ramblings of the mc

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Alright, I gotta admit… I’ve been slow to come around to the whole idea of Kobe Bryant being amazing. Despite his other-worldly abilities and his seemingly endless supply of scoring options, I have until this point in time, refused to acknowledge his greatness. I think the reasons have mainly been twofold:

1. My obsession with Michael Jordan forces me into the belief that no one can ever be half the player he was.
2. Kobe played with Shaq, therefore I must despise him.

After tonight, I’m prepared to go ahead and say that Kobe may very well be the second best player to ever pick up a basketball, second only to Jordan, of course.

If Kobe leads the Lakers to the title, and he looks very likely to do so at this point, it will be the greatest accomplishment in modern basketball history. With the exception of Pau Gasol, the Lakers are comprised entirely of role players, underachievers, and folks who would ride the bench with most organizations. To do with this team what Kobe has done is a feat which not even Jordan could do.

Jordan had Pippen. Pippen was a hall of famer. Granted, once Jordan left Pippen became a shell of the player that he once was, but in his prime Pippen was a defensive machine and was capable of taking over a game all on his own. This is nowhere close to the case with Gasol. Some will want to say thta Lamar Odom is a major contributor, but Odom is simply a great third option. His is to Kobe what BJ Armstrong was to Jordan.

The current dismantling of the San Antonio Spurs is nothing short of awesome. I’m constantly impressed by the way that Kobe’s presence forces everyone around him to play. Players like Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar become important when teams collapse three people onto Kobe. These guys could never play anywhere else.

If I’m the only one, I’ll shut up. But I think Kobe has done more than enough to solidify his position among the greatest to ever play the game.