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2019-2020 NBA All-Star Postgame Tribute To Kobe Bryant: A Competitor Most
Defiant
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This edition of "The Tortured
Cowboys Fan" has also been published by the fine folks at
Sports TalkLine.
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February 18, 2020 At
10:00 AM CST
By Eric M. Scharf-
- Let us take a little trip back to
the recent past . . . to a time when a purple-and-gold legion of hearts was
neither heavy nor aware of a fatal forecast.
“America’s Team” had officially vanished from the NFL’s 2019-2020
landscape. To the offseason the Dallas Cowboys were banished the
moment they miserably-failed to properly-fasten their
pompously-presumed postseason cape.
YES, Yes, yes, there was still the matter of
(continuing to) delectably dissect newly-hired head coach Mike McCarthy and
his staff
to pre-judge if they were “Cowboys” worthy (or merely good for a
laugh). There was also the subject of Jimmy Johnson (the
newly-minted Hall of Famer and former two-time Super Bowl winner who
left an indelible mark on the organization before his firing /
resignation signaled a premature end to such consistently dominating
fun). What to further cover? WHAT to increasingly write? Plenty of
low-hanging fruit to have triggered devotee delight.
“The Tortured Cowboys Fan” decided to take the road (far) less
traveled – on Sunday, January 26. 2020 – and cover an NFL postseason
event that had steadily, dreadfully unraveled. Almost anything,
ANYTHING would have been better than watching the Pro Bowl (the
NFL’s latest iteration of “Battle of the Network Stars” and
guaranteed theft of one’s TV-viewing soul).
Anything would have been an improvement over watching some of the
NFL’s greatest players perform professional patty cake. The “protect
your brand” flag football had become more than most longtime
football enthusiasts could take. Meanwhile – over 3,600 miles away
from Orlando, Florida – a private helicopter was following a planned
trajectory in Southern California.
Beyond an internationally-recognized basketball star and his young,
aspiring daughter, the passenger manifest included a variety of
folks. Everyone onboard was looking forward to a basketball
tournament at Mamba Sports Academy in (normally sunny) Thousand
Oaks.
The superstar’s daughter and two other passengers were going to be
playing, and the superstar himself was slated to be coaching.
Excitement was surely building with their destination fast
approaching. Tragically, they never reached it . . . because their
flight never made it.
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Nine lives were lost in Calabasas, California to fog-effected
hillside devastation. Two in particular would have an unshakeable
impact on “Lakers Nation.” Former Los Angeles Lakers superstar,
41-year-old Kobe Bean Bryant and the apple of his eye (13-year-old
Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant) were no more. Kobe was survived by his
wife Vanessa and daughters Natalia, Bianka, and Capri (for whom
there has been an incredible-but-certainly-expected emotional
outpour).
The seven other souls who perished in the accident were the
Altobelli’s (Keri, John, and daughter Alyssa), Christina Mauser, and
the Chester’s (Sarah and daughter Payton), as well as Ara Zobayan
(with 20 years / 8,000 hours of flight experience and – according to
a pact between Kobe and Vanessa – the only pilot worthy of Kobe’s
increasing travel-by-helicopter plan).
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This event has understandably been earth-shattering to their
survivors, close friends, long-time fans, and distant admirers. For
so many of them, the pain may never cease. For those lost to this
awful accident, may they rest in peace.
A Lil’ Somethin’ For Everyone
Kobe Bryant – very much like “The Talented Mr. Ripley” – may have
begun his NBA career as an unabashed Michael Jordan clone, but by
the time of his retirement, he had more than come into his own.
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While Kobe was not the only primetime talent who was also the son of an NBA
basketball player – exposing him at a young age to international
culture, multiple languages, and considerable travel – he clearly took ownership
of his opportunity from the day he was drafted to ensure his
potential (on and off the court) rarely had a chance to unravel.
Bryant represented a lil’ somethin’ for everyone. He faced opponents
of all sorts as one of the most stone-cold competitors in all of
professional sports. He was a human being who (at one time)
struggled mightily through (self-inflicted) strife in his otherwise “perfect”
high-profile life. He was a detail-obsessed, knowledge-hungry businessman with an
insatiable appetite to get amazing things done. He was a dedicated
father to whom his children were never a bother. He was the
inspiration for Oscar-worthy animated fun.
