The Last Mohican

Kobe Bryant's maniacally competitive career is

approaching a tragic end.
March 26, 2015
12 Comments

By Jake Carapella
9

Michael Jordan played a now famous game with the flu, up the previous night
vomiting and with an empty stomach except for a cup of coffee. Willis Reed
limped out onto the Madison Square Garden floor to start and inspire his New
York Knicks in a 1970 Finals Game 7, days after tearing a thigh muscle. Magic
Johnson accepted the challenge of starting a clinching 1980 NBA Finals game at
center with his Hall of Fame teammate on the mend.
Emmitt Smith played one half in a division-deciding game at the end of the 1993
NFL season with his shoulder outside its socket after slamming it into the
Meadowlands turf. Kellen Winslow fought dehydration in the 1981 divisional
playoff game to catch 13 balls for 166 yards and a touchdown, and was carried
off the field by teammates. Kirk Gibson lifted the Dodgers to victory in the
opening game of the 1988 World Series hitting a pinch hit home run with a bad
hamstring on one leg and a swollen knee on the other.
In sports, there are guys that are cut of a different cloth, of a different mold. They
are goal chasers, they are testers of their own character. They are competitors.
Not to undermine any others, that wouldnt be fair. But these guys have moments
forever etched in sports lore because of one thing. Competitiveness. Its a part of
their legacy. Its the let me test myselflet me see if I stack uplet me see if I
can do this. All of those guys had it. Right now, currently, there are some that do.
Cutthroat competitors, not out to make friends, just there to win. Look at the best
league in the sport that James Naismith invented in 1891, and theres one
example that stands out. One goal chaser, one tester, one competitor who stands
out the most.

Los Angeles Lakers at Utah Jazz, Western Conference semi-finals, Game 5,

May 12, 1997
89-89. Fourth quarter. 11.3 seconds on the clock. 18-year-old Kobe Bryant brings
the ball up the floor for the Los Angeles Lakers, a 56-win team with perhaps the
games most dominant physical presence in the middle, and two scoring guards
Nick Van Exel and Eddie Joneson the wings. Bryant is the teams
11th leading scorer. He doesnt care. This is a big-time moment, the moment that
Bryant had dreamed of when he was nothing but a young kid from America
growing up as a foreigner in Italy, where his dad, Joe Jellybean, played pro ball.
This is the big-time, lifelong dream staring him in the face.
As Bryant moves to the top of the arc guarded by Byron Russell, right hand
dribble, he makes a move right, a beeline to the right elbow, shielding Russell
with his left forearm. The kid stops on a dime, moves the ball from right to left
ready to shoot. Russell elevates, Kobe elevates. Karl Malone grabs the rebound
as time expires in regulation, Bryants shot falling well short of the rim, barely
catching any mesh.

Three more airballs would be Kobe Bryants destiny that night, one three from the
left wing, one from the top of the arc after a crossover dribble, and another from
the left wing hoisted with six seconds on the clock down three, Laker leading
wing man Jones with his hands up in the corner pocket, perhaps wondering why
Kobe didnt make the extra pass to the open man, the better option. Kobe
retreats back down court with a slow, methodical walk, his face ripe with
disappointment. Its evident. The kid who grew up in the foreign land with the
dreams of late game heroics had let his team, and himself, down in the waning
moments of a season ending loss.
Little did anyone know, that this moment would be the start of the maturation of
the young Kobe Bryant, struggling mightily in his first clutch opportunity, but, as
time would tell, the failure the learning tool for his future. Michael Jordan
starred in this commercial in 1997, one that would become legendary, the
ultimate lesson in learning by failure, never becoming discouraged, trying until
you are successful. Ironically, that same year, Bryant got his first taste of failure.

