Kobe won without Shaq; now he beat the Celtics… What will Kobe’s haters attack him with next?

MITCHELL BLATT

For all the years of Kobe Bryant’s early career, he lead the league in scoring and won three championships, but he wasn’t exactly the most popular player. His critics pointed out that he won all those championships with Shaq on his team. After Shaq left, the Lakers started suffering, and Kobe “wasn’t being a team player.”

The Lakers returned to the championship against the Celtics during the 2007-08 season and lost. Hence the first knock on Kobe’s legacy: He can’t win without Shaq (as Shaq so eloquently put it).

The next year, Kobe beat the Magic, but his critics put another challenge to his legacy: He can’t beat the Celtics. After all, no Laker is a legend if he consistently loses to the Celtics in the Finals. Kobe must beat the Celtics to cement his legacy, Dime said.

Okay, so now Kobe has won a title without Shaq, beat the Celtics in the Finals, and had a sex scandal. What must we add to his Herculean labors before he can put his legacy to bed?

For starters, Kobe has still not played minor league baseball, and Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 20,000 women is still far out of Kobe’s reach…

Kobe’s critics always need something to lord over him that he can never achieve hasn’t achieved yet so that they have a firm reason to hate him. I’ll admit it: I’ve been a hater for some time. But my anti-Kobe feelings are starting to fade.

So he wasn’t found guilty of rape… That was a mentally unstable women who came to his room looking for consensual sex. The only thing we’ve got on him there is adultery. Six years ago.

Sure he doesn’t like hanging out with his teammates, he had leadership problems early on, and he was kind of withdrawn from the team and didn’t get along well early on… But now he’s learned how to pass the ball and has grown in his leadership role.

LeBron James was supposed to take Kobe’s crown away as the NBA’s best… But now that James has fizzled out of the playoffs the past few years–dramatically so this year–no one can credibly put him on level with Kobe.

The truth is us Kobe haters are starting to run out of valid reasons to bash Kobe. I must admit, I’m starting to lose my feelings towards Kobe. Besides, Rajon Rondo is a lot more fun to hate.

(Kobe, you must win another title to tie Jordan’s 6 or else you won’t cement your legacy!)

Photo: Reuters

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