The Kobe Bible: "King James" Version

I sometimes find myself thinking about tangible elements.  Like those which transcend hard—work and discipline, to materialize into actual on-the-field accomplishment.  After all, it certainly could be said that any NBA or NFL or WNBA or MLB or NHL player who wins a championship, didn't work any harder to get to that point than the guy who was MVP on the last place team.  In other words, one tangible element is how Kobe has won games in NBA Championship Series, and LeBron James has yet to do so. 

You know, we could also consider the times when "Shaq" was considered the most dominant player in the NBA.  A time, during which he himself considered Kobe the best player in the NBA.  Even Nowitzki was able to will a team to at least one league championship series (game) victory, in achieving an output that James couldn't.  While in a very similar situation, I do fairly add.

I think James' performance against the Pistons in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals really showed his potential to make his teammates better (if you will).  But, the productivity of that trait has literally gone down hill ever since. 

It's just the exact opposite for Kobe, who has perhaps even risked the results of games over the past season or so when intentionally taking his impact out of on court game situations.  He forces his teammates to get focused for a positive result without him as nucleus.  I think the success of that has worked well, and at least far more successfully than for James. 

We can point to either's success, which is similar to the likes of Jordan increasingly making the Paxson's and Kerr's and King's and Hodge's into better players, as a fair model.  It brought Jordan a championship by his seventh season. 

So that's one more year left, on pace, King James!

I also have closely reviewed that fourth quarter "persona" of the 2008 Olympics Gold Medal game, focusing on James up through about the seven-eight minute point in the second half. 

It was obvious.  Whether the close game's intricacies, or taking what the refs gave and mastering it, or the potential heroics players sensed, none of it was in James.  So Kobe seized it like that mamba, which the team used for symbolizing him.  And to have his ferocity?  Fresh off an NBA Championship Series intensity, length, wear, and tear?  It just solidified his level existing at a tier which James has clearly yet to reach, before any real gauging can occur.

Kobe sat back, during the entire Games, and left the spotlight for James.  Was that Stern's order?  Potentially.  Or, at least, his desire?   After all, we saw who the commercials featured.  We read who the newspapers usually chronicled.  We saw who NBC kept the camera on during games.  But literally, that one quarter-or-so of Olympic basketball did undoubtedly put more distance between Kobe and James.

It was almost as if James was just like you and I.  Sitting there on that bench with Michael Redd.  Enjoying his select seat for history.  Just, reminiscing his comments here:  

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/beijing/basketball/2008-08-20-kobe_N.htm