Bean Bryant: Part 1

Dear Kobe Bryant,

First and foremost, thank you. Thank you for being Kobe Bryant. Thank you for being one of the greatest players we have ever watched pick up a basketball. But a simple thank you isn’t enough.

When I first started watching and understanding the game of basketball it was around the time the Lakers started their three-peat, and one of the first players I really started to watch was Kobe Bryant. Kobe was “cool”; he came straight from high school, Lower Marion High School, and while he didn’t make a splash right away, you could tell he was going to be something special. Nineteen seasons later he’s one of the greatest players in NBA history.

Kobe was the player who when you were outside shooting in your driveway and counted down, 3…. 2…1, you pretended you were number 8. He’s also the guy who when you’re throwing something in the trash you must yell, “KOBE!”. You could say that’s a cultural impact.

For that Kobe, basketball fans across the globe say, thank you.

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If we’re looking at strictly numbers for Bryant, here are some of those numbers.

• ·      32,638 career points (3^rd all-time)
• ·      15x All-NBA Team
• ·      12x All-Defensive Team
• ·      17x All Star
• ·      5x NBA Champion

Those are just some of his legendary stats that will no doubt land him in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Much has been made throughout Bryant’s career about how Kobe didn’t pass, over 6,000 assists might say otherwise, but Kobe has always been one of those players who likes to shoot, a lot. But you don’t score over 32,000 points without taking a couple shots here and there.

I never got to see Michael Jordan in his prime but I can imagine that it looked similar to the way Kobe has played the game. Kobe doesn’t have “friends” on other teams, he doesn’t really care about other players, and he sure as hell didn’t care what other people thought. That made him a player people loved to hate, and for Kobe, that was perfectly fine.

There is a lot to say about Kobe Bryant, you can love him or you can hate him, but if you’re an NBA fan one thing you have to do is respect him. Respect what he has done for t

he game not only for the NBA, but also for basketball everywhere.

There are going to be plenty of emotions during the rest of the season wherever the Lakers go, one of those emotions is going to be sadness. It’s sad because Kobe is at the end and you never wanted to think the end was going to come for him, but it has and while the season progresses let’s all take a couple minutes to just sit back and appreciate the greatness that is Kobe Bean Bryant.

Stephen Springer, follow him on Twitter @Stephen_Springs