He missed those four shots by a wide margin, almost as if reliving that fateful game 11 years ago against the same team at the Lakers then home—the Forum.
What a difference a decade makes. I mean, what a difference a year makes for that matter.
Kobe, yesterday, went to the line 23 times and buried a cool 21, the two misses coming when the game was pretty much over with. That’s how you make teams pay for fouling you. Ice cold blood. Red hot stroke. Anti-Shaq (I couldn’t resist).
It was eleven years ago during the 1997 conference semifinals when Kobe faced the Jazz in his first meaningful playoff game, one that I will always remember because he air-balled four shots to end the Lakers playoff hopes that year.
It’s also a series that my cousin will never let me forget because I proclaimed that Kobe would never amount to anything and that the Lakers were much better off with Eddie Jones as their starting shooting guard.
See, back then, Eddie was my favorite player. He was an exciting finisher, a lockdown defender, and a likeable guy who was dating Tyra Banks. He had that play with Shaq where he would slip his man and use Shaq as a screen and get a dump off pass for an easy dunk down at the baseline. I loved that play. My friend and I would practice that play, only without the 7 feet and the ensuing dunk.
But, what I didn’t realize back then was that in that very same game that I hated on Bryant so much, the very game that made me proclaim Kobe as a punk, overrated, arrogant nothing-to-be, my boy Eddie shot an identical percentage. Both of them went 4-14 from the floor. Only, Kobe missed all six of his 3 point tries.
The other thing that I failed to realize at that moment in time, something else my cousin so wisely pointed out to me all those years ago, was that with Shaq having fouled out, Kobe was willing to take those shots. Even after he air-balled that first one to end regulation, he believed in himself enough to keep firing away. Was it the wisest move at the time? Probably not. I remember yelling at him to pass the ball to my other boy Nick Van Exel or even Eddie.
And that, “or even” Eddie part is what should have made me stop. Looking back on the course of their careers, Eddie Jones was a player who, in big moments, seemed to fade away. Of course, everybody knows how Kobe has responded to those same situations.
He’s the number one closer in the game today, despite what anybody says. Lebron might be the most physically gifted, Duncan might be able to best anchor a team and Dwayne Wade might be able to sell the most phones, but Kobe wins games.
Duncan is getting older and more and more dependent on Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker to take over late in games (that 3 pointer not withstanding). Lebron’s focus seems to be on marketing himself to be a global icon. Wade, when he’s not injured, is looking towards the future to become the next Denzel.
#24? All he’s ever wanted to do, as evidenced by that first Utah Jazz series, and all he’s ever done, as evidenced by his body of work, is win ball games.
And this year, he’s learned to do that by trusting his teammates. Along with the lesson at the line he gave the Jazz, he also dished out 7 dimes, the prettiest not being the oop to Gasol, but the bounce pass that threaded the needle to Pau on a pick and roll play—one that sealed the door on the Jazz’s late game surge.
It’s funny how as their paths have gone further and further away from each other, Kobe and Shaq have seemed to switch places. Back then, Shaq was the teammate everybody wanted to play with. He was the most dominating player in the game. He was selfless. He was the soon to be MVP.
Today, Kobe is the head to what might possibly be the best Lakers team since Showtime. With the talent they have, they could potentially be even better. He’s sharing the ball, he’s the most dominating player, and he’s soon to be the MVP.
What a difference a decade makes.
Keywords: Eddie Jones, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Nick Van Exel, Shaq, Utah Jazz
