JayBirdSlim:The Man, the Mission, the god!

That’s right, I said it!…or well…..wrote it at least. Kobe Bryant does not deserve to be in the top tier of the elite players in basketball history. Does he have as much if not more talent than most of the people on that list? Probably. Does he score point? Mostly. Does he have a lot of rings? Definitely. Then why do I, a lifelong Laker’s fan, think he is a sham? Easy…because of games like last night and game 4.

Kobe has always had a sense of “entitlement” surrounding him. Ever since he opted not to go to college and go directly to the professional ranks he has seemingly expected the title of greatest player ever to just be handed over to him. So laissez-faire games like last night happen. Kobe assumes if he puts it in cruise control he will just coast to glory. He takes games off. He may get up that morning at 6 am to practice…but (and I can’t believe I’m using this quote in a positive way) “Practice? We’re talking about practice?” Allen Iverson may have whined and moaned about practicing with his team but you have to give him credit he always put 100% into each and every trip up and down the court during a game. The same thing can’t be said about Kobe. He thinks he can flick on a switch and suddenly the game will be handed to him. “Oh Kobe is going o actually play now…games over…doesn’t matter if they’re down by 20+…that’s the rule.”

When you look at the greats, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Chamberlain, Russell etc… they all have one thing in common. They became great because they put everything they had into the game and earned greatness. Lebron seems to understand that you don’t become great just by winning some titles. It takes something more than scoring, or defending, or practicing.

As fans people generally don’t ask much of their players. They can use steroids and really it’s ok, they can gamble, commit adultery, swear, not be role models, it doesn’t matter as long as they play the game with everything they have. So when you hear me talk about Kobe and wish he would just lose in such a humiliating way that it wakes him up don’t ask me how I can say that and call myself a Laker’s fan…Kobe, as Magic implied in his rant, has earned the title of being called a Laker yet in my book.

I bet the refs know!

Well, sort of. I’m not one of those thinkers that the games are in essence fixed by the NBA or NBA officials but I do know one thing that has been increasingly prevalent over the past decade, rubber-band referie(s)-ing. I laugh at all the conspiracy theorists out there that are talking suddenly about the state of the refing of the games in the NBA as if things have suddenly soured. A little over fifteen (15) years ago there was a guy that played in the league named Michael Jordan. He entered the league when practically all of the shining star players were on the way out. Magic, Bird, Thomas all on the way out. Barkley never reached that top tier of stardom - mostly because he didn’t care if he did or not - Robinson was star in San Antonio but he was a quiet leader, as was Olajuwon, the tandem of Stockton/Malone in Utah, Shaq was a twinkle in the NBA’s eyes, Iverson was still heaving 1000 shots a game in middle school games, and Kobe…lets see he wasn’t even out of elementary school yet. So all the NBA had was the stoic leadership of Jordan who ushered in the Era of the sport being secondary to the sports stars. The NBA started to market itself as a series of superstars playing a game rather than the game that had a bunch of stars.
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Well the finals a re set and whether you like it or not it’s a classic match-up between the Celtics and the Lakers. Unfortunately it won’t have the same feel as the old games with Magic and Bird but it will hopefully be a good series. Unlike the clashes from the 80s where you had Parish, Bird, Magic, Kareem and an endless list of role players that each had a key play in each and every series; we have a team of collected superstars that can’t seem to figure out how to crush people (in the Celtics) and a team led by a super star in both play and whining and childish spoiled athlete behavior (in Kobe) playing for the championship.

Who knows how it will end. Maybe Boston finally figured it out and pulled things together against Detroit and will keep Kobe out of the championship circle for another year. (I would really like it if Sir Whines-A-lot never won another championship now that he doesn’t have the extra support from a big man…but maybe I’m just a mean spirited individual…who knows)

Anyway, should be interesting. I’ll be watching the entire series, no matter what, so I’ll be sure to post again.

That certainly didn’t take long now did it? The NBA has lost me yet again. It appears it was just for a game that my interest was peaked in the NBA. The first game of the Phoenix - San Antonio series was awesome. The rest of the playoffs since have been a snooze-fest. There is a whole lot of trash talking, and talking heads talking about said talking, with little put behind it. Each series has been ridiculously sad. So here is my break down so far…
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Seriously, I’ve read some articles recently (most recently an article written by Gene Wojechoeski) and they’re all a bunch of bull. I can’t stand this notion that kids that aspire to be NBA superstars getting all these write ups about how they get “used” in the college game which becomes a “free” training ground for the NBA. Most arguments revolve around the NBA’s mandatory age rule which requires kids to play one year i college before they can move to the NBA. Gene’s article talks about how they shouldn’t have that, and even worse being the possibility of a two year college requirement, and kids should go to the NBA directly out of school.

Let me first state, I don’t care about the well being of the kids. Well, not exactly. If you’re dream is to play professional sports and you want to try and do it straight out of High School fine, your choice, your risk. I wasn’t able to make the worlds most intelligent decisions when I was 18 but I’m old enough to get flown to another country to get shot so I should be able to make my own decisions about where I want to play and how I want to pursue my career. I get that, and agree with it completely. Granted there aren’t any other professions really outside of sports that any person can succeed in immediately without some advanced schooling. Whether it be car mechanic or computer software programmer you have to do your “time” in the educational system of that field before you can make a career out of it. Well, let me clarify that some, IF you want to be an elite level person in that field. You can learn how to work on cars in your own garage, same with programming, but if you want to be the upper tier of either field that won’t be nearly enough.
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