Didn't take long to see Bryant for his selfishness

[Perfection]

Didn't take long to see Bryant for his selfishness

By DAN LEBATARD

dlebatard@herald.com


Well, that didn't take long.

About 20 NBA games for clarity.

Turns out, Shaquille O'Neal is the truth, and Kobe Bryant is a lie.

It isn't merely that Bryant betrayed his wife and his corporate-polished image. Isn't merely that Bryant ran off three professionals -- O'Neal, Phil Jackson and now Karl Malone -- who somehow got along with just about everybody else throughout long careers. Isn't merely that Bryant leads the league in ego and myopia.

We can abide all those things in sports -- can abide just about anything, actually -- as long as you prove yourself a winner.

But it has been a long time since we've seen a sports figure so overtly destroy a champion to satiate his interests. Not since the Jimmy-Johnson-Jerry-Jones breakup has ego so clearly undermined championship potential in major American sports. And now you know why Bryant drove Jackson to consult a therapist specializing in narcissism.

HE'S NOT THAT GOOD

Turns out, Bryant's entire game was propped up by O'Neal's. Bryant, while still an All-Star, isn't nearly as good as he thinks he is. He's closer to Allen Iverson than Michael Jordan. But Bryant pushed O'Neal aside so he could have the canvas to himself, and this is what we've seen since:

Bryant leads the league in turnovers. His shooting percentage, once Jordanesque, is now below 40 percent, which is dreadful. And his team has the same record as the Clippers.

Never mind Bryant's 26.9 scoring average. There are dozens of guys who could do that if given the 32 shots Ko-me took Saturday night. You'd be stunned how many Jerry Stackhouses and Al Harringtons could drop 27 a night if allowed to shoot below 40 percent with the carte blanche Bryant has after whacking Laker teammates and coaches Sopranos-style.

Shaq made Penny Hardaway great. Did it for Bryant, too. And now he's doing it for Dwyane Wade. The easiest job in this sport is being O'Neal's teammate. That's why Wade, Udonis Haslem, Damon Jones and even a resurrected Christian Laettner are doing unprecedented things.

And it's why Tracy McGrady grew bored with scoring titles and demanded a trade to get closer to Yao Ming. Giants help little guys, as Steve Smith can attest after his three-point percentage skyrocketed from 34 percent to 47 percent one season. It wasn't because he remembered how to shoot after 11 seasons. It was because he had joined Tim Duncan.

BRYANT TOO SELFISH

Bryant committed the cardinal sin, being so selfish that you short-circuit everything around you. Most athletes are selfish. The ''good guys'' are just a lot better at hiding it. Joe Montana and Dan Marino and Michael Jordan all wanted the ball, the team and the stats. They just never said so out loud.

The ''bad guys,'' like allegedly selfish Terrell Owens, can't keep their mouths shut about it. But now, as you look at the football standings, and see how Owens' former QB, Jeff Garcia, got Butch Davis unemployed, and see how high Philadelphia has climbed, you see that Owens wasn't as selfish or egomaniacal or greedy as he was honest and real and right.

Bryant is the worst kind of sports fraud. Selfish and myopic and ego-saturated while pretending to be something else. And wrong in just about every way we do the measurements.

Dan Le Batard hosts a show on 790 ESPN Radio from 4-7 p.m. weekdays

[pappy]

nice to see ya back dibbler

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

LMAO...Is this even a valid article? It seems like one of the many Kobe haters typed up a long essay about why he hates Kobe...LOL...It's actually pretty funny, Kobe is not playing his best, but is still putting up awesome numbers, averaging the most assists he ever has as well as leading the league in scoring...Pretty amazing...Kobe has come off as nothing but a nice guy, offering apologies to Shaq and Malone within this past week (for shit he hasn't even done)...But that's all right, when you're on top, there's always someone trying to bring you down...Just don't post up bullshit articles like this anymore, because it's just a bunch of Kobe bashing that doesn't really tell us something we didn't know...PeACe

[eS El Duque]

frenchie's back!

