We all remember the tagline of Nike’s global marketing campaign that made Air Jordan sneakers an unbelievably hyped commodity for the better part of two decades. “Be Like Mike” reached just about every corner of the world. Billboards from Tokyo to Tallahassee featuring Jordan’s ever-ascending silhouette gave athletes something to reach for. Jordan collected six NBA championships, earning Most Valuable Player honors in each series. He often challenged the limits of gravity and was once described as “God disguised as Michael Jordan” by legend Larry Bird. Perhaps most importantly, MJ saved Earth from likely destruction when he teamed up with Bugs Bunny and Newman from Seinfeld to defeat an evil alien race in a hotly contested pick-up basketball game.
While the rest of us grew up in the nineties doing all we could to be like Mike, a basketball prodigy living in Philadelphia’s Main Line district embarked on a basketball odyssey that would become an unspoken obsession with dethroning Jordan and all others who stood between him and the title of the single greatest player to ever grace a basketball court. That thrilling youngster is now a veteran virtuoso with a championship ring for each finger on his right hand and a foucus on accomplishing a seemingly impossible task - be better than Mike.
Kobe Bryant left Lower Merion High School in 1996 as a phenom – he took singing sensation Brandy to his senior prom. By 1999, he earned his first blockbuster contract with the Los Angeles Lakers – worth $70 million over six years. Upon the arrival of the new millennium, Bryant teamed up with one of the most dominant centers in league history for a dazzling and dominating run that resulted in three consecutive championships and enough off-court drama to rival any Hollywood script. He took his act solo six years ago. Today, Bryant – unofficially nicknamed Black Mamba - is firmly inscribed on the list of his sport’s all-time elites.
Kobe and his Lakers wrapped up the franchise’s 16th world championship victory on Thursday night by upending super rival Boston Celtics 83-79 in game seven of the most intriguing NBA Finals series we’ve seen in far too long. The victory was very much in doubt for L.A. with Boston leading by double-digits late in the third quarter and Bryant in the midst of what appeared would be a historically awful performance. Less than an hour later, Kobe hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy for a fifth time – avenging the Lakers ’08 Finals loss to the Celtics and presenting every sports fan with one nagging question – just how great is this guy?
Los Angeles jettisoned Shaquille O’Neal in the summer of 2004. Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, a nine-time NBA champ at the time, was not retained for the 2004-2005 season. The Hall of Fame trio of Shaq, Phil and Kobe – a group that made four finals appearances in the decade’s first five seasons - was suddenly kaput. All that remained were the banners… and Kobe. The very next day after Shaq was shipped to Miami, Bryant inked a new seven-year megadeal to return to the Lakers after flirting with the idea of heading across the Staples Center and suiting up for the Clippers.
Coincidence was not a factor, Kobe was.
An array of questions surrounded the Lakers’ decision to hand the franchise keys over to Bryant. The raised eyebrows were validated when O’Neal capped off his second season in South Beach with a fourth career championship win. In a tell-all book about his final season in L.A., Jackson deemed Bryant “uncoachable” and examined the selfishness of his star pupil. Throw in the fact that the Lakers struggled to find an identity and were rarely consistent during the first few post-Shaq years, and it’s easy to see why the basketball world was ready to turn its back on the abrasive Bryant and usher in the LeBron James era. As it turns out, the reign of Kobe was just getting underway.
Bryant exploded for an 81-point game in January ’06 – 12 points more than MJ’s career-high output of 69 and the highest single game total by anyone not named Wilt. Kobe averaged over 43 points per contest that month – again, a mark only topped by The Stilt – and maintained his reputation as the league’s ultimate weapon despite the Lakers drop-off in the win column.
Prior to the 2006-2007 season, Bryant traded in his No. 8 jersey for No. 24 – one number higher than Jordan’s 23.
Coincidence was not a factor, Kobe was.
