By Matthew Shircliffe–
On July 1, 1996, Vlade Divac from the Los Angeles Lakers was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for 17-year-old Kobe Bryant in a pre-draft transaction, sparking perhaps the most notorious trade in the history of the NBA.
Vlade Divac played only two seasons with that Hornets franchise, but Bryant had a slightly different outcome on that trade.
Accumulating 32,000 points, five championship rings, two finals MVPS and a regular season MVP, Bryant also make the NBA all-defensive team on nine occasions and become the Lakers’ all-time leading scorer, among many other accolades. Bryant has proved to be, arguably, a top-five player in the history of basketball, and now as he enters his twentieth season, he is playing on borrowed time. Despite all his disheartening injuries in recent years, his absence in the playoffs, his sub-par teammates and other disparities, Bryant has one more great run to solidify what could go down as the greatest career ever played.
At 37, Bryant is set to embark on his second decade in the NBA. He is entering the final chapter of his career—a career that goes unparalleled to others, establishing himself as undoubtedly the greatest Laker of all time.
In the early years of Bryant’s career, he played alongside Shaquille O’Neal, and they were able to form a super-team that was destined for greatness, winning three championships despite their resentment towards one another.
When the feud between the two ego-maniacs reached its peak, Shaq split for the Miami Heat, leaving Bryant with the Lakers all to himself. Despite Bryant putting up some of his best numbers, the Lakers as a whole struggled for the next few years, even getting bounced out of the first-round a couple of times to my Phoenix Suns.
Just when the Lakers’ future was looking bleaker than ever, they made another infamous trade in February 2008, acquiring Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. This lead to three straight finals appearances, and the Lakers won two of them. Once again Kobe Bryant had reached the land of milk and honey, climbing to the top of the basketball world.
From that moment on, when they won their most recent championship in 2010, the Lakers were never the same. The steady decline was apparent, and Dwight Howard proved to be a cancerous being in that locker room. Jeremy Lin, Jordan Hill, Carlos Boozer, Chris Kaman—the list goes on and on of players who haven’t lasted with the Lakers franchise, and since that championship-run, they just haven’t found their groove.
Fast forward to today, where the Lakers are coming off the worst season they’ve ever endured, and now it’s time to rise from the ashes.
The young breed of D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle are set to prove their worth. Roy Hibbert, who was once an all-star, can resurrect his career joins the roster, and Louis Williams, who was last season’s sixth man of the year for the Toronto Raptors, will contribute. It will be interesting to see what kind of run the Lakers can make with these additions.
Last Wednesday when the Lakers played their second preseason game against the Utah Jazz, Bryant played just twenty-one minutes, putting up 13 points, but Byron Scott weighed in on how Bryant was doing.
“I thought he did great. He was very lively. Getting up and down the floor defensively, I thought he was fantastic. I don’t know if it’s a rebirth or what, but I’ll tell you he looked really good tonight, really fluent on his movement,” said Scott.
ESPN did a ranking of all the players currently earlier this month, and Kobe Bryant—who was one of only two guards to have ever averaged 20 points per game, putting up 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists in the 35 games he played last season—was ranked as the 93rd best player in the league.
ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith said, “I would ask America: do not attach any association of this to me whatsoever. I have nothing to do with such idiocy, such ridiculousness. This is so disrespectful.”
He later said, “That poll is a joke. That poll is disgraceful. That poll I have no association with. There is no way in Hell there are 92 players in the world better than Kobe Bryant.”
Let’s put this in perspective with Jahil Okafor, who has never touched the hardwood floor of an NBA regular season game in his life. Okafor was ranked four spots higher than Kobe Bryant, who has played 1,280 games. I refuse to give any more publicity to that sacrilegious ranking that slighted the Black Mamba.
This may be his last season (or not), and there is a lot unknown for the 37-year-old. It’s a shame that ESPN undervalues Bryant to the point where they believe there are 92 players better than him. He will prevail as he always does, making a career of out of shutting up the slanderers and critics. There is much in store for the season for the man who changed the game.
Earlier in his career, Bryant shared the sentiment that gave him the motivation to be the game-changing, era-defining player that he has been during his 20-year NBA career.
“The most important thing is you must put everybody on notice that you are here and you are for real,” Bryant said. “I’m not a player that is just going to come and go. I’m not a player that is going to make an all-star team one time, two times. I’m here to be an all time great. Once I made that commitment and said ‘I want to be one of the greatest ever,’ then the game became everything for me.”
Although Bryant’s critics may want diminish his name in the twilight of his career, Kobe Bean Bryant will have the opportunity to put everyone on notice on final time.