[Smooth]

frenchie's back!

lol yep. Yo what up frenchie!

[The Big Bad Ass]

Welcome back Dibbler. Interesting point of view on Kobe.

[Don Jacob]

i find it funny how everyone is blaming kobe, when in all reality it's the other lakers' fault, inparticular Odom who IS NOT showing up. he showed up last night and look what happened they blew out the Kings AT arco. Kobe is doing everything he can but he can't do it by himself.  Kobe is not shaq.........i've always said that, shaq is point blank the best center ever, the best big man, his worth is just as valuable as jordan when it comes to making teammates better. But you can't hate on Kobe here, who besides Odom does kobe have to work with.......Tier Brown, Slavah Medvadenko, and Caron Butler. who who and who!?! given time and a team that is BUILT around Kobe , the lakers will be bad ass, remember Jordan didn't do it all himself right out the gate.....he was well into his 30's when things FINALLY started to click it took a long time to build a team around him, let the lakers build around kobe and you got a winner.


also i find it funny that everyone is calling kobe selfish when he just put up 12 assists  and is averaging a career high in assists...go figure

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

And it's funny how this guy isn't mentioning that Shaq is having his worst season EVER...Miami and the Lakers have nearly the same record...In my opinion, Shaq isn't improving Dwayne Wade, Dwayne Wade is improving Dwayne Wayde.

[Javier]

but but but the guys are giving KOBE 110% thats all the matters right?  Giving Kobe 110% geez, leave them alone   

[eS El Duque]

And it's funny how this guy isn't mentioning that Shaq is having his worst season EVER...Miami and the Lakers have nearly the same record...In my opinion, Shaq isn't improving Dwayne Wade, Dwayne Wade is improving Dwayne Wayde.

Shaq is helping Wade out

Well, the focus all year was on how Kobe is a better player than Shaq in Lakers mind..and they wanterd to keep him...this guy is an upset Lakers fan who was in love with Shaq 

but but but the guys are giving KOBE 110% thats all the matters right? Giving Kobe 110% geez, leave them alone

lol

[acbaylove]

Just to reply to the author of this very stupid article.. with stats, since he loves them.

Kobe ranks #1 in points scored (27.3), he's shooting over .400% from the field, over .811% from the FT, ranks 2nd in the league in 3points made, ranks #8 in the NBA in Assist per game (awesome!), and he's the 1st SG in rebounds per game of the whole league (7.5 rebounds per game).

Shaq is producing the worst stats of his long career. And he's playing in the East, where he said it's "too easy" for him to be the MVP. Guess what? He isnt.

P.S.
Lakers have a good record. The "problem" in the West is that there are teams who are doing better than expected. Seattle, for example, was a team predicted as a lottery team and ranks #2. Phoenix wasnt expected to be as good as he is (but i know Mike D'Antoni, i knew it).. So we have those two teams who ranks first and second. Other than them, all the others have a very similar record. For example, the Lakers are just 1 game from having the same record of Minnesota, they have the same number of losses of Dallas, and are 2 wins from having the same record of Sacramento (they've just destroyed them in Sac).

On the other side, Miami, as a 17-7 record (Lakers have a 13-9) in the wackest Conference AND Division of the whole NBA with a 3-5 record against West Coast teams.

Please.. let's talk about serious things, i dont want to spend other time commenting on this moron's article.

[The Big Bad Ass]

lol, shooting over .400%? No matter how you dress it up, .403% isn't anything to brag about. The assists and rebounding stats are impressive though.

[Da WCC Hopar!]

Just to reply to the author of this very stupid article.. with stats, since he loves them.

Kobe ranks #1 in points scored (27.3), he's shooting over .400% from the field, over .811% from the FT, ranks 2nd in the league in 3points made, ranks #8 in the NBA in Assist per game (awesome!), and he's the 1st SG in rebounds per game of the whole league (7.5 rebounds per game).

Shaq is producing the worst stats of his long career. And he's playing in the East, where he said it's "too easy" for him to be the MVP. Guess what? He isnt.