When head coach Rudy Tomjanovich abruptly resigned midway through his first season at the helm, Bryant pushed hard for Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K opted to stay put in Durham. In a shocking move, Phil Jackson was back as quickly as he left. Bryant decided that winning was more important than even his ego. Within a few years of Jackson’s return to the Lakers’ bench, the team began to find ways to build around Bryant. When Memphis put Pau Gasol on the trade block in 2007, Los Angeles jumped at the opportunity to add the center it lacked since the trade of Big Aristotle. Kobe earned league MVP honors in 2008, leading the Lakers into a Finals showdown against the Celtics. However, the season ended in embarrassing fashion when Boston throttled Los Angeles by 39 points in the sixth and decisive game of the series. Stuck at three titles, Kobe consistently heard the same question – could he reach the top of the mountain without standing on Shaq’s shoulders?
“I’ve got one more than Shaq.” – Kobe Bryant, June 18, 2010.
Here we are in a new decade, with a new NBA landscape. Yet, a familiar face grins from behind the microphone at the podium of the world champion Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant has now won back-to-back finals for the second time in his career; however the most recent double-dip did not feature the gregarious, larger-than-life O’Neal. This was Bryant’s show and, although it took 16 playoff wins to wipe the scowl off his face, he couldn’t help but finally bask in the glory of his latest tour de force. Bryant beamed when asked about his unquenchable hunger for greatness. He lit up as members of the media began to compare him to the incomparable – MJ. And perhaps most telling, Bryant applauded the efforts of his teammates every chance he got.
This Lakers squad, more than any of the past fourteen years, was created in Bryant’s image. The roster was made up of Kobe and eleven players hand-picked to help Kobe reach this point.
There’s Derek Fischer, an old friend of Bryant's who returned to L.A. following a short stay in Utah. Fischer is the ying to Kobe’s yang in the Lakers’ locker room - which is a nice way of saying that he’ll tell a teammate to keep their head up immediately after Bryant verbally rips them apart. Lamar Odom – the only holdover from the O’Neal trade – adapted nicely to his role as sixth man. Despite the fact that he married the ugly duckling of the Kardashian clan and consumes obscene amounts of candy for an adult, Odom’s performance off the bench is often a catalyst for how L.A. performs. Gasol is unquestionably the most skilled big man in the league. The 7-foot Spaniard won’t lock down the paint like Dwight Howard or bowl people over like Shaq, but Gasol can score in a variety of ways and he is a superior passer. I also get the feeling the soccer-like emotion he brings to the game revs up Kobe more than he would ever care to admit.
The charismatic and controversial Ron Artest signed on as a free agent last summer and tried his hand at the role of Dennis Rodman with a jump shot. Artest was inconsistent for much of the season (he did manage to avoid throwing haymakers at paying customers in attendance) but the Lakers lose game seven without his twenty points and impeccable defense on Paul Pierce – and that’s all that matters. The seeds were planted for his big-time performance two years ago, when Artest – then a member of the Sacramento Kings - actually walked in on a showering Bryant in the Lakers' locker room following the team's humiliating season-ending defeat in Boston and basically applied for a job as his sidekick.
Coincidence was not a factor, Kobe was.
The supporting cast delivered consistently enough, Kobe did the rest. The 2010 version of the Lakers is the closest thing we’ve seen to Jordan’s Bulls in regards to the way the team functioned, which brings us back to the MJ versus Kobe debate.
Coach Jackson is on record as saying they are two different kinds of players with striking similarities. The Zen Master has never been too keen on giving it to us straight. But the winningest man in NBA history is hardly ever wrong, so maybe we should just stick with Phil’s point of view. Kobe isn’t MJ. MJ isn’t Kobe. They are both once-in-a-generation talents. They are both cold-blooded in the clutch. They are both premier defenders. They are both winners. MJ had Scottie Pippen. Kobe had Shaq. Jordan had gambling issues. Bryant had Eagle, Colorado. Each matured under the tutelage of Jackson. Neither is Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. Simply put, there is no best ever. There is only a discussion. Kobe entered it late Thursday night.
Instead of asking, “MJ or Kobe?”, we will soon get back to the hot-button issue that plagued the NBA playoffs - where is LeBron going to wind up? Regardless of where he is playing, James - in a bizzaro-Kobe move - will change his jersey number to six next season because he believes no one deserves to wear Jordan’s No. 23. As “King” James again looks to grab the torch from the Black Mamba, Bryant will be in hot pursuit of a No. 6 of his own and a second career three-peat. Sound familiar?
Coincidence is not a factor, Kobe is.
