Farewell to Kobe Bryant : a player from another time.

A different kind of player

Kobe Bryant is complicated. About to perform in his last All Star Game and halfway through an underwhelming farewell tour in his final season, it’s hard to capture the essence of what he’s meant as a player and personality to the NBA. Visit any NBA forum, discussion board, G+ Community etc and you’ll see wildly conflicting views of Kobe Bryant.

There are lots of simple narratives to describe his career that you’ll see bandied around; ball hog, arrogant, should have won more championships… Are these true? Perhaps, to an extent. But it’s unfair not to balance these perceptions against the other values that define him; competitor, winner, perfectionist, work ethic…

Kobe has become an enigma to basketball purists. While lamenting his (at times) poor shot selection, it’s impossible not to also recognise his artistry, individual brilliance and the lifelong diligence that it has taken for him to reach the levels of performance he’s achieved over the last 20 years.

It’s always interesting to read about the perception of Kobe Bryant from his peers. In this article discussing the elite shot creators in the NBA, Jamal Crawford perfectly captured a common sentiment among descriptions of Kobe:

I heard one time in a workout that he practised a shot for an hour. The same shot. For one hour. And it wasn’t like a three-pointer, it was a little shot in the mid-range area. Do you know how tedious that is? Do you know how locked in you have to be to do one shot for an hour? To trick your mind that way? That’s unbelievable.

And basically, Kobe’s done that for every single shot in basketball. He’s thought about every different angle on the court. He’s mastered his arsenal to where he has two counters to everything. Sometimes three. With his footwork, he can get any shot he wants. Some people do it off the dribble, Kobe’s doing it with his feet. He’s doing it at closer range to the basket. He’s doing it with his back towards you. Then he’s fading away with that footwork. He’s stepping around you, or putting you in a position where you’re hopping in the air. It’s kind of like Olajuwon. He had the Dream Shake.

Well, Kobe does it as a guard.

Even among elite players, there’s a recognition, an aura and a series of urban legends that surround Kobe’s work ethic and dedication. As a fan, it can be easy to trivialise the dedication required to even reach the NBA, let alone to be one of its greatest ever performers. I’ve heard Shaq capture the feeling perfectly, comparing Kobe to Shep in Above the Rim, joking he even practised at night without a ball.

Changing of the guard: A player from the future, becomes a player from the past

When he burst onto the scene in 1996 as a teenager with seemingly all the ability in the world, he looked like an embodiment of everything that was current in the NBA. A shooting guard that could handle the ball like a point guard, the size of a small forward, top tier athleticism and a work ethic in the Jordan mould.

It’s actually a testament to Jordan’s legacy that for so many years after he retired, teams still saw the model of one transcendent superstar as the best way to build towards a title. With the league built around one of one play, Kobe’s game excelled in that style.

Watching Kobe single-handedly dismantle teams became his calling card. Whether it was through the embarrassment of riches the Lakers had teaming him with an in-prime Shaq, or later watching him gunning for scoring records on a nightly basis. Kobe’s focus never seemed to be just on beating other teams, but on everyone knowing that it was him that was personally responsible for the victory. In truth, this was symbolic of the era.

The times they are a changin’

There was a degree of negative press surrounding Kobe’s performance prior to his retirement announcement, and his refusal to relinquish his franchise player crown will tie him irrevocably to an earlier era rather than a status as a player that straddled two.

The ascension of analytics and the development of new metrics for assessing individual and team performance has shifted the emphasis towards efficiency and consistency over individual statistics. The Steve Nash-led Suns were an early preview, and today’s Warriors are the culmination of space and pace, three point shooting and small ball lineups.

While Kobe once looked like everything you wanted from a basketball player, his reliance on contested mid range jump shots is now precisely what other teams strategise for and rely on — something of a relic.

The changing of the guard hasn’t just been in style of play either, but in the prevalent personalities in the league. When LeBron James made ‘The Decision’, it wasn’t just the best player in the league moving franchise, it was a landmark moment in terms of a shift in the personalities among the NBA’s elite players. While there had once been hostility and competition between stars, with everyone wanting to be ‘the man’, we’ve moved to an era in which the elite players are good friends.

Where Kobe seemed to crave winning a championship ‘alone’ to receive the credit, those that came after seem to want to play alongside the best players they can. The games in which Kobe faced off against LeBron and saw James simply pass the ball when matched up with him repeatedly seemed to define the attitudinal and generational gap. Where Kobe saw a rivalry, LeBron saw another basketball game.

Back to basketball purists…

With the money in today’s game higher than it ever has been, a lot of the players cast themselves as business men as much as basketball players. This was never something you could ever say about Kobe. Nothing has ever been bigger than the game to him. People have talked about how self conscious he’s been and is with the media, but I think this has much to do with the fact he’s so knowledgeable about the history of the sport and his place within it. I think it’s safe to say that how he’ll be remembered by basketball fans as a player will mean more to him than most.

He’s lived a life with the single goal of becoming and surpassing MJ at the summit of basketball’s Mount Rushmore, and being considered the best player of all time. Entering the league at a time when ego and individual success seemed to be celebrated as much as that of the team, Kobe’s personal ambition, obsession with the game and incredible drive allowed him to internalise these values and somehow actually become the physical embodiment of them. When he came close to reaching his goal, it ultimately fell from his grasp. But along the way he also forged his own path. Without the perfect narrative arc that Jordan’s career had, it was probably an impossible task all along.

Curtain call

Losing Kobe from the NBA feels more symbolic than just losing a great player. By any objective measure what we’ve watched has been special. But with Duncan and Nowitzki accepting lesser roles, the day Kobe retires will pretty much kill the last real link with the NBA of the 90s. As someone that first started watching (and obsessively playing) the game during the mid 90s, Kobe retiring is equal part nostalgia and personal association.

Association with shooting the ball for hours in the park, with practising moves I’d seen on TV over and over and with falling in love with basketball.

Thanks for the memories, Kobe.