P.S.
Lakers have a good record. The "problem" in the West is that there are teams who are doing better than expected. Seattle, for example, was a team predicted as a lottery team and ranks #2. Phoenix wasnt expected to be as good as he is (but i know Mike D'Antoni, i knew it).. So we have those two teams who ranks first and second. Other than them, all the others have a very similar record. For example, the Lakers are just 1 game from having the same record of Minnesota, they have the same number of losses of Dallas, and are 2 wins from having the same record of Sacramento (they've just destroyed them in Sac).

On the other side, Miami, as a 17-7 record (Lakers have a 13-9) in the wackest Conference AND Division of the whole NBA with a 3-5 record against West Coast teams.

Please.. let's talk about serious things, i dont want to spend other time commenting on this moron's article.

who gives a fuck about his stats we are talkin about kobe as a person he is a selfish asshole but even tho being that he still is a great abll player

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Just to reply to the author of this very stupid article.. with stats, since he loves them.

Kobe ranks #1 in points scored (27.3), he's shooting over .400% from the field, over .811% from the FT, ranks 2nd in the league in 3points made, ranks #8 in the NBA in Assist per game (awesome!), and he's the 1st SG in rebounds per game of the whole league (7.5 rebounds per game).

Shaq is producing the worst stats of his long career. And he's playing in the East, where he said it's "too easy" for him to be the MVP. Guess what? He isnt.

P.S.
Lakers have a good record. The "problem" in the West is that there are teams who are doing better than expected. Seattle, for example, was a team predicted as a lottery team and ranks #2. Phoenix wasnt expected to be as good as he is (but i know Mike D'Antoni, i knew it).. So we have those two teams who ranks first and second. Other than them, all the others have a very similar record. For example, the Lakers are just 1 game from having the same record of Minnesota, they have the same number of losses of Dallas, and are 2 wins from having the same record of Sacramento (they've just destroyed them in Sac).

On the other side, Miami, as a 17-7 record (Lakers have a 13-9) in the wackest Conference AND Division of the whole NBA with a 3-5 record against West Coast teams.

Please.. let's talk about serious things, i dont want to spend other time commenting on this moron's article.

who gives a fuck about his stats we are talkin about kobe as a person he is a selfish asshole but even tho being that he still is a great abll player

Do you know him? How do you know he's a selfish asshole?

[acbaylove]

Just to reply to the author of this very stupid article.. with stats, since he loves them.

Kobe ranks #1 in points scored (27.3), he's shooting over .400% from the field, over .811% from the FT, ranks 2nd in the league in 3points made, ranks #8 in the NBA in Assist per game (awesome!), and he's the 1st SG in rebounds per game of the whole league (7.5 rebounds per game).

Shaq is producing the worst stats of his long career. And he's playing in the East, where he said it's "too easy" for him to be the MVP. Guess what? He isnt.

P.S.
Lakers have a good record. The "problem" in the West is that there are teams who are doing better than expected. Seattle, for example, was a team predicted as a lottery team and ranks #2. Phoenix wasnt expected to be as good as he is (but i know Mike D'Antoni, i knew it).. So we have those two teams who ranks first and second. Other than them, all the others have a very similar record. For example, the Lakers are just 1 game from having the same record of Minnesota, they have the same number of losses of Dallas, and are 2 wins from having the same record of Sacramento (they've just destroyed them in Sac).

On the other side, Miami, as a 17-7 record (Lakers have a 13-9) in the wackest Conference AND Division of the whole NBA with a 3-5 record against West Coast teams.

Please.. let's talk about serious things, i dont want to spend other time commenting on this moron's article.

who gives a fuck about his stats we are talkin about kobe as a person he is a selfish asshole but even tho being that he still is a great abll player

If Kobe is a selfish man, Shaq, Phil and Malone are as selfish as him. So what? Who cares about the "person" Kobe. Nobody knows him. He's loved by his teammates, he's the leader, the coach loves him, the President loves him, there are no problems but the one other people creates.