I am a big believer in Karma. When I was a very young Bona Fide Sports Expert, my mom caught me trying to watch a little Cinemax After Dark. As I cursed at her under my breath, I turned and ran into my door. When I was Bona Fide Balling at Ohio State, I once used another girl's car, who liked me, to take out what would be my first true love on our first date. Of course, my first true love was also my first heartbreak (I've never have gotten over it). Some may say these types of things are coincidental, but I don't think so. I believe things are predestined based on your actions in the past. So, in reality, we shouldn't be surprised that Kobe Bryant, with a chance to solidify his legacy, is going home a loser. In retrospect, it is clear that this had to happen, that it needed to happen.
From the day Kobe demanded a trade, this was destined to happen. Karma works in mysterious ways. Most would think the best way to punish someone is to just take everything from a person, but if a person doesn't have much to begin with, how much of a punishment is it? Kobe whined, cried, criticized, moaned and bitched the entire summer. He threw his teammates, coach, GM, and an organization that has coddled him for his entire career under the bus.
Kobe is the best basketball player on the planet, but he is no saint. He has been a horrible teammate at times. No matter what he says, he had a lot to do with Shaq's leaving. And, we will never truly know what happened in that hotel room in Colorado. What we do know is that, unlike other superstar athletes who keep their dirty laundry behind closed doors, Bean has shown in a very public way the dirt under his fingernails.
Despite all the negativity Bryant has brought, the basketball gods have been good to him. He should have been a Charlotte Hornet. Instead, he was blessed to be placed on a team that had the most dominant center of our generation, a coach with a history of transforming talented players into legendary ones, an offense that matched up perfectly with his skill set, and on top of that, he got to play in LA. You could not have asked for a better situation.
He won three rings. Regardless if you are a sidekick or the 12th man, there aren't a lot of players in any sport that have three championships on their resume. Kobe though never seems content with that. He's similar to a spoiled rich kid who is upset that his older sibling got an Escalade and he only got a Yukon. The immaturity was evident. Sometimes you don't realize what you have until it is gone.
This isn't the first time Karma has struck down Kobe. The Colorado rape case was a smack in the face to a person who thought he could do no wrong. The stigmatism of being accused of rape is a hard one to shake. If it were anyone else in the NBA, you wonder if they would have gotten as much rope. As I stated before, no one knows what really happened. But the majority of people, especially the way the case ended, gave Kobe the benefit of the doubt and hoped the experience would change him. In many ways it did, but it one major way it didn't.
Some people are just built in a way that they don't like to play second fiddle to anyone. I know this from experience because I am one of them. It is the reason I am not writing for some local paper that won't let me speak the truth. Kobe wanted that spotlight. He wanted to be "the man." But, the way he went about it was wrong. And the basketball gods have punished him for it. Those first three Shaq-less years were tough and he took his hits, sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly. But he got a taste of what it is like to be "the man" without the soldiers to win the war.
One of the main reasons I always say any comparisons between him and Michael Jordan aren't fair is because, in reality, their careers are opposites. MJ came into the league and quickly became "the man" with a team that couldn't compete. It took him seven long years to realize one great player can't do it alone. By the time Kobe had realized this, he had been in the league ten years and already had three rings. It is just a different dynamic.
Kobe's asking to be traded last summer was well within his right. To be honest, a lot of what he was saying was absolutely true. But they way he did called into question if he was any different than he was when he tossed those air balls up against Utah many many years ago. Was he still that spoiled brat that, when he couldn't get his way, would cry, take his ball and go home?
When he came to training camp looking as if someone had run over his dog with a tractor and then sent it to him UPS overnight, I figured it was going to be a long season for the Lakers. The team was not that much different than the one that had lost in the first round a year before, and, at best, people were predicting them to be fighting for the eighth spot in the West.
A funny thing happened though. They started to play well, thanks to Andrew Bynum the player Kobe very vocally on YouTube wanted to be traded for the "Wife Beater" Jason Kidd. When Bynum went down with a knee injury and Kwame Brown entered the building, it looked like another lost season and that's where things get interesting.
