A lot of times biographies really just reinforce a narrative that you have about a person, especially in sports.
I wouldn’t have likely picked this one up if I hadn’t read Roland Lazenby’s last book Michael Jordan: The Life and been transported back to the time when I was a kid growing up and Michael Jordan seemed bigger than God.
And, the thing about this book on Kobe Bryant is that I have a hard time remembering anything about Kobe Bryant except for him being fully formed as “The Man.”
But the thing is, Kobe Bryant wasn’t really “The Man” for that long in his career.
Actually, for much of his career, he was driven by an anger.
Anger that people were in the way. Anger that people didn’t give him the space to be the best Kobe he could be.
For adults of a certain age, I think there are certain cultural touchstones that are meaningful to you and that define you in some way. Things that are utterly absurd when you think about them, but define you in some sort of shorthand that other people you are close to in age can relate to.
Things like:
- Y2K
- Michael Jordan’s time as a baseball player
- Your first piece of flannel clothing
For me, Kobe Bryant seems to fit into that narrative of self.
Where do you see yourself in so many aspects of Kobe:
- Who did you pick in the Kobe/Shaq feud?
- Where do you stand on Kobe as the greatest scorer ever?
- Your take on the Kobe not passing enough debate?
The fact is that Kobe is someone that bridged a gap in many ways. In basketball, he took us from the era of MJ to the era of LeBron.
The two eras couldn’t be more different.
In MJ’s era, you weren’t buddy-buddy with your opponents. You weren’t a smiling, laughing, joking, friendly creature no matter the situation…no, you were a ruthless competitor.
Sure, MJ gets held up as the ultimate competitor, but what about Vernon Maxwell, Charles Oakley, and Larry Bird?
LeBron’s era is all about buddy-buddy.
Look at the Big 3.
They were a love in from the beginning.
That would never happen in MJ’s day.
Not that one era is better or worse, just different.
That’s the thing that comes out of this book about Kobe. Not that he is better or worse than anyone in NBA history, though he is better than almost everyone.
No, the thing that stands out the most about Kobe is how different he is.
It is almost like the things that people were struggling with when labeling him were also the things he was struggling with.
Kobe wanted to be a leader, but couldn’t get over the fact that being a great individual player was what gave him success and got him to the NBA.
Kobe wanted to be a global star and the next MJ, but couldn’t avoid the pull of the Nike starship. Which ultimately undermined his ability to be the next MJ. Because when you are in the shadow of the real MJ, its hard to be next.
Kobe wanted to avoid the trappings and the farewells that so many other superstars had fallen into, but ended up on a big farewell tour.
The Kobe Bryant story is about faults.
Which is what any of the things that we focus on are about.
Faults.
Our challenge is to look at ours and try to overcome them.
Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.
It is the constant effort to try that the book brought to me.