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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Kobe stinks and other inaccurate hatisms



I grew up playing high school basketball in LA County during the SHOWTIME ERA! The Golden Age of Basketball! So as you can imagine I bleed Purple and Gold. It's recently come to my attention that Kobe Bryant is not a good basketball player. In fact, Kobe stinks! I saw it on the internet so it must be true...

Below are a couple snapshots of his basketball stinkery.
Career highlights and awards
NBA Champion (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009,2010)
NBA Finals MVP (20092010)
NBA Most Valuable Player (2008)
14× NBA All-Star (1998, 20002012)
NBA scoring champion (20062007)
All-NBA First Team (20022004,20062011)
All-NBA Second Team (20002001)
All-NBA Third Team (1999, 2005)
All-Defensive First Team (2000, 20032004,20062011)
All-Defensive Second Team (20012002)
NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1997)
NBA All-Star Game MVP (2002, 2007, 2009,2011)
NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion (1997)
Naismith Prep Player of the Year (1996)

Career history


1996–present

Los Angeles Lakers


Career highlights and awards

NBA Champion (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009,2010)
NBA Finals MVP (20092010)
NBA Most Valuable Player (2008)
14× NBA All-Star (1998, 20002012)
NBA scoring champion (20062007)
All-NBA First Team (20022004,20062011)
All-NBA Second Team (20002001)
All-NBA Third Team (1999, 2005)
All-Defensive First Team (2000, 20032004,20062011)
All-Defensive Second Team (20012002)
NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1997)
NBA All-Star Game MVP (2002, 2007, 2009,2011)
NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion (1997)
Naismith Prep Player of the Year (1996)

 Accomplishments and records

Main article: List of career achievements by Kobe Bryant
Bryant led the NBA in scoring during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons.[1] In 2006, Bryant scored a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second-highest number of points scored in a game in NBA history,[78][206]behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point performance. Bryant was awarded the regular season's Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in the 2007–08 season and led his team to the 2008 NBA Finals as the first seed in the Western Conference.[207] In the 2008 Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. men's basketball team, occasionally referred to as "The Redeem Team".[208] He led the Lakers to two more championships in 2009 and 2010, winning the Finals MVP award on both occasions.

Bryant has been selected to 13 All-NBA Team (nine times to the All-NBA First Team) and 11 All-Defensive Team (nine times to the All-Defensive First Team). He was selected to play in the NBA All-Star Game on 14 occasions, winning All-Star MVP Awards in 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011 (he shared the 2009 award with Shaquille O'Neal). He also won theNBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1997.[209] As of May 2011, he has had 5 sixty-point games, 24 fifty-point games, and 107 forty-point games.

This doesn't even bring the current season into play. And he has done "D. All the above" with one team, which particularly in this day and age, is an accomplishment in itself. I am not speaking of Kobe the husband and father. We know he lacks in the husband category. We can infer that that is a serious detriment to his ranking for Father of the Year. So let's talk about Kobe the basketball player.

Kobe is not MJ and nor is he Magic. (my personal all time fave) But regardless of what you think of his shot selection, it's really inaccurate to say that he stinks. Does he need to pass more? Yes, I can buy that. But you don't get 9 First Team All Defensive selections by stinking. You don't become the Lakers leader in points scored or the NBA's 5th highest scorer by stinking. You don't contribute to 5 NBA championships by stinking. We get it. KOBE DOES NOT PLAY A PERFECTLY BALANCED GAME. His trust in his teammates may stink. His distribution may stink. He is not even my favorite active player (Steve Nash, and yes I know he plays no defense), or even second (Pau Gasol). But to say he stinks ... Well, I'll just say I wish my resume looked more like his.

All that said, let's talk about the larger issue. It's an election year. And we will, of course, be seeing an outpouring of hatism the likes of which the world has...gotten used to seeing. Hatism is just lazy. If you just spew hate it accomplishes nothing. Actually that's not true. It does accomplish something. It takes us all down. It corrodes the very fabric of our souls and our discourse. Besides that, when you are obviously a hater, you lose credibility.

As we go through the primaries and the conventions and the Presidential election (and the NBA season) I will do my best to keep my commentary civil and based on facts and reasonable inferences. I may well fail to be completely genteel at all times. But I promise not to shower the world with bile. What would happen if we all gave people the respect they are due, acknowledged their accomplishments and accurately and civilly discussed the flaws in their game or their character or their politics or whatever? Could we just please dispense a bit less venom in general. Even if we are speaking of a certain Black Mamba...

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Please keep it civil. Disagreement does not have to be disagreeable. Thank you so much! I look forward to your input!