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OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Domination)
While “His Airness” remains unquestionably the best, most
consistently dominating basketball player in NBA history, “The Black
Mamba” was – perhaps – the most competitively blistery. He seemed
determined – with every game and every adversary – to turn every
failure (large or small) into an opportunity to become his
opponent’s performance jailor. The greatest competitors in NBA
history – Michael "Air" Jordan, "Larry Legend" Bird, Ervin "Magic"
Johnson, and Isiah "Zeke" Thomas among them – HATED to lose. They
considered grueling practices a (very necessary) badge of honor
rather than some wretched form of sleep-inducing abuse. For as
talented as they were, preparation that covered all the angles was
something over which they would NEVER demur.
Kobe will be remembered for his course-correcting fixation following
the Allen Iverson’s peel-and-stick performance of 41 points and 10
assists against him in Philadelphia on March 19, 1999. Playing so
poorly against “The Answer” ate at Kobe like a cancer and – when
next they battled – he would be prepared to put everything on the
line and not be rattled.
On February 20, 2000 in Philadelphia, former Chicago Bulls and
then-Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson would grant Kobe a
critical second chance. “A.I.” was known throughout the NBA land for
“breaking the ankles” of those standing in his way but – for one
half on that day – Bryant would zero him out and reduce his deadly
dribbling to a slow-step dance.
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“I swore, from that point on, to approach every matchup as a matter
of life and death. No one was going to have that kind of control
over my focus ever again. I will choose who I want to target and
lock in. I will choose whether or not your goals for the upcoming
season compromise where I want to be in 20 years.” – Kobe Bryant on
April 18, 2017, from his piece in “The Players Tribune” entitled
“Obsession Is Natural” (clearly illustrating that nothing about the
budding “Mamba Mentality” – to basketball or any other life interest
– would be at all casual).
Kobe will be remembered for his unplanned attempt to best the
100-point effort of one Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain (delivered
against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962) or the 71-point
performance by David "The Admiral" Robinson (against the Los Angeles
Clippers on April 24, 1994). For years it seemed that (even for deadly
shooters like MJ, who maxed out at 69 himself) such
high-capacity cartridges – in a team sport – faced a
permanently-closed door. The Mamba (to his own surprise) "settled"
for somewhere in the middle (on January 22, 2006), as the defensive
intensity offered up by Jalen Rose and the Toronto Raptors was
simply too little.
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Ex-Washington Wizards player Gilbert Arenas once shared a story
(during episode 52 of “The No Chill Podcast”) that – to witness in
person – would have been a blast. Following a game during the 2002-2003 season in which the
Wizards defeated the Lakers, Arenas recalled Michael Jordan telling
Kobe that he “[could wear his shoes like any other paying customer,
but he] could “never fill his shoes.” Kobe was – of course –
significantly (if temporarily) stung. After a couple weeks of giving
his teammates the most intense of silent treatments, Bryant was
determined to make (if not His Airness specifically, then) the
Wizards look like dung.
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When next they faced off (on March
28, 2003 in Los Angeles), the Wizards were practically spellbound all
the way around.
Washington defenders against Kobe – for a 42-point first half and a
55-point game – could only gag and cough. Though the igniting remark
by then-40-year-old Jordan was – perhaps – only designed to push
Kobe harder towards ensuring his maximum potential became all
but permanent, it surely helped reinforce Kobe’s professed,
never-oppressed temperament.
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"Kobe was hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in
the game. His obsession with Michael was striking. When we played in
Chicago that [1999-2000] season, I orchestrated a meeting between
the two stars, thinking that Michael might help shift Kobe's
attitude toward selfless teamwork. After they shook hands, the first
words out of Kobe's mouth were, 'You know I can kick your ass one on
one.'" – Phil Jackson wrote in his book, “Eleven Rings: The Soul of
Success” (illustrating – once again – there was nothing easy
about his one-of-a-kind experience
in managing many an egomaniacal mess).
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“I was like a wild horse that had the potential to become
Secretariat, but who was just too f---ing wild. So, part of that was
[Jackson] trying to tame me . . . [His comments about me in the press]
drove me at a maniacal pace. Because either consciously or
unconsciously, he put a tremendous amount of pressure on me to be
efficient, and to be great, and to be great NOW.” – Bryant told GQ
for a 2015 article (reminding everyone how Phil Jackson’s approach
was necessary and ultimately masterful).
Quotes To Note
“My brain . . . it cannot process failure. It will NOT process
failure. Because if I sit there and have to face myself and tell
myself, ‘You’re a failure’ . . . I think that’s almost worse than
death.” – Kobe Bryant (sharing a compulsive theme that – had fate
granted him an extension – he would have proudly confirmed and
re-confirmed until his last breath).
