Sports

The Black Mamba Strikes Again

HASHIM GHAZI
Staff Writer

Kobe Bryant is the greatest player in the NBA...there is no doubting that. Yes, he’s got a lot of miles on his body, especially factoring in the lengthy playoff runs the Lakers have made in the past, and yes, he has very severe knee prob lems for anybody to deal with, no less an NBA athlete, but there’s no doubt in my mind that he is the best player in the league right now. Wade may have the swag, Durant the jumper, Derrick Rose the strength, and Lebron the everything, but Kobe? Kobe has the Kobe Face.

What is the Kobe face you ask? KB24 makes this very unusual, grotesque face when he knows he cannot be stopped. Now, Kobe thinking he cannot be stopped says a LOT. The guy is argu ably the most arrogant and confident player to play in the league since Mike, and he thinks he can make any play, any time, on any area of the court. However, when Kobe is doing the Kobe-face, he does not think he can do anything, he KNOWS he can do anything. Double-cross over-hesitation pull-up Js? Money. Turnaround baseline fadeaways? Bucket. Weak hand reverse layups while splitting a double team? Wet. Kobe is unguardable in most situations, but when he’s in Kobe Face mode, there’s no point even checking him. You know a guy is good when he takes an absolutely ridiculous shot, and rather than reacting with a “What the f*ck was this guy thinking, Fisher was open!!” response, people say “Wow, how did he miss that?” Most of Kobe’s shots are one billion on a scale of one to ten. He wants it that way. He wants to take shots that nobody else would make because he knows he can, and he wants the defender and oppos ing team to know he can to. He’s cold-blooded.... they call him the Black Mamba for a reason.

The best part about it is that he came into this year with many question marks. Suffering from bad knees for which he (allegedly) went to Ger many for this secret knee treatment, and missing a ligament in his wrist (no, literally, he is miss ing an entire ligament in his wrist); many won dered whether KB24 still had it in him. Factor in the draining post-lockout schedule, and the fact that he was going through a divorce where at least half of his $150 million empire was at stake (Holler we want prenup. WE WANT PRENUP!), it seemed unlikely that Kobe had it in him to lead the Lakers like he has all these years. In fact, the Lakers were SO certain of the decline of Kobe, which they tried to get both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard to join him to keep their run of championships alive. Everyone had written him off, including his staunchest supporters. However, Kobe don’t play like that. He has stepped up his game to another level this year, almost looking like the Kobe of old. The guy is a scoring machine, leading the league in scoring at just over 30 PPG. He had a stretch of four straight games where he dropped more than forty. Usually, that is an accomplishment, but for a guy that in his career has once dropped 40+ in 11 straight, 50+ in four straight and 81 on the Raptors, four straight forties was nothing... to him. However, for the rest of the league, they were scared shitless. They realized that the blend of the haters, his divorce, and everybody turn ing their back on his greatness made the perfect concoction for him to feed off. The league forgot about one of the most unforgettable players of his time. And in response of that, Kobe is going to be Kobe Facing every game of the season. He. Will. Not. Lose.

This ‘feeding off negative energy’ is what makes the Black Mamba such an enigma in the league. Here is a guy that does not ignore the spotlight, but rather craves it. He does not say what is best to say, he says what he wants to say. Kobe is not like other pro athletes. Most pro athletes ignore the paper and media outlets lam basting them, because it affects their psyche in a negative way and disrupts their focus. Kobe, on the other hand, knows what everyone is saying about him, and makes it his M.O. to do all he can to prove them wrong. People want to be suc cessful to make themselves and their loved ones proud. Kobe wants to be successful so he can make those who doubted him look like idiots. Case in point: at the beginning of the season, ESPN ranked the players in the NBA based on their skill set, and Kobe was given No. 7. In a league of 450+ players, being number seven is quite the accomplishment in most regards. To Kobe, he could not believe that six other guys ranked higher than him. After dropping 42 on the Cleveland Cavaliers a few weeks ago, his third straight forty point game, he was quoted as saying “Not bad for the seventh best player in the league,” in reference to the ESPN Rankings. He knew what was said about him, and he called them out on it with substance to back it up. The next day, ESPN republished their list of the best players in the NBA. Who was at the top of the list? The Black Mamba. Check. Mate. B*tches.