Drive, ego, and the pursuit of greatness - Kobe Bryant's last act.
Kobe walking off the court after the first game post retirement announcement
Kobe's retiring. In one announcement Kobe made a whole generation of basketball fans feel old. When a player of Kobe's magnitude walks away, we have a chance to ponder his career, achievements, his legacy. I hate having to be absolute in sports. The tone of a typical sports discussions often forces you to come down on a side, to label things as A or B, and often doesn't allow you to make claims that someone can be both great but overrated, or driven but flawed.
Kobe doesn't fit neatly into categories. But if I had to sum him up in a couple of words, the two that come to mind are: drive and ego.
Drive as in motivation, as in passion. Kobe was fire, even more often than he was on fire. Recently, as an accomplished legend and leader Kobe famously called out his 'soft like Charmin' teammates and a lackluster front office. But even as a bold and bald teenager he never hesitated to jack up crucial threes in playoff games. He turned the failure of those air balls into motivation to improve. And did so. Made himself into one of the greats. And an All Star on a dominant Laker team that began a dynasty by winning three titles in a row.
Then came the ego. Kobe got the best big man of his generation traded off his team in his prime. A seemingly inexplicable move because most basketball enthusiasts agree that those two not only could, but would dominate the league for years to come.
But that wasn't the goal. I have no way of actually knowing this. But watching Kobe all those years convinced me that the singular goal of Kobe's career was to be just like Michael. I don't even think he cared if he was better, I think he would have been content reaching Mike's level. Such was his respect for the Bulls legend.
But he was Scottie! Shaq made it impossible for Bryant to achieve his goals. He was the one dominating, getting the credit, winning Finals MVPs. Kobe's selfishness, in his mind, was justifiable because his individual goal included team goals – the 6 rings. Except that he now needed a Scottie to his Mike. First though, he had to endure an interesting, scoring filled “Smush Parker era”, in which Kobe famously and absurdly dropped 81 on the Raptors, which translated to one of those 'where were you that night' moments for hoop fans. He almost forced a trade...to the Bulls... but Jerry West bailed out the Lakers and ensured the arrival Paul Gasol. Paul, according to the entertaining and knowledgeable Jeff van Gundy, became “the best, 2nd best player on a team in the NBA,” much like Scottie was. Two more rings. This time Kobe got finals MVPs though though his performance wasn't quite Jordanesque as he struggled shooting in a game 7 against the Celtics to witness Ron Artest emerge as the unlikely hero.
By then Kobe established himself as an all-time great. And before we dive into dissecting his accolades let's give him that. Kobe was truly great.
But that wasn't his goal. His goal was to be Mike. His legacy is the guy who came the closest to Mike, when no one else really tried. This isn't a 6 vs 5 conversation. Kobe just didn't tower over the rest of the League like Michael did and if we're truly honest he hasn't been the best player in the NBA in 6 to 8 years. That's a long time. Especially compared to the GOAT.
Kobe strived so high. He always set the bar so high for himself and his teams. Great basketball players, and generally successful people are usually so confident that their faith in themselves borders delusion. How many times was Steve Jobs told that he was insane and encouraged to just drop the 'closed-system' idea. He stuck to it though. Much like Kobe has stuck to his idea of himself as top notch player and despite being told to adjust his game and stop shooting, has stuck to his guns. Often resulting in some abysmal performances.
The conversation centered around Kobe this season has been focused around how sad it has been to watch Kobe try to do his thing. He went 1-14 against the Warriors recently in a game filled with bricks and air balls. One jumper got stuck between the board and the rim... It wasn't the Kobe we were used to seeing and it made us feel sad. And after the game he said that he could have scored 80 that night and it wouldn't have mattered.
Which breaks me to the late-career Kobe. In this period of time, Kobe diverged from Michael's career path the most. Kobe is currently the NBA's highest paid player. It is no coincidence he makes exactly 100k more than the next highest paid player. That's not greed, that's ego. This contract stifled the Lakers for a while. Additionally, claims that it has Kobe that has been hurting the Lakers organization the most in recent years because of the above mentioned conviction that he still is who he once was, were met largely with resistance from the lakers execs but they seem undeniably true. Since Shaq's departure, the Lakers have not landed a marque free agent.
On the court, he's also been detrimental as all advanced metrics suggested that in the last two years the Lakers have been a significantly more efficient team without Kobe. None of these things could ever be said of Michael.
But we're not going to talk about that now. Nor should we. It pales in comparison to what Kobe has done in his career, and he was fully aware of it. He also knew that Derek Jeter diverged attention away from his poor play, by announcing his retirement early and just enjoyed the love fest that followed. So, Kobe announced his less than 20 games into the season, on Jeter's website, a day before a game in his hometown Philadelphia, knowing Philly would kick off a love fest of his own.
After a hot start during which he had the Philly faithful sizzling, Kobe regressed to the mean, and the Lakers just regressed and they lost the game. It was the 76ers first win of the season as they snapped the longest loosing streak in pro sports history. But Kobe walked off the court all smiles, with arms raised, waving to the crowd.
And after the game, during his grinning post game interview he said he called Michael before the announcement to ask him when he knew it was time to hang it up. Even now Kobe puts himself in the same sentence as the Bulls legend. I think he made the phone call because he had always planned that he would. That he would need Mike's advice at some point as to when to walk away from the game he loves so dearly. But Michael doesn't have any advice for him because Mike never fell off. He never had to deal with the struggles Kobe faces now. He ended his Bulls career very much on top and with the Wizards, Michael played in a different role and even then, despite being much older than Kobe is now, looked like a much more effective player.
I can't find a way to be absolute about Kobe. There are too many intricacies about his personality and too much to dissect about his career to label or pigeonhole him. People will break down his greatness, rank him, compare him, and speculate about what could have been. But he did match Michael in one regard – he never needed a last name. So many of us have started our days with conversations that asked “did you see what Kobe did last night?” that the use of his last name became quite redundant.
Kobe remains an enigmatic figure. A fascinating personality whose pursuit of greatness was, at times, a joy to watch, admire, and emulate. And I think he'll pursue it once more. He will rest until the end of the season. Then start working out and hoping the Lakers will have Durant and the prospect of Westbrook. He'll want number 6 and will announce that “he's back”. Just like Mike.