The Lakers stole Pau Gasol and, to be honest, it didn't seem fair. It didn't seem fair that Kobe would get such a gift. It seems unfair that Kobe, who from the beginning of his career has whined, cried, bitched, complained, been a disruptive force, had not been appreciative of his success and been selfish, (I could go on) would get such a gift. My barber Dave told me Kobe didn't deserve it. That thought was echoed across barbershops, campuses, playgrounds and even the league. But it didn't matter because Bryant got what he wanted: a "supporting cast".
The Lakers became the "crème of the crop" in the West and all of a sudden the superlatives started to rain down on Kobe. Now he was a great teammate, a leader, unselfish and lastly MVP. They ran through the Western Conference playoffs just losing three times. To many, including me, it was destined for Kobe to win the NBA Finals.
But I should have known better. Karma was not on Kobe's side. The only fundamental difference between Kobe Bryant this summer and Kobe Bryant last summer is, this summer, he is on a winning team. Everyone is a good guy when they are winning. You want to know the reason T.O. has not been any trouble in Dallas? Because they are winning (and he is well paid, but that is another subject).
Kobe the basketball player has changed not because Kobe the person has changed but because he has better personnel to deal with. It is easier to trust your teammates when your teammates aren't garbage.
I should have seen it because now it is very clear to see. Kobe was getting back to the NBA Finals against their arch rivals with a chance to become an immortal. If the Lakers played the Pistons, they would have swept them. But they were playing the Boston Celtics with superstars who happen to be some of the most well-respected and well-liked players in the league.
Is anyone more unselfish that Kevin Garnett? Is there anyone in the league who doesn't respect Ray Allen? Is there a player who has suffered more under the weight of a historic franchise than Paul Pierce?
I should have seen it. I was right. It was meant to be, but not for Kobe because he doesn't deserve it. You have to reap what you sow, and, in this case, Kobe has to realize, at this time, it wasn't meant to be.
When you start at the top of the mountain and then fall all the way to the bottom, you have to make a choice. Are you going to make that sacrifice to climb all the way back up while carrying others with you? Or, alternatively, are you going to climb up pulling down anyone in your way just so you can get to the top first? Kobe made the second choice and. when he got to the top of that mountain. he realized he was alone. When you are alone at the top, it is a much harder fall down to the bottom.
So it is true Karma that in the biggest game of his professional life (Game 6 of the NBA Finals) when he needed his teammates the most they quit on him like he had quit on teammates past and present. It is true Karma that player he quit on the most (Bynum) was the player he needed the most. It is true Karma that in a game where all twelve players needed to play their best Kobe was alone.
One series, one series to become an immortal was the challenge I presented to Kobe Bryant. But what I failed to realize is that, to become an immortal, Kobe has to understand that he is mortal and, that in life, your actions have consequences.
An immortal? Not yet.
Very nice, but it wasn't Karma it was the Boston defense that shut down Kobe.
I have been coming to this site about two years now and I have seen it go from its up and its downs.
If there is one thing I can say about Littal is that regardless of what we think of his love for Kobe Bryant he has never been afraid to point out Kobe's faults.
Good article.
I think this article is right on. You forgot to mention that Shaq has been able to get another ring without Kobe, but Kobe has yet to get another ring without Shaq. Talk about Karma.
ARRRRRRRRRHGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..
Now what!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think Kobe learned a hard lesson. No matter what you need to have a great team to win a championship and he lost to a great team.
