Ball Played: CSI Tampa; Cookie returns to scene in Indians win
April 14, 20162016 NFL Draft: Cleveland Browns fallout after Titans-Rams trade
April 14, 2016The sporting world stopped for a bit on a Wednesday night. The Golden State Warriors won their 73rd game, setting a new NBA record for wins in a regular season, but they had to take a back seat on the NBA’s front page as Kobe Bryant finished out his illustrious career with the Los Angeles Lakers with a 101-96 victory over the Utah Jazz at the Staples Center.
Fittingly, Bryant shot 22-for-50, dropping 60 points, and ended his career with a win (during a 17-65 season), and his last recorded statistic was an assist (Bryant always had a dark sense of humor). Bryant has been a great player throughout his career, and it would be difficult impossible to create any Top 10 NBA player list without including the Black Mamba. He has the rings, he has the medals, he has the longevity, and he has his name throughout many of the NBA’s most prized leaderboards.
Every shot @kobebryant has ever taken. #MambaOut @latimes pic.twitter.com/0FwSd4k9GQ
— Five-Star Basketball (@5starbasketball) April 14, 2016
Despite this inherent greatness, I am so thankful the season of Kobe is finally complete. Having to endure constant updates about each city celebrating Kobe over the past few months has been tiresome. Sure, he was a great player. Yes, it is a travesty that LeBron James and Kobe Bryant never squared off in the NBA Finals. I will forever remember him as a player who was insanely driven for greatness.
The same insanity that made him great also broke up one of the most dominant NBA partnerships (with Shaquille O’Neal), drove Phil Jackson to retirement (twice), and wound up having him throw his teammates under the bus many, many times publicly (Smush Parker’s statements indicate privately maybe even more often.) Game 7 versus the Phoenix Suns where he refused to shoot was one example; the video of him ripping Andrew Bynum another. He was so upset that the Lakers weren’t a dominant team in the years after they traded Shaq, but who wanted Shaq gone again?
The new trend of season-long retirement tours for athletes is troubling. It was most understandable for Derek Jeter as he was both the ambassador for MLB and had earned the respect of almost all. I admit to always respecting Jeter even as his teams ripped out my heart throughout the late-90s. My biggest beef with him was not even his fault as the four-time Gold Glove winner did not blackmail media members to vote for him.1 The respect professional athletes had for Jeter was then demonstrated through their flocking to the Jeter initiated Player’s Tribune, which has become the primary place for players in all sports to tell their story from their own point of view.
Unfortunately, the marketing success of Jeter’s retirement tour has led to others getting the same treatment. Kobe, Mariano Rivera, and David Ortiz are all great players too. It would have been so much better if we could simply celebrate their retirement for a week after the season rather than the constant hubris. I would be celebrating alongside other NBA fans today if it were a singular event rather than a culmination of a marketing scheme. So, instead, today I feel relief.2
Ah, but Kobe Bryant did get one last parting shot sunk during his postgame interview. He was always a master business man. He is the player that ensured he locked in number eight just as the NBA was making in-roads in China. In Chinese culture, number eight is a lucky number (why the 2008 Olympics started on August 8), so his jersey sales were guaranteed to flourish. Therefore, when his last words to the media were Mamba Out, it was to no one’s surprise that he was already selling t-shirts with the phrase.
Top trending tweet is #MambaOut, Kobe's last words in postgame speech. His website immediately began selling shirts pic.twitter.com/UB7KZ249f9
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 14, 2016
I do hope Bryant finds something to fulfill his life during his retirement as many great players struggle without the constant call to the game. But most of all I am glad to have his year-long retirement ceremony completed.
While You Were Sleeping: Kobe dropped 60 in his final NBA game. Then he dropped the mic. #MambaOut https://t.co/lCMBvqWyGR
— Golic and Wingo (@GolicAndWingo) April 14, 2016
46 Comments
You think Kobe’s retirement tour was littered with marketing? Just wait until LeBron hangs ’em up.