2015

Kobe Bryant is 36 years old. Goes by Mamba or Bean if you want to be clever.
Hes third all time in scoring, has five championships, had back to back scoring
titles, a string of consecutive 40-point games, 61 in three quarters, and dropped
81 once when he was a hot as the oil in a deep fryer. And, in 2013, he walked off
the court after rupturing his Achilles. Walked. Off. The Court.
Achilles, knee, and rotator cuff injuries have sidelined Kobe at one time or
another the past three seasonsthe Achilles late in the 2013 season, the knee
limiting him to six games last season, and the shoulder forcing surgery this
January. Its given us time, to reflect on Bryant, one of the games all-time greats,
as the end of his career is not yet over but now inevitable more than ever and a
matter of time. Could be after next year, could be the year after that. But we know
its soon.
So what is the legacy of one Kobe Bean Bryant? The greatest player of his era?
Check. The closest thing weve seen to Michael Jordan since he retired? Check.
If you stopped there, youd be remised, omitting perhaps the most important part,
the singular quality that makes Bryant different. Different in the way that if you
watched him play on mute, youd know what hes about. Some guys go out on
the floor and go through the motions. Not Bryant. He approaches the game
differently than most. If you want or need one more thing to add to the legacy of
Kobe Bryant, its in the approach.
Simply put, he is a different animal. Hes a make-no-friends, no nonsense, give
me all you have or nothing type of guy. Relentless. Ruthless. Tough. Competitive.
If you arent of his same mindset, you cant play with him. Well, I guess you can,
but he wont like you. Hes much like Jordan in that way. If you cant match his
will, his desire, you best not step on the court with him to battle. Hes the type
thats not afraid of failure, wants the blame or the praise, wants to win to prove a
point to himself but also wants to do it for the name on the front of the jersey. The
proof is all there. Its the Kobe Bean Bryant legacy. Nineteen years in the making.

Do you think hes going to try and send you a message? Maybe. Maybe.
But Im going to try and send him a message that I dont back down from
anybody.
The guts of an 19-year-old Kobe Bryant. Using the NBAs brightest stage in
Americas brightest city, on its biggest platform, to challenge the greatest player
that the game of basketball has ever known. Michael Jordan with five rings,
working on a sixth. Bryant young, talented, ready for a challenge. Jordan goes for
23, 8 and 6 and gets his third All-Star MVP in 1998 in New York City. Kobe goes
for 18 and 6 rebounds. But its not the statistics that matter there. Its the
situation. Heres Bryant, still a teenager, guarding a living legend. He knew he
wouldnt win that battle. Still young, he hadnt gotten to that point. It was about
testing himself against the greatest to ever do it. It was the beginning of an
approach to the game and a burning desire that would manifest itself through
Bryants career, enabling him to etch his legacy in stone over the next 17 years.

It was a choice that I made. I could have gone to another team. I made the
decision to stay and try to win with the group that we had. I was fine with
that.
Kobe Bryant has had opportunities in his career to go elsewhere. He could have
left Los Angeles when the three-time Champion duo of him and Shaquille ONeal
were broken up after a five-game Finals loss to the Pistons in the 2004 Finals.
He demanded a trade in 2007, although that was most likely more postering on
his part to pressure the organization to make moves to form a contender once
again more than it was truly wanting to leave the only team hed ever known.
There have been opportunities. But Kobes loyalty and desire to win as a Laker,
with the purple and gold, one franchise, trumped any offers or temptations there
were elsewhere.
For Kobe and the previously dominant Lakers, 2004 was clearly a transition year.
Their aura of invincibility was gone. ONeal was in Miami, set to embark on
another title run with the up and coming Dwyane Wade. Kobe is left to wonder if
he, too, should leave, or stay and ride it out his new running mates. The 2003-04

Lakers had two Hall of Famers join ONeal and Bryant, won 56 games, and made
it to the Finals. The next season, out was the big man, and in was Caron Butler,
Brian Grant and Lamar Odom. These werent Shaq and Kobes Lakers anymore.
These were Kobes Lakers. They won 34 games. And for Kobe, it didnt matter
who was there. It was his team now. He accepted that challenge.
Lakers or Clippers?
That offseason, Bryant had an offer from the Clippers for seven years, worth
$106 million. His offer from the Lakers, was seven years and $136.4 million. The
Clippers had a one time All-Star Power Forward named Elton Brand, who would
average 25 points and 10 rebounds in 2005-06, his best season. Brand was a
versatile, athletic 4-man who could shoot it. They had Corey Maggette at the 3,
24 years old at the time, strong and versatile. Kobe was 26. He wouldve fit right
in and formed a Championship nucleus for a team that had been a bottom feeder
in the NBA for years, a Sports Illustrated cover just a few years earlier painting a
Clipper picture of the worst franchise in history.
Youd have to go back 35 years to find the last time the Clippers franchise was a
truly successful, when they were the Buffalo Braves. Bob McAdoo wasnt walking
through that door. Neither was World B. Free, the catalyst behind 43 wins for the
San Diego Clippers in 79. Ron Harper and Danny Manning, leaders of the 199192 Clippersthe last Clipper team until 2005-06 to finish over .500, werent
walking through that door.
And neither was Kobe Bryant.
He chose to stay in Los Angeles, a staunch supporter of what the Lakers would
try to build post-Shaq, Bryant being the leader, the star, the go-to, the face.
The decision to stay in purple and gold wasnt just about Bryant wanting to build
something special with the only franchise he has ever known in his now 19 years
of playing NBA basketball. It was about the personal pride, the will to win and

