Kobe’s rise to greatness obviously began very early on with three consecutive championships all before the age of 25. Bear in mind that Michael Jordan didn’t win his first ring until the age of 29 and he won his sixth at 35 years old. So here we are, a couple of months away from the 2010-2011 season with Mamba at age 32 and enough rings to cover one full hand.
Well, that’s assuming that he can even fit one onto that mangled index finger of his.
While Jordan didn’t ever have nearly as many haters and critics as Kobe, there is no question that Mamba is as close as you’re going to get to a modern day MJ. His legacy as one of the game’s best to have ever laced up a fresh pair of sneakers perhaps invades regions of the world that Jordan never has, given the wealth of information and exposure available today through the Internet. Simply put, Kobe is king – the real king.
The scoring titles, 81 points in a single game, 62 points at the Garden, his ridiculous rampage of reeling off 40 and 50-point games like he was on the court all alone, pale in comparison to his five rings and being the student of the game that he is, Mamba will be the first to tell you that.
Despite Kobe’s individual greatness, we all know full well and acknowledge the fact that Pau Gasol’s presence in L.A. immediately morphed the Lakers’ identity from playoff team to bona fide championship contender back in 2008. Even though the team was playing very well with Andrew Bynum dominating in the post, once his knee gave out, the acquisition of Gasol was the only assurance we all had that Kobe was going to have affirmed belief that the organization was finally fulfilling its promise of building a legitimate title contender.
Every head coach and general manager in the NBA outside of the Lakers undoubtedly perceived the trade as a joke and had embittered sentiments while only a few publicly expressed their opinions. Regardless, how do you think that trade made LeBron and Wade in particular feel? Even they couldn’t have been happy about the fact that Kobe, the best player in the game, wasn’t “going into battle with butter knives” any longer.
Had it not been for Boston’s exceptional defense in 2008 that completely shut the Lakers down, we’d be sitting here talking about Mamba’s potential overtaking of Jordan’s ring count instead of it being tied. Mitch Kupchak has masterfully built a championship team that has the ability to become a dynasty despite the fact that even our window to win will close much sooner than later as well, especially with Phil Jackson’s imminent retirement.
The Super Trio in Miami knows this, but they also know that they themselves are aging and their skills slowly diminishing with each fruitless season that passes them by. The threat of losing even more years to a new Lakers dynasty had to have played a role in their unprecedented decision to combine forces in hopes of conquering all of their individual demons in one fell swoop.
NEXT: BRING IT