Grantland Article on Kobe Bryant-Good Read

[dub81]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/851 ... yant-enemy


I don't know how to link it straight to the site so please excuse me. But I think you guys should take a look at this article if you haven't already. It's a good read.

[Father Time]

People like drama. I don't agree with almost everything that dude wrote. The fact that Kobe has had positive relationships with teammates such as Pau, Lamar, Ariza, Josh Powell, Fisher, etc. proves that he's not a horrible teammate. And I also don't like how people equate being a good teammate with being a friend off the court. Kobe has his own life and is not required to be buddy buddy and fraternize with his teammates away from basketball.

Phil Jackson called Vlad Radmanovic a "space cadet", so that must mean he's a horrible coach, right? He published a book for everyone to see that pretty much trashed Kobe (and other Lakers), so again, that's just horrible coaching am I right?

[dub81]

People like drama. I don't agree with almost everything that dude wrote.

Please explain. I would like to hear your opinion

[Father Time]

People like drama. I don't agree with almost everything that dude wrote.

Please explain. I would like to hear your opinion

Maybe I'm not sensitive enough, but in my day guys gave each other **** all the time. Friends ribbed each other. It was all good-natured, "ha, gotcha bro!", essentially trash talk. But anyway.

The thread on the GB about Smush and Kobe (one of the several) reached like 16 pages. Because people like drama like this. Jersey Shore, The Real World, dating shows, reality shows, teen shows. Writers like this guy know that blowing these comments out of proportion is a surefire way to draw people to their article, regardless of whether or not the comments themselves warrant this much attention.

Yeah, maybe Kobe is a jerk in real life, but maybe he's not. You can only tell so much about a person from soundbites.

As far as disagreeing with the guy, I would have to go piece by piece through the article, which I don't really feel like doing right now (about to take a nap). But for one Kobe was talking about what he talked about with Nash, his teammate, and seasons relevant to the two of them because they were top MVP contenders those years. Smush was on his team those years. So he didn't bring him up for no reason, and he didn't call him out for no reason, Smush was the first to publicly trash Kobe with his comments a year or two ago. Apparently it is ok for him to do what people trash Kobe for, and any retort from Kobe is severely frowned upon. Just doesn't seem right or make sense.

[leeprettyp]

So now were linking anything Anti-laker Bill Simmons and his bashing kobe and Lakers crew work/articles on ESPN. At least Simmons admits it unlike Hollinger and Abbott so i can at least tolerate him at times. But I'll pass on reading this lol

[Slava]

The first half of the story was like "50 shades of... liking a waived NBA player" and the writer totally loses it with "Ran Shaq out of town.. " rhetoric at the end.

A for effort.

[dockingsched]

read it yesterday, its a pretty terrible article. i would expect this type of horrendous bias from a GB rgm poster.

He's the guy to whom reporters can't afford to lose access. Kobe's mouthpiece is ESPN, Lakers.com, and the Los Angeles Times. Smush's mouthpiece is Hard 2 Guard. It doesn't matter if Smush is right, because Kobe is bigger than him, and Kobe is better than him, and the NBA needs Kobe.

But Smush is right. Kobe's record as a teammate is not a pretty one, and it grows out of a mind-set that Smush described on the podcast: "Basketball is a team sport … It's not tennis or golf, it is a team sport. When you are the star of the team, you have to make your teammates feel comfortable. You have to make them feel welcome. And he did not do that at all."

Not only did he make them feel unwelcome, but over the years Kobe has joyfully attacked lesser teammates and treated fellow Lakers stars like rivals instead of allies. There's the Smush smear campaign, the recent clowning of Jodie Meeks, and the way Kobe mocked DJ Mbenga's English4 on Jimmy Kimmel Live after the 2010 championship. Kobe also drove Shaq out of town and, in the midst of Kobe's 2003 rape trial, outed Shaq's marital infidelities. Kobe has publicly questioned nearly every basketball decision-gone-wrong that Pau Gasol has made in a Lakers jersey, including making last year's "Pau's got to be more assertive" speech after the Lakers fell into a 3-1 series hole against the Thunder.

i mean, wow, talk about spin.

