There’s just something about the Lakers & Kobe Bryant that I can’t stomach. Not too sure what it is, maybe its their arrogance as a team. They think no one in the league can come close to their talent. Kobe was definitely the topic of discussion from pillar to post. Regardless of how much I don’t enjoy him as a player, I can’t take away that he has talent.
He was on a roll last night scoring 61 points. I didn’t think that was possible. No wonder they compare him to the great Michael Jordan.
Kobe Bryant climbs off the bus on 33rd Street in New York and into that old, creaky freight elevator that lifts the players to the floor level. This still gets to him. Just Monday night, he was thinking about the history, about Jerry West and Willis Reed, about the way that Madison Square Garden still stands for a forever time in the National Basketball Association.
“This is the last one left,” Bryant said. “This is the last one that holds all the memories.”Yes, he thinks about those Lakers-Knicks NBA Finals, and he thinks about Michael Jordan’s 55, and he thinks about leaving his legacy there. He wants to be remembered as the greatest player of his time – maybe ever – and understands that an important part of that always goes through New York.
So, Bryant donated 61 points to the shrine Monday night, embarrassing the New York Knicks with the greatest offensive performance the Garden had ever seen. Perhaps it was inevitable that he had to go for everything. Jordan scored 55 points there. LeBron James had 50. Bryant had a couple 40-point games but never chased the ghosts at the Garden. Here was a perfect storm for that to happen. Bryant’s sense of nostalgia met a simmering rage over the loss of Lakers center Andrew Bynum.
