I just wonder if the case happened post #metoo would the league have suspended him until the dismissal or would it be business as usual because its Kobe and the Lakers are one of the leagues bell cows.
It is incredible indeed that he is now known as Black Mamba and not as Little Jordan because let us be honest. He was Little Jordan more than anyone. Great branding led things go his way.
kirby has cool stories, but i don't even think he's top 5. breh was a product of great marketing and the purple and yellow.
i dunno why brehs keep saying jordan/lerbon then kirby. as if they're the top 3 all time. kirby isn't even better than mergady in their primes, if only the latter had a good back. breh's unfortunate passing made him seem way better than he was. they speak about him like he is the blek moses in podcasts.
Kobe would not be Kobe if he played for Hornets instead LA. I will give him credit for having great game knowledge and took care of his body with work ethic. He did play the game the right way when he was paired with other HOF'ers. Half of his hype is just manufactured LA media hype and #BlekSnek mentality. He was also a ****ing ******* to his team mates and ran Shaq or all people out of town.
This current generation of players thinks he is. Look at Jayson Tatum. Kobe was a terrible teammate who needed a dominant big man (Shaq and Pau) to win. Otherwise he was shooting 50 times a game like it was a virtue.
Players are pretty young, we forget they are all in their 20s and 30s and have not watched many legends.
My opinion is he's top 3. Skill wise and work ethic and defensive knowledge was god tier. I hated Kobe like I hated all the great players that weren't Rockets but I'm not going to sit here and say I dont wish we had had a young/American Kobe type killer in the league. If it wasn't for Kobe that Redeem Team Loses to Spain. Kobe lakers won the west against a western conference that was 100 times better than anything Lebron had to play in the east. RIP Kobe
I took Shaqs side during their breakup but Kobe definitely molded Pau into a champion. Even if it took a couple of public slaps for everyone to see.Odom was always coasting as a clip before the Lakers. Kwame peaked with that extension which was good enough. It was a mashup of really good but terribly flawed pieces that only LA or NY could pull off every season.
