Why Do People Hate Kobe Bryant?
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by user Dre
In my opinion Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA right now but he is also the most hated player in the NBA. I have visited many discussion forums and brought up the question of why is he so hated, and I get various responses which seem like bull. People say he is a rapist because he paid the girl off. As far as I know they were the only two people in the room that night so no one else knows what happened. Also he did not pay her off, he settled the suit to get back to focusing on his career and to keep his sexual history private.
People also say he is selfish and they bring up the Shaq thing. As far as I know Kobe has been good friends with many teammates like Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, GP, Caron Butler, Brian Shaw, etc. He is also very well respected by his peers. The Shaq situation was all put on him when it should not have been. Kobe puts it all on the line and does everything he can to win. Shaq does not. Shaq never came to training camp in shape and one season he chose to have toe surgery at the beginning of the season rather than during the off season. Who is selfish in these instances? I can understand why Kobe would not want to play with Shaq. It is the same as a person with a regular job working with a lazy person, they HAVE to do everything and they get used to only trusting themself.
Even though Shaq has all the Finals MVPs, Kobe is the reason they won those titles. Why you ask? Because it was Kobe’s job to win the lakers all those close games the last 5 minutes while Shaq was sitting on the sidelines, and he did it for 3 straight seasons. Yet he does not get credit for it. Kobe was also the only that threw the lob to Shaq in 2000 that sparked their comeback versus the Trailblazers.
A lot of people say he is selfish and greedy. Many people were celebrating his 81 point game while others where saying, ” he only had 2 assists”. His team was down, his teammates where doing nothing and he took over the game. When a player gets hot, go to him. Regarding his assist total, a player gets an assist when his pass leads directly to a basket, so if he is passing to people like Kwame and Odom and they miss layups, that is not his fault.
People also say that “he doesn’t make his teammates better”. That is a statement that the media had been saying all last season and now regular people are saying it too. The statement is stupid and makes no sense. You cannot make other players better, all you can do is get other players open shots and they have to knock them down. People say Jordan made people better, no, he got others open shots, that’s it.
I have also heard some say that he is holding basketball back from being a team game. Basketball is a team game but it is also entertainment. I know the majority of basketball fans would rather see a 50 point game from Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Melo, etc., then watch the Pistons play the Spurs. Why do you think the 2005 Finals was rated so low? It was boring.
You see what teams and players sellout and you see what teams and players play on TV the most. Telling fans that Billups and the Pistons are coming to town will not lead to any sellouts, further proving my point.
I think the biggest factor in the hate of Kobe is that a lot of fans have Jordan on a pedestal as the best player in NBA history and they don't want anyone to be better than he is, which is what Kobe wants. Kobe wants to be known as the best player in NBA history when he leaves the game and for that people can't stand him.
Source
Date
Fri 08/25/06, 6:47 am EST
