By Jeff
Daniels
Saturday, February 22nd, 2003
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I can remember my senior year in college at Temple University, the spring
of '95. A basketball buddy of mine asked me to go to the gym to play basketball
like we did on a weekly basis. The difference this time, however, was that
we were taking the younger brother of a classmate of ours, Sharia. We had
heard Sharia talk night and day about the skills that her younger brother
possessed. Once we were inside the gym, we totally understood why Sharia
had spoken so highly of her younger brother -- now the whole world knows
him, his name is Kobe Bryant.
After playing with Kobe for a couple of hours, we immediately knew that barring
injury, he would someday play pro basketball. What we didn't know was that
he'd be doing it two years later and that he would someday deserve to be
mentioned him in the same breath as "His Airness," Michael Jordan.
Kobe Bryant wants to go down in history as one the greatest ballplayers of
all time. He's a gym-rat in the offseason. He simply works, and works, and
works on his all-around game every offseason, and the fans are the beneficiaries
of his hard work because every year, we get an opportunity to watch a player
chase greatness.
When Kobe retires, he wants his name to be mentioned in the same breath as
Dr. J., Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robinson, and of course the greatest
of all, Michael Jordan. The biggest hurdle, literally and figuratively, is
none other Shaquille O'Neal.
Kobe will never accomplish greatness and be considered among the greatest
ever if he plays his entire career with Shaquille O'Neal. Kobe won't turn
25 until after the season is over, yet he has put up some astronomical numbers,
especially as of late. Kobe has scored over 40 in eight-straight games and
he has eclipsed the 35 point mark in 12-straight contests. He is no doubt
having an MVP-season, but the critics continually point to Shaq when downplaying
his accomplishments.
Think about it. Kobe has been absolutely incredible during his current run
and he still isn't getting a whole lot of credit because people continually
turn to Shaq.
It's hard for Kobe to be the league MVP when he isn't even the MVP on his
own team. Jordan was always the MVP on his Chicago teams, even though he
had another star in Scottie Pippen, that star (Pippen) never ever shined
brighter than Mr. Jordan.
In simple terms, the Lakers will always be Shaq's team as long as Shaq is
in Los Angeles. Kobe needs to win a championship without Mr. O'neal to truly
garner the respect and greatness that he is chasing and so desperately wants
to achieve. The sadness about the entire issue is that if Shaquille and Kobe
stay together for the next 6-8 years, they will win a plethora of titles
and they already have three.
Bryant, however, will have to leave Los Angeles to truly achieve greatness.
To achieve greatness, he has to have his own team and the one in L.A. currently
belongs to Shaq. I laugh when people point to the Lakers record without Shaq
when trying to keep the greatness tag away from Kobe.
I must remind them that Michael never won without Scottie (Pippen), Bird
had an entire host of talent, (Kevin McHale, Robert Parrish, and Dennis Johnson),
and so did Magic (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy).
The current Lakers have two megastars and ordinary role players surrounding
them. When you take Shaq or Kobe off of that team, you have a very, very
mediocre team, at best.
Jordan's greatness and his six rings were won with help from Scottie Pippen
and during the last three championship years, he had Dennis Rodman. We must
remember that at the time Pippen was one of the top-10 players in the league,
if not top-five. If you put Kobe on another team with one of the top-10 players
in the league, he would no doubt be able to lead them to a title and reach
that legendary status.
Imagine Kobe on a team with Chris Webber or Dirk Nowitzki. Those two players
are equal in value to Pippen during the Bulls' six-title run. At press time,
Kobe was averaging 30.4 points. 7.1 rebounds, and 6.4 assist per game.
Kobe's game looks more and more like Mr. Jordan's everyday, and like Michael,
he is constantly working to improve that game. To truly be like Mike, and
achieve that legendary status, however, Kobe must win without Shaq.
Nearly eight years have passed since that pickup game and Kobe may not remember
that game in the Pearson Hall at Temple, but I remember it like it was yesterday
because he had already started chasing greatness. I'm not a betting man,
but if I had to bet money on whether or not he reaches greatness, I would
definitely bet that he does, but he cannot reach it with Mr. O'Neal by his
side.
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