KOBE for THREE

In light of oil spills that threaten the livelihood of shrimpers and fishermen basketball has a way of paling comparatively and yet offering solace of escapism. With that said, not to use the recent gulf coast catastrophe as pun but, let’s open a Kobe can of worms. It’s a small can.

People hate the dude. He came in third in the MVP voting this year behind virtually undisputed Lebron James which makes sense but he followed young thunderous talent Kevin Durant. And it got me thinking about how somehow the prodigious Kobe Bean Bryant has managed to only capture one MVP in his entire career. How is that? Is he not the one guy that every single general manager, coach and NBA franchise has wanted for the last ten years? Was he not the guy who, despite his slow but noticeable physical decline, was still the go-to guy for recent All-Star games and Team USA in summer 2008? He has four championships of which he was not just a crucial cog but the very life blood. He’s the closest thing we’ve seen that resembles Mike and yet he somehow gets the after thought treatment.

It’s almost as if he’s mistaken for the Lone Wolf who needs neither accolade nor approval. It really is peculiar in a world and more specifically an industry where character traits are only as important as the dollars to which they correlate. People are very quick to remind us all how Kobe cheated, was momentarily the subject of a criminal investigation, so-on and so-forth. But other notable athletes have been down similar pathways and enjoy more unscathed recognition than Kobe. Kobe is the guy that people love to talk about on Monday mornings after Sunday afternoon heroics but I’m not convinced the NBA itself really understands how rare a specimen he is. I guess this time around it peeks my interest because when everybody was geeked on #23, I didn’t care so much. His Airness was just the dude people worshiped and I was so busy missing the bandwagon that I didn’t even stop to see if he was worth the ride. Kobe with all of his controversy, stoicism, egocentricism, etc. is still a game changer with a capital “G” to replace the small one I used. He epitomizes grit, determination, toughness, and the work ethic of a soldier bent on conquest. Seriously, he is those things. But I guess he’s just not MVP material more than one time in 14 seasons.