Basketball
The Evolution of the Black Mamba
Kobe Bryant's career has been a rollercoaster. AFP / Jay Directo
Unlike most Filipino kids who start watching or playing almost as soon as they can walk or talk, I only started watching basketball when I was already 11 years old, and that was through the PBA. It wasn’t until a year later that I got into the NBA, and it was the wondrous play of Basketball Gods like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy that made me a Los Angeles Laker fan.
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But while it was Magic’s sky hook over the Boston Celtics during the 1987 NBA Finals that forever bonded me to the purple and gold, it was a skinny young kid who joined the team in 1996 that erased all doubts that I would ever ditch the Lakers.
The Rise
The son of former NBA player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, Kobe Bean Bryant grew up in Italy and learned to play basketball as his grandfather kept sending him videotapes of NBA games. Starring for Lower Merion Academy in Philadelphia, Kobe became the 13th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. My Lakers traded Vlade Divac for Bryant on that day, adding the kid to a roster that had just been strengthened by the signing of Shaquille O’Neal.
Bryant would slowly build a reputation as a high-flyer with a panache for scoring impossible shots, but with that came rumblings of him being a selfish ball-hog.
The arrival of Phil Jackson as new Los Angeles coach in the 1999-2000 season would forever change Kobe’s basketball career, as Jackson’s legendary triangle offense forced him to adhere to a strict system that emphasized ball movement and finding teammates where they were most effective. It would also lead to the first three NBA Championships of Bryant’s basketball career.
It was a renaissance for us old school Laker fans. It was like the 1980s were back, but with a monster in the paint and a dazzling scorer on the wings for LA.
Kobe and Shaq won three titles together, but the partnership wouldn't last. AFP
Because I bled purple and gold, I was quick to defend the Kobe-Shaq combo on bulletin board forums when the team proved to be the new basketball power in the post-Michael Jordan era. When Laker-haters would post anything against my team, I was one of the loudest voices that argued for the Lakers’ strengths and downplayed their weaknesses. This was my team and they were on their way back to greatness. I would be damned if I didn’t defend their honor against all comers.
In three straight seasons, the Lakers would crown themselves NBA champions, leaving carnage and broken dreams across the NBA landscape. Not just a “dunker” anymore, Kobe evolved into a clutch performer who gutted defenses with a variety of moves, fakes, and fadeaway jumpers that embarrassed opponents on a nightly basis.
Rumors soon began circulating though that Kobe and Shaq were not getting along. It was something I initially refused to believe.
But each was an alpha male, needing to be “The Man” and first option on the team. By 2004, the cracks in the Shaq-Kobe partnership had become fissures, and a nasty separation between the two became necessary. O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, and Kobe was finally the unquestioned leader of the Lakers.
The Fall
When Shaq departed, Phil Jackson took a year off from coaching and wrote a book that enumerated reasons why he wanted to trade Kobe instead of the big man.
During the Lakers' dark days, the smile that once came so easily to Kobe was replaced by a scowl. Reuters
As a Laker fan, I didn’t care that Shaq won another NBA title with the Heat or found a new sidekick in Dwyane Wade. I didn’t even care about Phil’s scathing remarks about Bryant in his book.
But any goodwill that Kobe had built up seemed to disappear and he was seen as the man who broke up the Lakers’ dynasty. The smile that came so easy to him in his youth was replaced by a permanent scowl as Kobe became the NBA’s newest villain.
What really bothered me was that the Lakers were not even competitive back then. Nobody seemed to want to pick up the slack except for Kobe. Even after he scored the second most number of points in an NBA game, 81 points versus the Toronto Raptors in January 2007, it was evident that he needed help.
Another playoff elimination happened and Bryant famously called for a roster shake-up. And the shake-up happened with the addition of Pau Gasol. To try and change his fortunes, Kobe also famously changed from his old number 8 to the new 24 because he said it showed how many hours a day he thought of basketball.
Gasol’s arrival gave the Lakers another offensive option and a sidekick for Kobe to call his own. With Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and the ever-reliable Derek Fisher, the Lakers were back in the Finals, this time against the hated Boston Celtics. Just as the Lakers were the first team that I learned to love, the Celtics were the first team that I learned to hate. When Paul Pierce faked an injury to get sympathy from the Boston fans, it made by blood boil. Losing to the Celtics in the 2008 NBA Finals gave more fuel to the Kobe-haters, and they were a very vocal lot.
The Revival
Redemption would come the following season when Kobe led the Lakers back to the Finals, beating Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic for his fourth NBA title. In 2009, Kobe, Pau and the Lake Show went back-to-back, gaining revenge against the Celtics in seven games to earn the Lakers’ 16th overall championship.
Now calling himself “the Black Mamba,” Bryant cemented his role as one of the NBA’s all-time greats when he led the USA Men’s Basketball Team dubbed “the Redeem Team” to Olympic gold in Beijing. My faith in Kobe since 1996 has been repaid many times over the past few seasons, so much so that now, Kobe is viewed almost as a respected elder statesman in the NBA.
His return to prominence has seen Kobe get less boos than he used to when the Lakers go on the road. He even gets chants of “M-V-P!” sometimes as NBA audiences have finally realized that Kobe’s greatness is just impossible to deny now.
Kobe has visited Manila four times since 1998. During each visit, he’s been showered with adulation by the basketball-crazy Filipino fans because we recognize greatness and we love winners.
For all the accusations of being a ball-hog, of being uncoachable, or a bad teammate, nobody can argue that Kobe gets the job done. Five NBA Championships, an Olympic gold medal, and a surefire first ballot selection to the Basketball Hall of Fame are his, yet he still loves playing and wants to add to his collection of championship rings.
I’ve bought many Kobe shoes over the years, from his time at adidas to his revival with Nike. I’ve bought his t-shirts, jerseys, shorts, socks, and magazines with his face on their cover. I’ve posted hundreds of articles and links about his greatness on social networking sites and watched many of his interviews on talk shows. And now, I can finally see the Black Mamba play live in all his basketball glory.
Dubbed the “SMART All-Stars,” the team also features Chris Paul, Derek Fisher, James Harden, Tyreke Evans, Derrick Williams, Javale McGee, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose, but the unquestioned headliner is the Black Mamba himself.
The team is set to play two competitive games against a collection of PBA All-Stars and the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team. This truly is a once-in-a-lifetime event as Kobe and his NBA brethren have never played a competitive game against Filipino basketball’s finest.
You better believe I’ll be in the heart of the Araneta Coliseum, screaming my head off and chanting “Ko-be! Ko-be! Ko-be!” with the other 19,000 basketball addicts in that arena. His career has been a veritable rollercoaster with incredible highs and depressing lows, but now, there is no denying Kobe’s place among the basketball immortals.
