I’m about to go IN on Kobe for this one. Let me explain first. After last night’s loss to the Miami Heat, in which Kobe did not play well on either end of the floor, he immediately went into typical Kobe fashion and tried to deflect blame. Kobe was praised the 2 games previous for playing such great defense on the opponents best player. Respectively that happened to be Kyrie Irving and Brandon Jennings. Both good young players who will get even better, but they are NOT Dwayne Wade, maybe someday they will be. Wade finished with 27 points, while Kobe offensively was as terrible as the acting on “Love & Hip-Hop”. Kobe went on to say to the media his teammates need to do a better job of getting him open and getting him easy shots so he doesn’t have to do isolation each time. Read more after the jump.
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Now before I get called a Kobe hater or something like that let me be clear. I am a very realistic basketball fan, and even if I do not like a player, I can still appreciate his greatness and the level of talent he can bring to the NBA. Make no mistake Kobe is STILL one of the top 5 players in the NBA in my opinion, but he always sounds like a sucker when things do not go the Lakers way. According to SLAM, Kobe was quoted as saying

“If guarding the opposing team’s offensive threat is going to be something that I’m going to have to do for a while, I’m going to need my teammates’ help to free up offensively. Like we did in the fourth quarter — create some picks for me, create some easy shots. That’s going to be tough for me to guard the top guy and come down the other end and have to go one-on-one every play. So, I’m going to need some help.”

This is when I have a problem with Kobe. His entire game is about one-on-one, isolation plays. Even when he has other teammates open, he will STILL force bad shots because he is a score first mentality type of player, which is fine. But do not then come up with excuse after excuse every time you have a bad game. You are Kobe Bryant, you should take pride in the fact you are guarding the other team’s best player, that should be what you wanna do. His Ego is why the Lakers are playing so poorly. It is a proven fact when he scores 30 or more the Lakers record is embarrassing, they are much better when he shoots less. But does that ever happen?? HELLLLL NOO, because he is Kobe and his ego is his first priority. You had a bad game dude, get over it, it will happen again at some point, but your still one of the greatest. Wade outplayed him and that is hard for him to swallow. I Guarantee you if Kobe took 10 more shots and finished with 35 points and the Lakers won, he would not be talking about his teammates needing to get him easier shots. You will be ok Kobe.