Kobe Bryant is a Basketball genius, as stubborn as Jordan and
Bird and as gifted as any player short of LeBron James. When I think of him as musically
he reminds me of the Rock Icon Lenny Kravitz, accomplished, worldly, and more
evolved than previous incarnations but forever haunted by whispers of “derivative”.
But that is what genius is someone who can steal a little bit from everyone and
uniquely brand it with their own panache. Lenny Kravitz’s first breakout Album
was skewered by music snobs as a blatant rip off of the Beatles, and previously
he’d shamelessly present himself as a newer model of that other brotha with a
guitar –Prince. Both acts are Kravitz’s superior by far but Lenny in his own
way found his voice and ultimately became Prince for those too young to know
just how amazing Prince was. And his derivative past didn’t matter; besides we
are all influenced by somebody. Kobe heard the “You think your MJ” loud and
early in his career and now those of us who said it are “old heads” who get
shouted down by his acolytes. And you know what? We gladly pipe down because
over time we’ve learned to respect him and we’ll miss him when he’s gone. Now
after 17 years of being like Mike Kobe is being forced to do something a little
closer to home, something he probably never figured he’d have to do when the
Lakers acquired Steve Nash.
Be Like Magic
And he can do it; he just never had to lead by forfeiting his
value as a dangerous scorer to create offense for others. Injury and age may
have made Nash a non-factor when it comes to breaking the defense down but he’s
still the best shooter in league history if you leave him unattended. What will
another scoring title do if you’re at the helm as the leader of one of the most
embarrassing seasons in NBA history? With assists totals of 14, 14, and 11 in
the last 3 games many of you may not believe a player who is synonymous with ball
hogging can’t keep it up but I believe Kobe’s intent on not missing the
play-offs is stronger. Remember he’s a winner and though he may want to win “his
way” the passion to win by any means necessary is stronger, at 34 Kobe’s
survival instinct is stronger than getting buckets. He also can see the trend
of point guards dominating a less physical league so why not use his size and
court vision to experience just how easily it came for Magic at 6’9. Magic is
family, and like an old dad Kobe locked into to MJ at an early age (despite claiming Magic is his "idol") and for the
most part he’s made himself Magic’s “yang” in the pantheon of Laker mythology-
but now times are hard. When times are hard we tighten up our wallets, morals,
work ethic and cling to what is fundamental about all things and Magic though flashy; is fundamental. That ball moves faster than any player ever will, just ask LeBron
James, still a great passer despite being the fastest human in a league of
athletic freaks. The Lakers have to move the ball and why not put it in the hands
of the one guy who still scares the defense on a nightly basis? Dwight Howard
may not be Superman until next year and Earl Clark can only get better in an
offense that isn’t based on superstar touches: AKA watching Kobe shoot over double-teams.
The Lakers aren’t out of the wilderness yet so I don’t see
how anyone could question whether he would flip the script back to something
that clearly isn’t working. In fact, I’ll bet secretly he’s enjoying it because
it only adds to the Kobe legend-even Wilt Chamberlain led the league in assists
once just to show you he could. LeBron’s all around game is the standard in 2013;
it’s no longer Kobe who was kind of a continuation of the Michael Jordan
blueprint on getting the job done. And for those of you who don’t remember the
1980’s there were two guys who were in the finals every year who would routinely
put up double digit assists, and there were no Sports Center segments done on
the occurrence because it wasn’t a big deal. He's already claiming that if he'd focused on being the "big PG" he would have been the greatest of all time so be happy he's obsessed with dishing the rock. Don't be so quick to predict a return to gunning for Bryant, old dogs may not learn new tricks but rare breeds do-and "24" is a rare breed.
