New Name, Same Stories
Welcome to the new home of Subway Scriptures! We’re proud to move our blogging over to WordPress and hope to keep delivering more (and better) new content for you to enjoy. You can read all about the new changes on the Twitter feed and in the “About SS” section. On to our top story!
Kobe V. Lebron – Battle of The Network Stars
Congratulations needs to be doled out to the Phil Jackson, Kobe, and the rest of the Lakers for their effort in bringing home another title to the city. The matchup wasn’t
quite what everyone was hoping for, but having the Lakers win was really the best thing for basketball.
So many storylines and plots over the last few years have circled around Kobe. Will he leave LA? Can he win without Shaq? How does he compare to Jordan and Lebron? Will he ever take Sasha Vujacic and Pau Gasol out for makeovers? It really does get old after a while.
The most tiring part of watching Kobe Bryant play in the league is how demanding he is, both as a player and a person. If you watch Kobe during any Lakers game, he’s constantly demanding the ball, harping on teammates about why they didn’t pass to him, and heaving up shots. But none of this is new. We knew he would be like this as soon as he started to come into his own as a star and essentially packed up all of Shaq’s belongings in a U-Haul van.
But it wasn’t until recently that Kobe had opened up his life to the media. Or at least what seems like his life. Since the disastrous incident in Boulder, Kobe was in desperate need of an image change. People thought he was a thug, a whiner, a baby who could never fill Jordan’s shoes. Then Kobe got a brilliant idea. He decided to use the media to his advantage. He started to give them stories, stories that painted his image the way he wanted it. Politicians and celebrities do this all the time. They realize that they can either be helped or hurt by the media. It wasn’t till now that Kobe realized this was something he needed to do.
This past year was a great example of how Kobe spun the media in to his web of false images. When Spike Lee’s Kobe-mentary came out, we were supposed to be getting an “inside look” into the world of #24. This was supposed to be how Kobe Bryant really operated. Except then people realized that the documentary was A) made by Spike Lee, an avid Kobe fan and b) c’mon, this is Kobe we’re talking about. Only the most casual of casual fans, the kind of fans who don’t quite understand how the shot clock works and love hearing stories about this “Michael Jordan” guy, would believe that Kobe was the selfless leader and consummate teammate that the movie made him out to be.
Then there was an interview Kobe did with Magic Johnson before the Finals started, where Kobe said something along the lines of, “I don’t understand why people judge me for never winning a title without Shaq. It never really made sense to me.” The obvious reason is that Jordan not only won more championships than you, but he did it without the help of a dominant big man. Kobe never won when he was the brightest star. Jordan was always the center of attention during his championship runs.
It’s pretty easy to see right through Kobe’s act. What surprises me is that no one seems to be able to see through Lebron’s. Lebron is doing everything Kobe is doing now, (posing for the media, thumping his chest after a “big” shot, bumping elbows with this teammates at exactly the right moment) except that Lebron started doing it at a much younger age. It took Kobe a while to realize that this is what needed to be done in order to be loved in the league. Lebron has picked up on that, and is going to make sure he learns from Kobe’s mistakes.
It’s my honest belief that nearly all of the clips and Sportscenter moments we see of Lebron are fake and contrived. I say “nearly” all, because there were a few moments, exactly two, during this postseason when we got to see the real Lebron James, both came during the Magic series.
Rudy Guiliani, and many others, once said that, “Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.” The Orlando series was the first time Lebron and the Cavs faced real adversity in the 08-09 season. When Lebron hit that game winning shot in Game 2, a shot that will be replayed over and over despite it having no lasting impact, what was Lebron’s reaction? Did he stand and glare into the crowd like he had after nailing a half court shot against the Pistons in round 1? Did he puff his chest and shrug off Wally Szczerbiak’s attempts to congratulate him? No, he ran around and went nuts like a 24 year old should. At that moment we saw the youth and true adolescence of Lebron, not the made up, politically correct “leader” of a franchise. And that’s ok. He’s 24, and while everyone else may want to anoint him as the heir-apparent, he is only 24.
The other time we saw the true LBJ was when the Cavs lost, and King James walked off without shaking a single Orlando Magic’s hand, not even his Olympic teammate Dwight Howard’s. It was an selfish move by an player that prides himself on looking so polished and polite whenever the media swarms.
It was bad that Lebron let his emotions get the best of him at that moment, but it’s forgivable. The worst part though, is how no one in the media seemed to care. Everyone wrote off the incident, saying that this just shows how emotionally strong and competitive Lebron is. No one dared call out The King when he needed to be called out. Well I am calling him out. And the sportswriters, too. While everyone else may have already bought into Lebron’s act, here is one writer who’s not quite ready to bite.
It’s always tough to live up to the legacies of the greatest players before you. Kobe tried so hard to follow in Jordan’s steps, and came out looking like the worst teammate of this generation. Lebron is at an interesting crossroads right now. He just lost when everyone expected him to win, showed a little more of his inner self than he would’ve liked, and he’s entering a contract year, to boot. He may continue to try and use the media to guide his persona and keep up this flawless image. The problem is that eventually, as it has in the past, his persona will slip up. It’s too much work to keep up this perfect image. Just ask Kobe Bryant, around Boulder circa 2003.