Good Sh*t RL
ur article doesnt make much sense to me. Look Kobe is not a saint but neither are most other athletes. Jordan cheated on his wife, berated his teammates, was arrogant, selfish and mean but is all of that ok because he won? It took jordan time before he started winning and he was blessed with 6 rings in spite of his numerous over looked flaws. Shaq quit on the miami heat and everyone over looks that, he wanted to bankrupt the lakers and thats y dr. buss didnt bring him back. Why should kobe have asked for shaq to come back. They didnt get along and he wanted to be knowns as the best...u get that by winning on his own. The point im trying to make is that if karma is coming after Kobe for his sins then Karma is very selective because from Magic, to Bird, to Jordan and to many other "winners" they were given much in spite of doing many of the same things that Kobe has done and will probably continue to do. Besides u could make the argument that the Celtics didnt deserve to win because they brought a ring, the team didnt have to face any years of adversity, they got players that complemented one another, 3 hof`s in primes or simi-primes and won a ring. Usually in the game winning comes after going through trials and tribulations like the lakers are going through now. If not then the lakers would have won in 04 over the pistons like the celtics did this year. So lets try to keep this in perspective, Kobe is a great player and no different from the other great one with all the good and bad, his book just is taking longer to be written.
I think the article is more about irony than anything if you read it closly. How ironic it was that years of complaning to get what he wants only to have them bail on him in the Finals. Maybe it didn't matter, maybe it wasn't fate but definitely interesting reading material
I agree with Ali here. Besides Shaq did very little for that ring in Miami. Wade had a parade to the FT line.
HA
I don't believe in fate, but maybe this is something Kobe had to go through before he can take that next step.
I agree with Robert that it is very ironic how it went down.
I thought you were a Kobe Fan sell out
I have to disagree with Ali and Basketball Fan here. Despite all their flaws, Jordan, Magic, and Bird never quit on their teammates. None of those guys, on the world's largest stage, disappeared. I don't care whether it was Jordan lambasting the greatest team ever, the 1986 Boston Celtics, for 63 points, with only Juwann Oldham and Orlando Woolridge to help him or Magic playing center against Philly, when Kareem went down in '80, those guys were gonna give it 100% every single time. Kobe has never been that. He is the type, like Wilt Chamberlain, who will sulk and not shoot, just to prove a point. He is a guy who cannot accept criticism and if things don't go his way, he'll blame everything on everybody else and yell at everyone around him. Curt Schilling pointed that out a few days ago, when he was watching them play in Boston.
There's a difference between having personal flaws and being a quitter. Kobe's a quitter.
How could you do this to me ROb?
You flip flopping more than John kerry
Great article. Probably a good lesson for all of us in there too, regardless of whether you call it karma, fate or the very biblical principle of reaping and sowing.
you reap what you so
WOW!!!!
that is one of the best articles you have written. i believe this was from the heart and very truthful. i'm not a kobe bryant fan and i know you are. some of the things you have written about him appeared that either kobe wrote it or you two were related. i have better respect for you now and guess what, i do think kobe is a great player just not a people person but it seems he is improving. i'm glad the celtics won but i do feel a little sad for kobe.
good point ali...
too often writers try too hard to write something poetic and irony and just end up writing mostly garbage which this comes very close to..
The only saving grace for this article and irony..etc..is that they view the article takes is the story that david stern played out in his head...and thus why boston got so many calls...even on the lakers home court...
it was like they were walking into a nightclub...the celts where somehow informed that the night was set up for them..all the girls knew who they were....and wanted to go home with them...the lakers on the other hand...werent told anything..but the girls were informed that they were losers...so they struggled getting any action.....
By the 6th night at the club...there is no more energy left to exert...when theres no benefit to come from it.
were all human at the end of the day....
its what happened..
This is a better article than anything i have seen on ESPN about Kobe in the last 5 years and that is real talk
Actually we do know what happened in that hotel room, cause the girl showed up to the investigation with 7 different semens in her panties.
I'm not big Kobe fan but you can use that "karma" argument for almost every great player. Its been alotta great players,who were bad teamates, (if being a bad teamate means you just don't like to hang out often) plenty of teams who "stole" players, and plenty of great players who got other players traded (michael jordan). But all these players still kept on winning. Kobe's lost had nothing to do with karma, its just that Boston was way too good. Paul Pierce was the better player, and KG just owned the Lakers the last game. The Truth shut down Kobe with his defense, and I think he did it because unlike Kobe he wasn't out to prove to anybody that he was the best, he just wanted to win.