Okay, so Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptor on January 22. Since then, there are a lot of media attention about him and his team. What a great publicity huh?
Well, few weeks after Bryant "success". There is this super talented female basketball player name Epiphanny Prince from Murry Bergtraum High School in New York. I believe many of you may have heard of her because she is the one who scored 113 points against Louis Brandeis on Feb 1 2006.
Epiphanny Prince is a fantastic player; no question about that. BUT. The team she was playing against with, was ranked second to last in their division. The score of the game was 137 (Bergtraum) to 32 (Brandeis). Do you see how bad Louis Brandeis is? Bergtraum is one of the best girls' basketball teams in the country. I don't understand why Bergtraum coach, Ed Grezinsky still let Prince played, knowing his team was going to win anyway? Here is the thing, Bergtraum was winning by 100 points. Grezinsky should have taken Prince out of the game and let younger players on his team to develop their basketball skills.
How is this relate to Kobe?
An hour ago, I watched Prince's new conference with her coach on tv (it was recorded 3 days ago). A reporter asked her how can she score 113 points. She said Kobe was her inspiration. "If Kobe can score 81 points, why can't I do it?" (source WNYW: Fox 5 news). That flipped me out. Kobe 81 points has now a negative effect on high school basketball players. Prince is a perfect example for this. She basically hogged the ball through out the Feb 1 game against Louis Brandeis. Prince scored 58 points in the first half. The coach should have stopped her from playing because Bergtraum was already winning the game in its first 2 quarters. Kobe Bryant's success does not show sportsmanship. He played the game against Raptors all by himself. Prince also played that game all by herself. Kobe teaches upcoming high school superstars that "hogging the ball is good. Score more points and you will get attention from media." The next day after the game against Brendeis, newspapers from New York Post to Sports Illustrate reported Prince's 113 points performance. On that game, Prince should have passed the ball to her fellow teammates. Noooo...she decided to take over the game herself. In addition, it was also the coach's fault for letting this happened. Sorry, but why would you want your best player to contiune playing the game when your team is winning by 100 points?
From now on, high school sports are going to change. Maybe, there will be "I" on the team...thanks to Kobe Bryant. Prince proves my point that Kobe's performance on Jan 22 has already damaged his team and the people who looked up to him. Yes, I know that Kobe is a great player. But to hog the ball and ruin the foundation of sports which is "team, and togetherness", I don't know. You tell me. Kobe, can you explain this to me? Can anybody?
I'm just going to start out by saying that I don't like Kobe. I used to like the Lakers until Kobe and Shaq were there. I don't like either.
How quickly we forget - Kobe scored 81 and brought his team back from a large defecit to win.
When Kobe had a chance to have an even better game a month earlier against the Mavericks, he pulled himself out of the game at the end of the third quarter because the Lakers were winning by a sizable margin.
Why is Kobe so criticized? I'll defer to Chuck Klosterman in this ESPN Page 2 chat (probably soon to be behind a pay wall):
I think that most of the people who blame Kobe for the decline of Western civilization are those who don't understand a) basketball and b) the politics of high school basketball.
You see, some high school basketball coaches are living through their players. They have these petty rivalries and revel in not only defeating but destroying their enemies...er, opponents. It is the coach's responsiblity - especially at the high school level - to stop things like this from happening.
And one more thing - who is Kobe supposed to pass to? Name the second leading scorer on the Lakers roster. I dare you. It's Lamar Odom. Lamar Odom is the second scoring option. The sad fact is that the only way the Lakers can win is if Kobe goes for 30+. It's not so much a reflection on his selfishness, but on the quality of his teammates.
It's probably bad form for me to reply to my own comment...but by coincidince I saw this come up on the "Last Viewed" part of the sidebar, and it reminded me of the editorials in today's New York Times.
One by Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the other by Oscar Robertson. So check out two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players' takes on the Kobe issue.
Kobe is an amazing player. Even though I'm not a particularly big fan, I've got to give him props. So 81 points for him, that's very impressive. (But keep in mind, he was playing the Toronto Raptors .. who aren't known for their defensive prowess.)
But fundamentally, basketball is a team sport. Even though the NBA makes money from Kobe 81 t-shirts, and the fans get all excited from this event.. it's individual spectacles like these that undermine the "team concept" of basketball.
Even though Kobe Bryant is one of the NBA's most explosive offensive threats, his team is barely over the .500 mark.
I don't think that Kobe Bryant's only motivation to score is selfishness, but I'm sure that's part of it. I also think that it's because the Lakers don't really have that much offensive talent on their roster. So naturally, he's trying to compensate for that weakness. Jerry Buss, Phil Jackson, and the entire organization know it as well.
If the Lakers honestly want to make the playoffs, much less go further into the playoffs, they're going to have to surround Kobe with more offensive options and make the Lakers a genuine team, and not Kobe's back up dancers.
No matter how you slice it 81 against whoever team is nice, but you defined if you make your team better and he couldnt lead his team to atleast 2nd round. Also on subject of hs sports, you cant fault Kobe. If someone is going to be an I like that, there coach will put them very fast in their place
kobe doesnt deserve all the criticism for ball hogging. he is the best player by far on his team. why shouldnt he get the most shots. i mean if i were as good as him id take every shot i could and im sure most of you people would.