[rand0m]

So now were linking anything Anti-laker Bill Simmons and his bashing kobe and Lakers crew work/articles on ESPN. At least Simmons admits it unlike Hollinger and Abbott so i can at least tolerate him at times. But I'll pass on reading this lol

I didn't think it was that bad. We all know kobe is a d1ck. It was interesting to read about smush's history though. You're missing out on gems like this:

Lenny Wilkens gave me his salesman's eye. "I got a kid who's 15, he's gonna be the next Jordan," he said. "His name is Smoosh. There's gonna be a sneaker named after him. Six-one, with arms that make him six-four. Best skills I've ever seen. Ever

[Michael Lucky]

well he isn't that off. Kobe isn't a great teammate. lol

[Imadogg]

So now were linking anything Anti-laker Bill Simmons and his bashing kobe and Lakers crew work/articles on ESPN. At least Simmons admits it unlike Hollinger and Abbott so i can at least tolerate him at times. But I'll pass on reading this lol

Grantland =/= Bill Simmons. This was written by another Grantland writer

The article wasn't really that good at all but good to have a viewpoint sticking up for Smush. There was really nothing wrong or unbelievable about what Smush said a few days ago on the radio or whatever, yet people attack him while letting Kobe say anything because he's Kobe.

[leeprettyp]

Read the opinions of the other guys in here who read the article. Its completely different feedback than your giving. What people on ESPN are doing now is writing content or talking about polarizing figures for hits and viewers. Its never about the content but more personal opinion and distaste for a certain athlete. As soon as I saw you put article from Grantland I already knew what content the article would have in it. Hey bash Kobe I have no issue with that at all (as long as you can recite factual information and not numbers that are manipulated to help an argument). In more the 90% of the articles put out these days most of these people don't truly have relationships with actual players so how can you formulate a logical opinion when I don't really understand or know whats going on? Has this guy personally talked to at least 10 ex-teammates of Kobe? I pretty sure he hasnt

[rand0m]

Is it me or this article not really bashing Kobe that much? I've seen much worst things written about Kobe, especially doubting his accomplishments and accolades. This guy is only talking about his character. Most of it is focused on smush anyway. This is a commentary after all (as is most of grantland?). Maybe you should read the article before condemning it?

[Father Time]

Is it me or this article not really bashing Kobe that much? I've seen much worst things written about Kobe, especially doubting his accomplishments and accolades. This guy is only talking about his character. Most of it is focused on smush anyway. This is a commentary after all (as is most of grantland?). Maybe you should read the article before condemning it?

Of course it's a commentary, a horribly biased one. It's been pretty clear for a while now that several writers from ESPN and the like can't be relied upon to provide objective insight into Kobe's character or accomplishments. If you want hardcore spin that's mildly entertaining, then hey, you're the audience these guys write for.

For instance, saying Kobe bashes Gasol by telling him to be more assertive could just as easily be spun into "leadership" and a thing called "encouragement" by Kobe. Instead they spin it as Kobe joyously bashing his teammates. I wouldn't expect many Lakers fans to like articles written by guys who clearly dislike Kobe and the Lakers.

[rand0m]

I guess I just saw the Kobe bashing pretty mild in comparison. I was more amused that the guy actually grew up playing with smush and so obsessed with his career.

[Slava]

To put things in perspetive if you posted that paragraph of him ranting about Colorado, Shaq etc on the GB, you'd get suspended/banned.

Its funny that this guy is even an editor for what is certainly a good sports website on most days.

Tell me who's creepy, the guy that sits in a corner by himself or the guy that collects and reminisces about Smush Parker articles from 6 seasons ago.

[leeprettyp]

Bet Henry Abbot will have a similar article up on ESPN next week. These Kobe bashing articles come up about once every week. Truly because it generates conversation and viewers

[Danny Darko]

I'm proactively suspending him in advance. Now let me email him and ask him to start an account so I can ban him.

[Father Time]

So now were linking anything Anti-laker Bill Simmons and his bashing kobe and Lakers crew work/articles on ESPN. At least Simmons admits it unlike Hollinger and Abbott so i can at least tolerate him at times. But I'll pass on reading this lol

Grantland =/= Bill Simmons. This was written by another Grantland writer

The article wasn't really that good at all but good to have a viewpoint sticking up for Smush. There was really nothing wrong or unbelievable about what Smush said a few days ago on the radio or whatever, yet people attack him while letting Kobe say anything because he's Kobe.

What?? I take it you haven't been on the GB at all this last week. Almost exactly the opposite of the bolded... lots of Smush defenders/Kobe attackers.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1207712

[Gek]

Ima can't read the gb, but either way anyone that's been on this site more than 2 weeks could predict which side the general gb population would take.

[leeprettyp]

I'm a new account so I cant comment on the GB but in reality I probably dont want to. Alot of those people from the comments and post I've read act as if they didnt start watching basketball until 2011.