Kobe Bryant and The Lakers Are Confident As Ever Heading Into Season

“Looking from the surface it may seem that I got reason to be nervous. Then observe my work and see that my adversity was worth it” says T.I. in his Grammy-Award winning song “Swagger Like Us” from his Paper Trail album. The definition of swagger is to walk or strut with a defiant or isolate air. In sports, swagger is not something that you just have, but something you gain through experience and most importantly success.

If any team in all of sports knows what that truly means it’s the 2010 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers.

From losing streaks to winning streaks the Lakers’ swagger was never questioned, this past season, their chances of repeating may have been, but not their swagger. Most of it comes from their head coach Phil Jackson. His demeanor and coaching philosophy breathes confidence and assurance in one’s self. His triangle offense enables all players on the floor to touch the ball and make decisions. He puts confidence in every player on his roster to perform at their best. Then again you still must have that one player whose confidence can never be shaken….

If this past season proved anything, it proved that Kobe Bryant deserves to be in the conversation with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, and yes basketball purist Michael Jordan as the greatest player of all-time. He is the best basketball player in the game today and of his generation. Bryant averaged nearly 30 points in the playoffs with a broken index finger on his shooting hand, if that isn’t worthy of the conversation I don’t know what is. He led his team to Back-2-Back Championships, winning his fifth, after crawling into the playoffs with terrible play down the stretch of the regular season. But like all the greats before him he elevated his team when it counted most.

It’s not just Coach Jackson or Kobe Bryant that gives this team its remarkable swagger, but the parts around them. Pau Gasol, the Spaniard as Bryant calls him, has been the perfect complement to Kobe Bryant’s game. He is versatile and ambidextrous, with post moves that basketball purist and legends applaud. Since joining the Lakers along with the team Gasol has gained a certain air of confidence to himself. The clean cut suits and the cameos on ABC sitcoms show that he has grown just as this team has. Then we head to Derek Fisher, “old reliable”, the only man who can upstage Kobe Bryant whether it be in the clutch or in a team huddle. Fisher is the vocal leader of this team, but not only does he give big speeches but he hits big shots. The rest the team offers their own individual expertise, like Ron Artest with his great defense and crazy antics or Lamar Odom and his rebounding and versatility. One through fifteen these Lakers have confidence in themselves and one another. Lamar Odom said it best when he stated that the Lakers were like a “Grammy-Award winning rock band”. They all mesh well which why combined they have an unheralded swagger to themselves.

That is the reason why the Los Angeles Lakers should be the odds on favorite to won the 2010-2011 NBA World Championship.

“It may seem that I got reason to be nervous”

Since they understand what they’ve been through and what it takes to hold up the Larry O’Brien Trophy, the Lakers should have no butterflies or question marks about how to succeed in the upcoming season. This recent offseason they have added to their championship-winning team by acquiring Matt Barnes, a lock down defending sharp shooting small forward, Steve Blake, a scrappy little guard with a great jumper and Theo Ratliff, a veteran center with a lot of experience and savvy. Not to mention great draft picks in Devin Ebanks and Derrick Characters. But for reasons I understand but don’t completely agree with, many people believe the Miami Heat will dethrone the Lakers as NBA Champions. I strongly disagree for the reason that the Miami Heat haven’t played a single game yet. They have to hit the floor before anyone gives them anything. Now I understand that the Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh is very domineering, (they are great players I will give them their respect) but a team must have great role players to compete for a title and the Heat only has one in Mike Miller and it takes more than 3 superstars and one role player to win a title.  The rest of their roster consists of players like Juan Howard, Big Z and Eddie House to name a few, these players, in my opinion, are of poorer quality than the role players of other Eastern Conference contenders, let alone the Los Angeles Lakers. It has yet to be seen what this Miami Heat team will look like or what style of play they’ll have. Along with that, the Eastern Conference has had major plastic surgery this offseason; they went from looking like the okay girl from next door to Meagan Fox, while the Western Conference looks like the more mature yet still beautiful Halie Berry. But none the less the Los Angeles Lakers have nothing to worry about because they are the reigning World Champions of the NBA and “No one on the corner has swagger like us ”.