Why DO you hate Kobe Bryant?

No exceptions offered here... My major question is why DO people hate Kobe Bryant?

5 Championship rings for the only NBA team I have ever been a fan of.

Among the only players that any 'elite' player in the league names in the "who do you want to take the last shot" conversation.

  1. That little Colorado kerfuffle?

  2. Expensive sneakers?

  3. Mimicking Jordan?

  4. His wife is not black?

  5. He buried your favorite team?


At this point, I am LOST on reasons why people claim to dislike Kobe Bryant...
For what it is, I am and always have been a Lakers fan. About 2 weeks shy of 31 years old (July 1, paypal link is over on the right). and Magic Johnson IS the reason for my fanship, his tenure matches my BIRTH, so get with it... At this point at current, Kobe is installed as the best Laker to do it, pending points, influence, one more championship and the league logo.
I am FINE with the man doing what he does for the team I cheered for before and will cheer for without him...

1 - "rape"?
Look, he is on a contract that was worth tens of millions at the time and is worth HUNDREDS of millions at current... ANYONE, male or female, presented with opportunity, would throw some ass (heheheh) at him with that kind of capital.
As a fan of Mike Tyson and an understander of Tupac, I am convinced that the three of these individuals are not the aggressors, but the VICTIMS in this situation. 'Pac and Mike went to jail for lack of legal representation... Basketball money is longer than rap money (why do you think they call it 'ballin'?), and happens to be longer than anything one might have left after a marriage to Robin Givens...
Kobe didn't rape that girl, he cheated on his wife... Not to excuse him for even THAT, but given what he was faced with, I would MUCH rather be Tiger Woods than Kobe Bryant when faced with what each was faced with.
I will not excuse offense to anyone claiming righteous indignation with Kobe for this issue... No homeaux, but he is not an unattractive young man. Add that to a multimillion dollar contract and he is worth fucking. Moreso, he is worth EXTORTING. Throw some ass at him, then make allegations and the court of public opinion serves an easy segue from "extortionist" to "rape victim," which serves very specifically to your decided agenda. If you are an advocate claiming to hate him for being rapist, you should sit down and think, then hate HER for cheapening what it is you claim to be about.
If he had raped that girl, he would be in jail.
Feel free to dislike him for being an adulterer, though... Too bad for your chosen issue, though, that "fuckin around" is nowhere NEAR as bad as being a pussy crook.


2 - "Is it da shoes?"
Miss me with that shit... Several players in the league -- and one NOT in the league anymore -- wear signature sneakers with a higher price point than his. NONE of them are as in on the design, as far as tech and materials used for desired performance, as Kobe is.
Besides, who still pays full price for sneaks anyway?


3 - Jordan:
Fun fact: Michael Jeffrey Jordan was a philanderer and is an asshole... He also happened to have taken the Oscar Robertson/Dr. J mold of basketball playing and expounded upon them, spending 7 years of his professional life doing so before making anything of it... Kobe Bean Bryant took what MJJ created, made his own version and made a career and life of it, with 3 years head start to prepare on that whole 'winning championships' thing.
One could complain that he is "copying Jordan," and flatly ignore all of those who came before him who completely failed to capture just that in their attempts. Harold Miner and Vince Carter come to mind specifically. You're SUPPOSED to emulate and expand upon those who laid the framework for you to do what you do. Kobe is a bigger stronger faster Jordan (with a better long range touch). As much as I hate to have to admit it, LeBron is a bigger stronger faster Kobe (without the jumper, but HOPEFULLY for his own sake he is working on it).
If this is a "problem" of any sort, please apply it to EVERY boy playing basketball in the United States right now. If any of the players, past present and future, who came up "copying Jordan" woke up one day and had found the success of Kobe Bryant, I am PRETTY damned sure they'd be happy with where they landed.
Let us not even bother to APPROACH the "second summer of LeBron's busted dreams," here.

[Phlip note - well hell, I guess I did just there, no?]

3 - Vanessa
It seems to be a hot topic in the news these days that black dudes are not marrying black women, far and large.
I love mine to death and she knows it, now all of you do too if you didn't before.
HOWEVER!!! (Whatup, Galen!)
Contrary to the news, and in accordance with a video I watched a couple weeks ago, with which my own black woman could not fully disagree. In so much, as long as he married a human being and they're willing to pretend to be happy, or at least be unhappy outside of my viewpoint (unless it is for our entertainment in such), leave the man alone on that too.


4 - His track record
The boy has a pedigree. Win or lose, he fucking brings it. Makes believers out of those who just wouldn't before. Fox Sports writer Mark Kriegel has a history of vitriol for Kobe Bryant (and a matching one that could be doubled as a dick-coozy for LeBron James) seems to have reversed field of late. After game one of the Western Conference Finals, Kriegel flat-out gave Kobe his just due. When the fecal matter is prepared to strike the rotating oscillator, you know who you want on your team.
Ask all of the makeshift Oklahoma City fans. Ask all the Utah Jazz fans. Ask the Phoenix Suns' fans. Ask EVERYONE who was singing for the Celtics until the 4th quarter of game 7.
Ask anyone on the wrong end of a clutch jump shot in the last 4-5 seasons.


***********************************

My stance on this is not without bias. If he were not the best player on my favorite team in the league, I would likely not be as big a fan of Kobe as I am right now.
Conversely, if LeBron James would deliver on what he says he desires to deliver, to have earned his smug sense of LeBron-ness, I probably would not hate his fucking guts as I do.

On the other hand, there is the side of this where a dude can't win for losing, even when he is winning.
Win a championship with Shaq in the fold and "Shaq won those championships," let Shaq leave as he becomes generally less effective and is definitely not the future of the franchise, and Kobe "broke up the team," leave the man with NO help to the point where he MUST score 35 points a night and take 25-30 shots against double and triple teams, and he is a "ball hog," and Steve Nash is given an MVP award that clearly belonged to Kobe.
Get back to the finals and he "got lucky," and when he loses to a legitimately better (at the time) team due to a continued lack of "ready" help, it is back to the "can't win without Shaq" shit. Get him back on the stage and let him run the table, even taking Finals MVP and the blame turns to "weak competition." The boy can't win for losing, even when he wins.
I could go on and on about this, but we all know that it would all continue to fall on deaf ears. Those who know basketball and know it well might be best to dislike Kobe because he happens to be a bit of a jerk. As a ball player, though, his influence is undeniable, even if he is having an off night (*cough*game7*cough*).
The problem is that those same people are, more often than not and very much driving their vitriol, Stans for Jordan who was MORE of a jerk, and Dallas Penn laid out the stats to prove it. It is almost as if they hate to see natural progression of abilities, someone was and is bound to come along and outdo their favorite, lest sport is moving backward. What will happen next, though, is that someone will come along and outdo even HIM.
If Charley Rosen is to be believed, it probably won't be LeBron, though.
The fact that I have a homie born and raised in Chicago and admitted Homer for the team and Stan for Cheese Eyes (Whatup T-Dott!!!) who has found it in himself to like Kobe for what he is speaks volumes, to me at least.

I am done with the semi-serious shit, here... I will have a few funnies I found on the internets.





See y'all in October with a collection of inaccurate predictions again.

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