Kobe....Why hast thou forsaken me!

Kobe is the best player in the league hands down. Tracy McGrady is the most talented. And LeBron has the most upside. That said you'll hear me saying the most about Kobe not because I like him the most 'cause (AI, Vince, TMac, Jason Terry, Walter Ray Allen, and a few others) I like better. The thing about Kobe is all of the things that Kobe does wrong are magnified and blown out of proportion in comparison to Jordan who he is often compared with.

Because I advocate fairness in everything, I have chosen the not so popular take of calling Kobe the best player ever. Do I believe Kobe is the best player ever--in a word NO. But, if you ask who is the greatest player ever 95% of the people will say Jordan and not even think about it.

My goal in life is to get people to think and I could go into a day long debate as to why Jordan isn't the greatest player ever. Whether or not he is, the problem I have with it all is that nobody even thinks about it. There are very good statistical, observational and logical arguments to say that he isn't the greatest player ever, but those go out the window. That said he probably is the greatest. But let’s not go walking off the NBA cliff 'cause ESPN and the talking heads say so.

And I am not one of those people that is too young to remember Jordan, I am only 23 (LOL at the irony), but I do remember just about everything that has happened in my life. SO I can remember the flu games the 69 points the MVP's dunk contests, tongues out...etc. But I also remember the gambling, the fighting with teammates, the leveraging for contract purposes and keeping teammates around, the cheating, baseball and all of that other crap. Michael Jeffrey Jordan wasn't perfect just like Kobe Bean Bryant isn't. Jordan was the first and probably the last of his kind, he was a trend setter and an transcendent icon, but that doesn't mean on the court Kobe can't be better. But that's the argument I get the most. Without Jordan there would be any Kobe. Here's what I have to say to that:

My analogy for this situation is slightly blasphemous but work with me here. Abraham came before Jesus. He set trends and did a lot for God's people. Had Abraham not did what he did it may not have been possible for Jesus to do what he did. That said, because Abraham came before Jesus does that mean he can't be better?

Now let me get to Mr. Bean. Kobe I am very disappointed in you. I probably slurped more than anybody except Mark Jackson and my boy Barkley....and what did you do. QUIT! That effort was awful. And I normally am not one to blame the team that lost, because generally the team that won out played them. And the Celtics did to a point, but then there was that point where Kobe was supposed to do what Kobe does and he didn't. There was a stretch against the Spurs in game 2 when they lost where Kobe scored 12 in like 2 and a half minutes against the defending champion Spurs; who have defense written on the inside of their jerseys, Bruce "the Bruiser" Bowen, the Big Fundamental Tim Duncan, and Pop one of the best adjustment coaches in the league.

And you mean to tell me Paul Pierce who has never been known for anything remotely defensive and Kevin Garnett who gets posterized more often that any defensive player of the year I have ever seen can stop the best player in the league? Right....

Again, the Celtics did a great job making it difficult and taking Kobe off his spots. Wonderful defensive effort… to a point. But the guy that scored 81 on a team playing 1 on 5, the guy that outscored a team 62-61 in three quarters by himself, the guy Charles Barkley called a nuclear bomb to the pesky Spurs cockroaches, and the guy Mark Jackson said would be an equal match for Jordan, got shut down by them? NO I refuse to believe it.

That said, this isn't like the haircut (you know the fro for no reason....I hate those) so I'm not off the Kobe train. But Kobe.... you owe me! (and I am not a good person to owe)

P.S. Shaq is a _ _ _ _ _. Shaq won the feud a long time ago. Now he does this stupid freestyle....just sad. Its like bitter meets 15 minutes of fame VH1 just saying something because you can. Was it funny? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Yes. But Shaq. You ethered Kobe when you won a championship while riding the Flash who hauled your big self up the championship ladder. So whether or not you carried the team you got one. Let it go.

Also, the absolute funniest line of the freestyle and one that nobody is touching is Shaq saying "thats like a white boy trying to be more nigga than me." America is not ready to attack Shaq....sorta like a player I mentioned earlier in this post that apparently did no wrong. One guy is an asshole the other was/is a marketing legend, just like Shaq doing this.