Michael Jordan’s legend is mythical in nature.
Many fans don’t remember his early struggles to get the Bulls over the top and we all try to forget the Wizards years. In a lot of casual fans minds Jordan made every game winning shot and won every game with little to no help.
Rational sports fans while recognizing that Jordan is the GOAT, he had struggles just like any other player.
Kobe Bryant detractors like to use Jordan as their “Red Herring” for everything. Conversations go like this.
Kobe Fan: “That was a sweet turn around from Kobe”
Kobe Hater: “He stole that from the GOAT, but he will never be Jordan 6 rings, 6 Finals MVPs and didn’t need Shaq for half of them.”
In general Kobe normally doesn’t address it, but guess he was caught on a good night.
“Let them doubt all they want. That’s the way it always is. People talk and doubt and criticize all the way up until you win a championship, then it’s: ‘Oh, I knew it all the time.’ That’s just how it is.”
“It’s stupid,” he said. “People can be idiots. That’s why I don’t play those games. People act like (Michael) Jordan never had bad shooting nights, terrible shooting nights. Jerry West had terrible shooting nights. We all have terrible shooting nights. It’s part of the game.
“The ignorance of people is somewhat annoying at times, but I’m learning to put up with it. We’re right where we want to be. Despite the games that we’ve given away this year, we still find ourselves within striking distance of that second seed in the West, which is pretty remarkable.
His points are valid ones and I have made them for many years.
The best thing about Old Kobe is that he simply doesn’t care about being politically correct. He almost takes a Barkleyish tone to his quotes now.
Since he has been around so long and been through so much, we just chalk it up to Kobe being Kobe.
It is one of the reasons I don’t like when people give blanket statements about Lebron James, you just don’t know what will happen in the next 5-10 years.
Even Kobe is extending out this last chapter in his book.
One thing is clear though, he doesn’t care what you think, if he is going down, he is going down gunning and that hasn’t changed since he first put on a Lakers uniform.