Kobe Bryant, Congratulations! You've won it all. You've laid to rest
the naysayers, the critics, and haters. As much as you've shoved the
dagger into my sports heart over the years - I can only applaud you
now. You earned this one on your own, with a little help from an
incompetent Grizzlies GM (Gasol for peanuts), KG's knee, Manu's ankle
and 1 or 2 all-stars missing from the Rockets. It was cute seeing you
count the number of championships on your hand, very reminiscent of
Jordan counting his 6th win in Utah. I guess it wasn't enough that you
stole his fist pump and interviewing style. Even though your coach
wrote a tell all book about your lack of charcter, you ratted out Shaq
when being interviewed by the police after an alleged rape, the alleged
rape, the fact that I predicted none of your teamates, except for
Fisher, would embrace you after you won the recent title - and none of
them did, or the fact that you really had the opportunity to count 6-8
championship rings on those fingers had you matured a little faster.
The fact is, that you did it your way, on your terms and you've catapulted yourself in the Top 10 - EVER conversation. As much as I
despise you as a person, role model, teammate and face of the nba, I
have to say now, that watching you speak at the post game conference
was refreshing. I can put aside my dislike of your character, to
appreciate your accomplishment within the context of basketball
history. I've read both sides of the arguments about how great OR how selfish you are. My final thoughts after this season, is that you're one of the Top 10 greatest players ever. You work harder than anyone else in the league, you push your teammates, being a leader in the only way that you know. Its been great watching you all of these years. Really. You've fueled my passion for basketball since the turn of the millenium. You've helped me grow closer to family members, as we stand in solidarity of our hatred towards you. You've helped me keep the basketball discourse flowing with old college friends. You kept the competitive fire alive in Shaq, KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzski, Dwayne Wade and many more. You taught Lebron, CP3 and Dwight Howard and the entire Redeem Team how to prepare for the game during the offseason. Its incredible what you've done for the game. I appluad you from now until the next post season. Lakers, nba champs, 2008-2009.
In hopes of getting away from anything NBA related - I've been getting my fair share of youtube distractions. Not sure what genre of music this is, they list it as Italian Pop? I love the the over top imagery in the video though. Enjoy.
Yani: 109-102 Nugs
MT: 105-97 Lake Show OR first to 100pts.
NL: 108-99 Lake Show
VC: 115-110 Lake Show
I've highlighted many times why I don't believe Kobe can win a championship with the way that he leads his team. (Especially with great leaders like KG and Lebron in the East). Let me include words from one of my favorite sports bloggers, who sums it up perfectly. Be sure to check out the graphic!
"Bonus Kobedickery: Basketbawful reader catfish asked: "Can somebody find a clip of when Kobe practically punched Gasol in the head after getting burned by Scola? They had a timeout, and Kobe went upside the big Spaniard's heads to make sure his point got across. It reminded me of one of Curt Schilling's blog posts from last year where he noticed the drastic difference between the bonds of the Boston Celtics and how everyone on the Lakers hated to be playing with Kobe. Is there any athlete that is more disliked by every single teammate hes ever had?" Not sure I'm qualified to answer that question (although the answer is "no"), but Dunpizzle provided a link to an animated gif of the moment."
