Kobe Scores Where It Counts

As much as I still dislike Kobe Bryant, one must give the man his due as a result of his one-game, 81-point feat contributing to yesterday’s Los Angeles Lakers 122-104 rout of the Toronto Raptors. The one-game score is only second to famed Laker Wilt Chamberlain’s 1962 100-point game against the New York Knicks.

At first, I was looking for loopholes: the late Chamberlain was a center and therefore not responsible for feeding the ball to his teammates as point-guard Bryant is. Then I decided to go on the high road.

Bryant was merely showing his teammates what can be done with effort and opportunity. And I suspect that the performance was fueled by something that happened on Martin Luther King Day.

There is still a lot of acrimony among Laker fans in LA about the Shaquille O’Neal trade. Many still think that the Lakers traded the wrong man. (I suspect, however, that few teams were willing to shoulder the public-relations burden of having Kobe on their team in the wake of his rape acquittal, the sleaziness of his accuser notwithstanding.) But, during an MLK Day meeting between O’Neal’s Miami Heat and the Lakers (a Laker win), O’Neal and Bryant publicly buried the hatchet, apparently partially at the behest of the Boston Celtics’ legendary center Bill Russell, who had waged a similar public feud with Chamberlain. But Russell and Chamberlain made up before the end. When Chamberlain died all too early in 1999 at age 53, Russell was undoubtedly heartbroken, but gratified that he and his equally legendary “adversary” had remembered what was important before it was too late.

[Mr. Russell] said he talked to Mr. (Wilt) Chamberlain at least once a week before he passed away, and I actually thought they hated each other, but he told me that wasn't the case at all. It was something I had to hear from a guy like that. My mother and father also called me and told me to shake Kobe's hand and that we were making a big deal about nothing. And even though I do act crazy sometimes, I do listen." [SNIP]

"It wasn't anything important that we talked about," O'Neal said. "We actually talked about something that was more important than basketball. His wife's having a baby and my wife's having a baby, so I just went up to him and said congratulates on the baby. We'll see each other again when you guys [the media] aren't around. We'll sit down and have a conversation." [SNIP]

As Bryant prepared to leave Staples Center, with his first win over O'Neal's Heat under his belt and the rift over, he said he looked forward to sitting down with O'Neal somewhere in South Beach or Newport Beach during the offseason and further burying their feud.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to that," said Bryant. "We'll probably talk about tricking out cars; like putting hydraulics on a '53 Impala. We'll be talking about fun stuff."

It’s stuff like this—after the team-fan brawls and the like--that might convince me to start watching the NBA again (at least the Lakers and the Heat); if Kobe’s wife and Shaquille can cut the Laker guard some forgiveness for his transgressions, maybe, just maybe I might do so also.

Meanwhile, as one of my co-workers observed, the Lakers are, for better or worse, now demonstrably Kobe’s team.

Comments

[T-Steel]

Aww c'mon! This is the best time to be watching the NBA. The best team is the Detroit Pistons who play AS A TEAM extreme. The NBA has got a bad rap in recent years. Major League Baseball HAS problems.

[Justin]

Kobe actually made me watch Sports Center for the NBA rather than NFL championship game footage Sunday night.

I would still take Shaq on my team over Kobe though. I'd love to have Shaq on my beloved 76ers.

[Roy Lofquist]

I have been watching professional sports for a while. I saw Cousy against Mikan. I saw Dominic Dimaggio play against Joe Dimaggio. Kobe is a fantastic talent. He should have taken up tennis.

Basketball is a team game. Kobe is a stranger in a strange land.

[GZ Expat]

OK...so he can solve his feud with Shaq...but how about his father?

But...ya gotta give him his due...dropping 81 points on any team (yeah, it was the Raptors) is a damned amazing feat.

[CGHill]

Kobe is why I can't get tickets for Hornets/Lakers in Oklahoma City without cashing a very large check.

Come to think of it, the Heat game sold out too, and we beat them. (At least at home; in Miami, they thumped us in OT.)