…in South Beach.
I’ve never been a Kobe Bryant fan but I was impressed. Not that he took literally almost every Lakers shot the final quarter and a half but that he made as many as he did AND most importantly the Lakers beat the Jazz. LeBron James would not have done that IMO.
How many special edition shoes will Nike have for LeBron that year? One for each city? Or one for each game?
I suppose that for some/many fans, Bryant’s 60-point ball-hog finale was some sort of validation for him hanging around too long. But, sadly, it can’t clear the stink of a truly embarrassing season. Everyone should be glad this is over. At least Peyton Manning went out on top.
Also, I agree with you about disliking the hype over all these farewell tours. David Ortiz? Really? Who cares?
Kept shooting if he was only at 44%? Yeah, but that’s a good thing.
“it would be difficult impossible to create any Top 10 NBA player list without including the Black Mamba. ”
Completely disagree. Switch Kobe with the guy who went eight spots higher in the same draft, and imagine how much different things are. How many points a night does Ray Allen score next to Shaq? The Lakers still would have rings. And between Shaq and Gasol, the Kobe-Lakers were a below .500 team. What is Kobe’s reputation if he’s below .500 in a small-market midwestern town?
That is not what happened though. Dems da breaks.
Sure, but how much credit does Kobe deserve for lucking into the most ideal circumstances to get famous?
To put david Ortiz in the same comparison with Kobe and Jeter is ridiculous. Ortiz was a very good hitter. He was a bad fielder. He should not go into the hall of fame before Edgar Martinez, IMO.
Jeter was all class, and he was excellent in the field and at the plate, while also being incredibly clutch. Kobe is one of the greatest players the nba has ever seen. He’s more Ted Williams or Willie Mays if he were a baseball player. Ortiz, to me, would be more of an Adrian Dantley as a basketball player.
Why Ortiz is getting a yearlong we off is beyond me, and kind of embarrassing.
After every timeout. That way, they can get in a commercial about his “latest release.”
Ortiz was a very good hitter. He was a bad fielder.
Yeah Jeets was too.
To me, the worst part of the farewell tour was everyone washing over the whole rape thing. Yeah, that little ugly thing, and the fact he was a malcontent and a bad teammate for a lot of years…that is all summarily dismissed as they hoist him up on the pedestal.
?
He was average. His later years brought his numbers way down. Regardless, he stayed a SS his entire career. Ortiz was so bad they hid his glove.
Ray Lewis disagrees.
-23 runs in the field as a 26 year old. He was always a negative fielder
That certainly depends on whose ratings you’re using.
And the point is his historical (offensive) excellence at SS vs Ortiz as a DH.
Kobe is a lot better than Ray Allen. A LOT.
Kobe is a negative fielder by every metric other than “Yankee fanboy”
I’d say that he was better, but not a lot. And if Allen had the rings, and Kobe spent most of his career in a NBA backwater?
We can make it a guy who I don’t think is any worse than Kobe, but played in bit earlier era, again in a NBA backwater – Reggie Miller. Put Miller next to Shaq and Kobe next to Rik Smits. What’s the narrative now?
LeBron has spent many years in Cleveland – pretty much an NBA backwater. He’s made them (us) relevant. That’s was GREAT players do.
Remind me where Oscar Robertson played? Oh yeah, the SAME backwater. and he won a title. But you’ll say he had help from Kareem (or Alcindor, I think). And, yeah, sure, he had help, but your argument was that Ray Allen isn’t remembered as historically great because he played in a backwater called Milwaukee.
The reason he isn’t remembered as historically great is because he wasn’t.
yes. you’re right. But you said “bad,” and I think average. The low side of average.
Was it proved that he raped that girl? Allegations are just that.
And Kobe without a HoF big man was below .500 – irrelevant.
Lebron is an all-time great. A healthy Bill Walton is too. Oscar Roberton’s Royals were slightly over .500. You made my argument for me there.
