I want to make one thing clear; I've never liked Kobe Bryant. I can't even count the number of times that I've called him selfish for shooting as much as he did. I just hated him, there's no other way to put it.
It probably didn't help that LeBron James came into the league when I first started paying attention to the NBA. LeBron, being the new face of the league, was everywhere. Magazines, TV, and the internet. You name it, he was there. Once the Kobe and LeBron comparisons started happening, I was always on LeBron's side.
But now, something has changed. Kobe has announced his retirement and I'm sort of left with an empty feeling. I've never experienced an NBA season without Kobe. Sure, he's been hurt over the recent years and hasn't played as much as normal, but he was still around.
Watching him play is not the same. Frankly, he's playing awful right now. You would think that as a Kobe hater I would be happy about that, but I'm not. It pains me to watch just because of how good I know he was. The shots he used to make would make your jaw drop and now he's barely hitting the rim on shots he used to make with his eyes closed.
Kobe was and still is the ultimate competitor. The people that say he needs to just retire during the season are crazy. He doesn't want to call it quits mid-season. I'm sure it pains him to go out like this. We all knew he wanted to tie Michael Jordan with six rings, but some things aren't meant to be. He deserves to finish out the year no matter how poorly he plays because there will never be anyone like him.
People use to tell him that the only reason he won three championships was because of Shaq. You know what he did? He went out and won two more. He could care less if people criticized him and said that no one wanted to play with him. He was going to go out and try to destroy anyone in his way.
In his younger years, he attacked the basket like no other. Every drive he was going to try and dunk in your face and embarrass you in front of the entire world. The back half of his career, he taught the world what Mark Jackson meant whenever he said "hand down, man down."
Keep your hand down and Kobe will knock down shots in your face. Put a hand up, he'll still knock it down. Put three guys on him and he'll probably still find a way to make the shot. This would then lead Jackson to say, "Mama, there goes that man. Kobe Bryant." The guy was ridiculous.
Another thing that Kobe was: confident. He knew he was the best out there and he would make sure that you knew it, too. Some may call it arrogance, but is it arrogance if he's right? He was never afraid to mix it up and was in plenty of fights during his career. He never backed down from anyone, and trying to get in his head would only fuel his fire to beat you. He had a killer instinct that you can't teach.
As he finishes off his career, we need to make sure that we stop and appreciate the greatness that was Kobe Bryant. There is no question he'll be in the Hall of Fame and is arguably a top-10 player of all time. This final year may not be vintage Kobe, but there will always be brief flashes of what he used to be.
So thank you, Kobe. Thank you for the decades of greatness, dominance and highlight reel plays that will forever be ingrained in our memories.
