Kobe Bryant has the Michael Jordan seal of approval because, for Kobe, it was all about the rings. That was his identity, that and the killer instinct. Kobe’s legions of fans love them the “count the ringzzzzz” argument, context be damned.
So when Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck asked Kobe about LeBron and his next step, Kobe pointed to LeBron needing to add to his jewelry collection.
“All I thought about as a kid personally was winning championships. That’s all I cared about. That’s how I valued Michael. That’s how I valued [Larry] Bird. That’s how I valued Magic [Johnson]. It was just winning championships. Now, everybody’s going to value things differently, which is fine. I’m just telling you how I value mine.
“If I’m Bron, you got to figure out a way to win. It’s not about narrative. You want to win championships, you just gotta figure it out.”
Well, that’s vague advice.
Which brings us to the “what more can LeBron do with this supporting cast?” portion of the discussion. Other former champions interviewed by Beck for his article cut LeBron some slack. If beating a juggernaut Golden State Warriors team requires big games from J.R. Smith and Rodney Hood, well, one man can only do so much.
Not in Kobe’s world.
“Phil (Jackson) used to say this thing to me a lot, when I was doing a lot on the court,” Bryant said. “He’d say, ‘You have to do less.’ And I’d say, ‘Well, my teammates got to step up more.’ Phil would say, ‘Well, it’s your responsibility to thrust the game upon them.'”
It’s one thing to thrust the game upon Shaq and Pau Gasol and Robert Horry and Derek Fisher and Rick Fox and peak Lamar Odom, and it’s another to thrust it upon Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance Jr.
Another thought here: Is Kobe advocating LeBron bolt Cleveland for a better supporting cast. Remember in the mid-2000s when the supporting cast around Kobe was a lot of Kwame Brown and Smush Parker — Kobe demanded a trade. The Lakers never followed through on that request, instead trading for Pau Gasol and getting the Lakers back into contention, but Kobe was not above moving on to get a ring.
What Kobe had that LeBron never did was ownership that could be trusted in the form of Jerry Buss. He knew how to run a professional organization, take the right gambles at the right time, and build a dynasty. Dan Gilbert… well, he knows how to use the comic sans font. Kobe has those ringzzzz as much because management put a winning team around him as anything he did. Nobody can win a title alone in the NBA.
Just watch LeBron the past few weeks to understand that.
(As an aside, if LeBron comes to the Lakers the fans there will never embrace him the way they did Kobe, but that’s a discussion for another day.)