I’m not saying guys can’t get famous in smaller NBA cities. But if any of those guys were in Los Angeles? And got to win multiple championships because they were on the same team as a legit top 10 all time player? They would be much more highly thought of.
I agree Kobe is over-rated. No doubt he’s one of the best ever but 5 rings? Really he won two and was a part of the first 3. Plus he’s the most selfish player ever to play. Last night solidified it.
Kobe himself said she did not consent to the encounter.
Well, considering the circumstances where he forced his way to the Lakers in the draft…at least a decent amount.
If we’re measuring how smart Kobe is at being able to pad his own ego, sure. But when trying to come up with something close to an objective ranking of a player’s talent? Not so much.
Won’t just be shoes. Gear. Commercials. Social media. YouTube. It’s going to be the way all top-flight athletes (in their respective sports) are celebrated.
I know. But, it wouldn’t have been as funny of a punchline.
I just don’t believe that. I’m not even going to search the Internet to confirm. He’d be in jail if that were the case, as it was never settled but dropped as the alleged victim didn’t pursue.
When a plaintiff is unwilling to testify you don’t just admit to the crime.
Kobe’s field goal percentage these last 2 seasons would make Allen Iverson blush, he should have retired 2 years ago. Good riddance to the most selfish player of all time.
“I’m not even going to search the Internet to confirm”
Well who can argue with that.
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jul/19/sports/sp-bryant19
a tearful Bryant for the first time acknowledged having sex with the woman but insisted it was consensual.
“I’m innocent,” he said.
Sitting
next to his wife of two years, Vanessa, he shook his head, shifted
uncomfortably in his seat and pursed his lips as he said: “I sit here
before you guys embarrassed and ashamed for committing adultery. You
know, you go through the feeling of, ‘If I could just turn back the
hands of time.’ … But I’m innocent. And together, my wife and I and
our family are going to fight these false accusations.”
As long as LeBron isnt jacking up 7 3’s a game on a 17 win team, it wont be as nauseating as Kobe. But yeah, Im sure he will milk it for all its worth like the others.
See below for his actual quote.
“Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.”
…wife sitting aside smiling with a ridiculously big diamond ring on her finger.
As far as evidence, rape kit and clothing (not to be graphic but very telling of force)…oh and the testimony of a 19 year old who had to go through brutal smear campaign by Kobe’s lawyer (note: it was pretty ugly and I’m not sure that would fly even nowadays).
Oh, I was only responding to Steve’s accusation and separating out my feelings on the incident there.
I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual
I mean, I feel similar to you on the incident, but for the stickler you are on details; I’m surprised you worded your initial post to saggy the way you did.
“I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter”
I didn’t say he didn’t think it was consensual at the time, but that afterwards he realizes that she didn’t consent.
Here’s a list of 10 NBA players that were by most measurements better than Kobe: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Bob Cousy, John Stockton, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, Magic Johnson.
The sole reason Kobe is 3rd in all-time points scored is that he’s 3rd all-time in shooting attempts. He took more shots than almost anybody, but he was not all that good at making them – his FG%, 3FG%, and FT% were all outside of the top 50 of all time. He’s also 3rd of all-time on turnovers (but nowhere close to that on assists). The only other stat that he shows up as particularly good at is steals, where he’s 14th of all time. And by no statistic was he the greatest of all time.
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Well, I love Karl Malone and John Stockton, but if they were truly 2 of the Top 10 players of all-time and were playing on the same team that whole time…
My arguments for Stockton and Malone basically amounts to:
Malone – 2nd all-time point scorer, 7th all-time rebounder.
Stockton – 1st all-time in assists and steals by a wide margin.
The reason they don’t have rings has a lot to do with playing at the same time as a lot of other greats, including Sir Charles and MJ.
They are both extremely good basketball players, but in a sport where there are only five players on the floor and action can be dictated by two players. Having two Top 10 players necessitates a ring (or more really).
Stats are stats, but there is more to basketball too. That is what makes these debates fun barstool topics though as there are many different ways to view it.