BOSTON | I’ll be shocked if Kobe doesn’t score 40 tonight. Maybe 50.
For all the talk about Paul Pierce’s “drama queen” knee injury Thursday night, we all recognize that Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s Drama King.
He adores the spotlight. Thrives in it, really. And tonight’s game two of the NBA finals will start with the spotlight directed at Pierce’s right knee and clutch second-half performance in the series opener.
You have to believe Kobe will do everything within his power to redirect that spotlight.
The league’s MVP and most compelling figure was a dud in game one, firing 26 shots to score 24 points. In the aftermath, Kobe swore he’d love to get the same 26 looks in game two and that he’d pull the trigger all 26 times again.
Kobe is conceding nothing. He had an off night. The Boston Celtics did nothing to contain him. Of course, Boston is perhaps the best defensive team in the league. They executed their Kobe Rules to near perfection Thursday night, denying Kobe access to the lane and rim, turning him into strictly a perimeter player.
It’s not the first time. The Celtics provoked Bryant into awful shooting nights in the Lakers’ and Celtics’ two regular-season meetings.
Kobe is fine with that. He knows the path to the rim begins with draining a few more 20-footers and making his pump-fake as tempting as Gisele Bündchen in a thong bikini. The Celtics didn’t stop Kobe. Kobe’s jumper stopped Kobe.
“Hopefully, it just means I’m due,” Kobe said of his Boston shooting woes.
Yeah, he’s due for about 40. It doesn’t mean the Lakers will win tonight. It simply means Kobe will not be outdrama-ed in this championship series. Not by Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen.
Kobe is king of the NBA. He’s the reason we’re watching again, and the early TV ratings for this finals are creeping toward respectability.
Whether we love him or hate him, Kobe is irresistible on the basketball court. I’ve come full circle on Bryant. I hated him when he forced Shaq out of Los Angeles. I hated Kobe when he squealed on Shaq to Colorado police. It bothered me when Kobe let his young wife bait him into believing the Mailman tried to make an unwanted delivery at the Bryant household.
I was firmly a Shaq guy and celebrated when the Big Diesel won a championship in Miami with Dwyane Wade.
Now, I’m still a huge Shaq fan, but I’ve learned to appreciate Kobe to the point that I want him to get his post-Shaq title, too. Kobe deserves. He’s more committed to the game of basketball than any other player. He weathered the Colorado rape allegations and all the other bad public-relations news and came out on the other side a more mature and likable superstar.
We’ve watched Kobe grow up from a teenage boy to a 29-year-old man under the LA spotlight. It destroys most young people. Kobe appears to have survived.
His offseason whining about wanting to get traded and/or wanting the Lakers to make a major trade strikes me no different from Brett Favre threatening to retire every offseason in Green Bay or throwing a tantrum when the Packers failed to aggressively pursue Randy Moss.
We loved Favre’s competitive spirit and unencumbered emotion.
Meanwhile, Kobe is spoiled and petulant. No, he just wants to win as many championships as Michael Jordan. Kobe wants to be the greatest of all time. Let’s remember, Magic Johnson got his first NBA head coach fired. Jordan bucked against Chicago’s management.