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"I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a
bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or
hitting the game-winning shot.” – Kobe Bryant (clarifying under no
uncertain terms that the alternative to winning was competitive
rot).
Sound Bites That Cause Fights
“[Shaq would] be the first to tell you that. For sure. This guy was
a force like I have never seen. It was crazy, a guy at that size.
Generally, guys at that size are a little timid and don’t want to be
tall. They don’t want to be big. This dude did not care. He was
mean. He was nasty. He was competitive.
He was VINDICTIVE. I wish he
was in the gym. I would’ve had [expletive] 12 rings. Yeah, because I
don’t deal with people that don’t commit to that [all or nothing]
level, but then act as if they do. I don’t deal with that.
I DON'T.
This is real [expletive]. We used to get into stuff all the time
because it was like, he would say: ‘Kobe’s not throwing me the
ball.’ Media would take it and run with it and all this stuff, so I
was like, ‘Well, bruh, IF you were in shape, by the time I would run
down on the fast break, and then run back, and then run down, you’re
STILL coming down the first time, bruh. What the hell do you want me
to do?’ Right, so a lot of our contention came from that.” – Kobe
blaming his lack of even greater on-the-court success on Shaq, who
allowed himself to grow somewhat fat rather than routinely training
harder to keep his stomach flat). The Black Mamba was, indeed,
regularly more than willing to “shoot and pass the ball later,” and
with his “partner in prime” slowly-but-surely becoming a tater,
Kobe chose to own his label as distribution hater.
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“That’s true. A long time ago? Yeah. The challenge had been thrown
down upon me, of not being able to win WITHOUT Shaq. A public
challenge never really bothered me too much, but he made a couple of
comments, as well. I think he called me Penny Hardaway Part 2 or
something like that. So THAT'S what [ticked] me off. Then it was
like, ‘Listen, you know the step back that I took to help us win
championships. Let’s not get [expletive] confused. I can dominate
on
My OWN. I decided to stay [with the Lakers] and win championships
and sacrifice MVPs and scoring titles and all that stuff.’ So once
that was said, it was like a line in the sand now.” – Kobe (on
another of the dynamic duo’s equally-weighty issues that nearly
triggered Bryant to pursue a D.C. union with an
angling-towards-retirement
Jordan – as far back as 2003 – that would have left Lakers Nation
reaching for box after box of tissues).
Will They Or Won’t They?
For all his individual accolades and championship performances, The
Tortured Cowboys Fan will remember Kobe most as a member of the
Los Angeles Lakers TEAMs that had to battle tooth-and-nail to
barely escape the Western Conference Finals without (what would have
been traumatic) fail.
The Portland Trail Blazers were about to nab the 2000 Western Conference
crown when a timely Kobe lob turned into a THUNDEROUS Shaq dunk. That play
brought the house down, and the Blazers’ chances at dethroning the
“Lake Show” were sunk.
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The Sacramento Kings were out for blood in the 2002 Western
Conference Finals, and they practically had the hated Lakers on the
ropes. Kobe missed a runner and Shaq missed a put-back – all in the
closing moment. The ball was batted out to Robert Horry who drained
a game-winning three-pointer like a thirsty vampire at a blood bank.
“Big
Shot Rob” delivered dazzling atonement. While the bruising series
was merely tied at two games apiece, and the scrappy Kings would go
on to push the Lakers to the limit, a game-seven loss by Sacramento
ensured the Kings' chances finally drew a blank.
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That same level of never-say-die, “don’t wanna’ hear it” spirit
would follow the “Caramel Cat” (and continue to impact his
teammates) for the rest of his playing career and beyond (creating,
one after another, an incredible bond).
Kobe would have undoubtedly been proud of the way the All-Star game
participants (uncommonly honored the Mamba Mentality and) appeared
to "somewhat" compete at the start and strongly fight
to the
finish. Plenty of fourth-quarter intrigue
was also brought to bear with the newly-applied, fourth-quarter “Elam Rule.”
“Everyone” seemed to think the preset winning score, deactivated
game clock, and resultant lack of hack fouls was
collectively cool. Will it be permanently integrated (at least for
future All-Star games) or suffer a purist end, no matter significant
fan drool? Will this crowd-pleasing outcome (and NBA ratings
bonanza) be just a one-time effort by a bunch of
in-the-moment-sycophants? Will such a competitive approach (by those
genuinely effected by Kobe’s passing) remain for years to come
rather than quickly diminish?
We shall see. We always do.
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