lakerevolution wrote:Most of my non-Laker-fan friends are typical Kobe-bashers. Either he was a ballhog, a cancer, a rapist, an asshole, "not black enough", or whatever other monkey-mouthed mob-mentality garbage was floated by tabloid media and eaten up by butt-hurt NBA fans.
The truth is the guy was a beast. An island, yes. Unrelatable, sure. But you couldn't match his will, drive or intellect on the court. If he lost, it was the bounce of the ball -- not because you were better than him. And of course his winning ways spoke for themselves.
Mamba out.
Haters will look for everything to trash someone. It just happens in sports when you are in the GOAT convo. IMO unless you are found guilty of something like rape/murder or cheating while you play in your sport because that is the integrity of game then fuck the haters. It's funny how Kobe was never found guilty of rape and his case didn't even to go court, Peyton was cleared of not taking HGH/PED's by the league, but yet Tommy boy cheats and his team was found guilty by the league not once (Spygate) but twice (DeflateGate) and most people kiss his ass!
Anyway to me Kobe makes my MT Rushmore out of the players I have seen live = 1977-2016 seasons/40 seasons of watching Basketball!
My Top 4 players are: Jordan 1, Magic 2, Kareem 3, Kobe 4 - that is my MT Rushmore out of who I have seen live. I rank LeBron, Shaq, Duncan, Bird and Hakeem in that next tier. After that these other young pups have a long way to go before they are even close to any of the guys I have named. LeBron redeemed himself by winning in Cleveland so I give him his props. Durant blew any chance to being in LeBron's or Bird's class by leaving OKC. Curry was on his way to something special by winning 2 League MVP's in a row then his team choked a way a 3-1 lead in the Finals with HCA. That may be the worse choke I have witnessed in my 40 seasons of watching Basketball considering what was at stake. I thought the Heat losing in 2011 to the Mavs was a huge choke as well because the Heat had a 2-1 lead with HCA but what the Warriors displayed was worse. You win 73 games and have Game 7 at home and lose?? LeBron moved way up on my list after his last Finals performance eventhough I still don't like the fact he left Cleveland in the first place.
3Peat's morning rant!