Wow. They're really going at Kobe in the media:
The Hidden Effect of Paul Pierce's Dramatic Comeback
Kobe Bryant is a weird dude. We all know this. For most of his career, he has been too contrived to fully realize his abilities - too conscious of how he is perceived and too eager to prove people wrong. When he's criticized for shooting too much, he refuses to shoot. The opposite is true when he's nailed for being too passive. I've never been a big fan, but even I'll admit that there were times when he couldn't win.
But then again, he proved during the second half of this season that he has had the ability to play authentic ball within him all along. From the time the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol to the time they vanquished the Spurs, you didn't hear a negative word about Bryant's decision-making. The last three months have been a coronation, capped off with the top seed, the MVP, a dominant run through the Western Conference, and a spot in the NBA Finals.
Then ... bam. He gets to the Finals and seemingly reverts back to the old Kobe. The one who seems to formulate a plan during timeouts, that often completely ignores how the defense is playing him, and appears to decide what course of action to take long before he gets the ball. The fourth quarter saw him jacking up terrible shots, dribbling out the shot clock while facing big deficits, and generally trying to single-handedly beat triple-teams despite having Pau Gasol on his roster. It was bizarre.
The question is: what brought this on? I suppose it was just the bright lights of the Finals that scrambled his brain waves. Or maybe he was frustrated by the Boston defense that is clearly geared to turn him into a contested jump shooter. Maybe it was that old flash of Kobe anger when a teammate seems to be playing in quicksand (paging Luke Walton). Those are all valid theories. (I should add here that another valid theory is that Kobe didn't actually "revert back" at all, but simply didn't have much energy tonight. I noticed on several occasions that he just didn't seem to be playing with much emotion.)
I have another theory and I'll admit that it's not the most flattering - I think Kobe Bryant was jealous of Paul Pierce.
Look, even though Bryant was struggling through the first 29 minutes of the game, it was largely due to his jumper not falling. He was getting good looks in the flow of the offense and I don't think anyone could complain that he was forcing things one way or the other. In fact, just before Pierce went down like a sack of potatoes, Kobe had thrown down a ridiculous alley-oop where he hung in the air long enough to fetch a late pass from Derek Fisher.
[Update - he also had his finest play of the game at the 8:10 mark of the third quarter, when he knifed into the lane, drew a double, and lobbed up a beautiful pass to Gasol.]
But when Pierce proceeded to live out Kobe Bryant's dream scenario - suffering a legitimately scary injury, being carried to the locker room, courageously (or over-dramatically, depending on which team you are rooting for) returning to the court to a standing ovation, and then burying consecutive monster threes - Bryant just couldn't take it.
You see, there is only one thing that Bryant has always seemed to want more than rings - and that is glory. It's why he milked that ankle injury and Shaq foul-out against the Pacers back in the day and why he had the appetite to score 81 in a game. This guy wants to be remembered and worshiped the way Jordan was. Going into these finals, he has been compared favorably (and inappropriately, I might add) to MJ himself, and I think it all went to Kobe's head. He stepped on the floor tonight assuming that he would have a patented Jordan Finals game, and even when he got off to the sluggish start, he didn't mind, because that just fit into the "he gets his teammates going and only then takes over the game!" script.
But Paul Pierce just had to steal his thunder. Pierce already had a "legendary" game in these playoffs when he outdueled LeBron James in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference semis. And there has been a lot of hype about Pierce being the hardest guy for the Lakers to guard and a former L.A. kid and the longest tenured Celtics and the straw that stirs the drink and a whole lot of other things that probably had to irk Kobe just a little bit. I mean, if I was Kobe I would probably have a "Paul Pierce? Are you kidding me that he's getting similar pub?" approach to things as well.
The problem is that when you elevate glory to the top spot on your list of priorities, it can cloud the objective. Pierce had his day in the sun, his "one shining moment" ... and Kobe flipped out. For the rest of the game, he overplayed people on defense and put himself out of position. He took bad, contested shots - often with no rebounding. He held the ball and let the shot clock wind down. In short, he did all the "Bad Bryant" things that we thought were history.
If that game is in L.A., the Lakers win. If Paul Pierce stays in the locker room, the Lakers win (that one is pretty obvious, I imagine). If Pierce never gets hurt at all, the Lakers win. I'm absolutely convinced of that.
Because if anything had been different tonight, Piece wouldn't have become an instant hero, Kobe's glory-meter wouldn't have gone into the red, and he would have calmly and coolly executed Boston just like he did the Spurs.
But, it wasn't different. And now the Lakers have a new, old fear to contend with.
