Slam Dunk Central

If you are a regular reader of mine either on this site or our sister site www.thesackattack.comthen you know that I have been one of Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant’s severest critics in the media. I have written that he is selfish and not a team player in numerous articles, as well as talked about it on the radio and on television. To me Kobe Bryant has been the poster child for what is wrong with Professional Athletes in 2007. Nobody can deny that Kobe is one of the five most talented players in the NBA today, if you disagree with that statement than you are just ignorant about Basketball. His skill-set allows him to do amazing things on the hardwood, and he is one of those players that every time he is out there you know you are in for major entertainment.

However, or maybe because he is such an amazing athlete, his attitude on or off the court has been a major disappointment to me. True superstars make the players around them better, they are obsessed with the team concept. Think about these four NBA Hall of Fame Players Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. Not only did these four athletes have amazing talent but they all realized in order to win NBA Championships it could not be all about them! Russell, Bird, and Magic knew it from the moment they entered the league, it took Michael a few years of being a great player on a mediocre team for him to figure it out. But once Pippen and Grant, and then eventually Rodman showed up Michael learned to concentrate of the success of the whole rather than personal glory.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James scored 50 or more points in three games during a 10 month span starting with a 56 point effort against the Toronto Raptors back on March 20, 2005. He would then score 52 against the Bucks in December of that year, and 51 against the Jazz the in January of 2006 . James said after the Utah game that he never wanted to score 50 points again in a NBA Game, because every time he did it, his team lost! And although he has scored in the high forties since that game, he has not hit the 50 point plateau since! Not because he can’t, LBJ could average 30-35 points a night if he chose to. But he prefers to eschew the personal glory for the team glory. If somehow, the Lakers had lost the game in January of 2006 that Bryant scored 81 against, ironically the Toronto Raptors, do you think that Kobe would have made a similar statement? I don’t, and I would be shocked if he had, because Kobe Bryant’s world does not revolve around the Los Angeles Lakers. By all indications Kobe Bryant’s world revolves around Kobe Bryant.

Why do Athletes develop that “Sense of Entitlement” that feeling that they are owed something because they can accomplish great feats on the playing field? We are all to blame, Media members, such as myself who publicize these young men. You the Sports fan for supporting them by buying tickets and memorabilia such as hats, and jerseys, and posters. But the sad part about it is it starts in the schools.Let me share with you this fascinating little nugget I found in the September 10, edition of Sports Illustrated. Under an article entitled “Back to School Memories” Cincinnati Reds player Adam Dunn shares his memories of being a member of the “Jockocracy” in High School. Dunn who went to New Caney High School outside of Houston was the team’s star quarterback. Dunn said” My school revolved around football. Our principal was the former coach and athletic director. Here was my Friday: I’d show up, he’d take me out to breakfast. I’d hang out in his office. Then I had athletic period. And then I’d go home.”

Do you think that principal was having a similar situation with a budding math genius on Thursday? Someone from the debating team on Wednesday? A kid from the science club on Tuesday? I highly doubt it, but jock sniffers, guys who want to be associated with the glory of athletics constantly either look the other way, or make two sets of rules. If I was the superintendent of that school department, and I read that article, if the Principal was still working I would fire him immediately. And if he is retired and receiving a pension, I would require him to personally type a letter of apology to every former student who attended New Caney High School during his tenure. And if he refused I’d stop the payment of the pension. Sure we would end up in court, and I would probably lose but the public humiliation that this man would have to go through would be worth it on it’s own merit.

Now let’s take it to the next level; not only are you a talented athlete but your father plays in the NBA, as was the case with Kobe. Remember Kobe’s dad Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant played in the League as well as Europe. Well, when you are the Big Man On Campus, and you see society offering preferential treatment to your father, is it any wonder that as far back as Kobe’s High School days, there were reports that Bryant thought he was bigger than the team.

I don’t have a personal axe to grind with Bryant, he has always been affable, and quotable each time he visited Cleveland while I was covering the NBA. Kobe, would answer any question put to him, and never tried to duck the media, even though it would be a circus in the Q Arena visiting locker room. I respect him for that, I don’t respect him though for putting his franchise through the melodramatics that he has pulled this summer. His Clash routine”Should I Stay Or Should I Go” got real old real quick. If he has problems with Lakers owner Jerry Buss, General Manager Mitch Kupchack, or coach Phil Jackson it should have stayed behind closed doors. By talking to self proclaimed NBA genius Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio and saying he wanted out of L.A. he took away what ever leverage the Lakers would have in a trade. Bryant is not a stupid man, he had to have known this so to to me this is just another cry out for attention.

But just when you think you have a handle on the situation, Bryant does a 180. Kobe was a model citizen during the FIBA Americas Championship held in Las Vegas, as Team USA overwhelmed the competition and took the Gold medal in a route. Team USA with the win now has a guaranteed berth in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  Bryant showed a different side than NBA observers have seen before, sublimating his offensive game for the good of the team! Playing defense like Michael Cooper back in the ’80’s! Being the ultimate team player! Why? He has played with All-Stars many times in NBA All-Star games, and that never stopped him from trying to take over a game. He played for a season in Los Angeles with a starting lineup that arguably including himself had four future Hall of Fame players, with Shaquille, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton. They did not win a ring and by the end of the year the “Mailman” and Shaq weren’t talking to him.

So what caused him to defer his personal game for the good of the team? Patriotism, Jason Kidd, Team USA coach Mike Kryzewski? All possible, maybe a combination of all of the above or maybe Kobe had an epiphany, an eye opening moment this Summer. Only he knows for sure, for this reporter it was a pleasant surprise, and I mentioned it quite prominently in my coverage of the FIBA games. The question also remains to be answered in whether this was temporary, or a “New Kobe”. Will this carry over to his negotiations with Los Angeles, and even more importantly can it transfer to the floor during the NBA season? No body expects Kobe to become a point guard, cut his point total in half and concentrate on dishing the ball. But if that next elusive NBA ring is what he wants, the Kobe who played for Team USA is much more likely to acquire it.

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