Lakers going down to the Celtics, and this season, I rooted for the Rockets, Nuggets, and Magic to take him down again. 

My thought is he ruined the Lakers earlier this decade with his childish petulance and jealousy of Shaquille O’Neal. He ran off Shaq and questioned Phil Jackson, and I won’t even get into the crap he pulled in Denver a few years ago. But I will give him this, he can now claim his legacy as arguably the second-best player to ever compete in the NBA.

It appears, at 30, Kobe has finally grown up. He begged, pleaded, cajoled, threatened, and dragged his Laker teammates to the NBA Championship this season. He averaged 32.4 points per game, which is not surprising for such a prolific scorer; the big surprise was his leading the Lakers in assists in every game of the five-game Finals. 

He also is giving honesty a try when he finally admitted that all the questions about winning one without Shaq really did bother him. He said, “It was like Chinese water torture. I would cringe every time. I was just like, it’s a challenge I’m just going to have to accept because there’s no way I’m going to argue it. You can say it until you’re blue in the face and rationalize it until you’re blue in the face, but it’s not going anywhere until you do something about it.”

Kobe is on top of the world. He just won his fourth ring, his Los Angeles Lakers will be the favorites to win again next year, and he was Finals MVP in a year where most said LeBron James has passed him by. 

Yes, Kobe’s legacy is intact, even if I still don’t like him.