lead, the burning desire to singlehandedly make what was now his team into a
winner. He could have been a part of an effective Big Three with the Clippers
Bryant still young and coming off a 25, 5 and 5 season still playing in the
gargantuan shadow of Shaquille ONeal. But he was fine with leading his own
team now. Let me see if I can do thisput this on my shouldersIll lead. Old
school.

Its of utmost importance. For me to ask for a trade or to go play

someplace else to try to chase a Championship. Thats not me. Thats not
what my career has been about, thats not who I am. I stay with it.
Bryant doesnt believe in changing teams when the going gets tough, leaving for
the less burdensome, easier road to a potential Championship. Its a part of his
makeup, what makes him him. Part of his legacystaying in one place, enduring
through the tough times, creating better times. Its why he ultimately stayed in
2004 with the Lakers, though the offer from the Clippers was tempting and talked
about in the media, you sense that he never wanted to leave Los Angeles.

The Lakers also had a trade in place for Bryant in 2004, to the Detroit Pistons
one that would have yielded Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and a couple draft
picks. But Bryant resisted. He turned it down. Loyalty to your team may be a part
of the old NBA, and not enough of the new. For whatever the reasons, rarely do
we see nowadays guys stick with one team. David Robinson spent 15 years in
San Antonio, Tim Duncan is on his 18th there. Magic Johnson stayed always a
Laker, Larry Bird always a Celtic. Bryant has old school loyalty. Stubborn. Im not
leaving no matter what. Has it hurt him lately? Yes. Has it hurt him in the past?
You bet.
The post-Shaq and Kobe Lakers were a far cry from the dominant unstoppable
force they were when they went six, five and four in three straight Finals from
2000-2002. It was utter dominance. In fact, if not for the indomitable will of one
Allen Iverson in Game 1 of the 01 Finals (48 points), the Lakers would have
swept the entire postseason. The Lakers from 2005 to 2007, the years of
Bryants career wedged between the greatness of a threepeat and his personal
redemption of two titles in 2009 and 2010, were him leading a thrown-together
conglomerate of young fringe players, veteran journeymen, and guys who would
grow into nice players but too young and green to contribute at that time (think
Andrew Bynum and Sasha Vujacic).
Lamar Odom was really the only player of substance at that time. And yet here
was Kobe Bryant, sticking with it, in his prime, with the type of killer instinct that
makes a lion jealous and a heart as cold as ice on the court, no regard for the
oppositionjust out to win.
A 27-year-old Bryant would average 35.4 points in 2005-06, the highest scoring
average since Michael Jordans 37.1 in 1988-89. And that conglomerate? Bryant
led them within a game of the second round, losing to Steve Nashs Phoenix
Suns in seven, Bryant averaging 28, 6 rebounds, 5 assists on 50 percent
shooting in the series. That entire season was classic Kobe Bryant, the will of an
uber-competitive man, coupled with a skill set as complete as there is at the

perfect prime age for an NBA player, able to put his team on his shoulders,
carrying them as far as he could possibly take them. No this will be too hard of a
challengeIm going somewhere else. None of that. Bryant is just different.

You have to take the good with the bad. Youre the captain of the ship. You
go down with the ship. When the ships going down you dont jump off and
swim to another one.
Kobe Bryant has five Championships. Hes currently out for the season after a
rotator cuff tear. He missed pretty much all of last season with a bone fracture in
his knee, and the season before tore his Achilles. His chances of winning a sixth
at this point are slim to none. His Lakers have the fourth worst record in the NBA,
and the last two seasons have brought on franchise records in futility. Bryant, the
longest tenured player with one team in the history of the League, is nearing his
career finish line.
From young wunderkind, to one half of one of the greatest duos in history, to
leading his own team without much assistance, to getting back to championship

glory, and falling back into mediocrity, Bryant is the captain of the Laker ship. And
right now, hes going down with it.
His team is once again a youth-infused group that houses a couple of veterans,
and you can imagine it has to be hard on the super competitive 36 year old. 17
wins. 49 losses. Bryant appeared on Jimmy Kimmel a few weeks ago, and was
showed a clip of some of his Laker teammates celebrating post game after an
overtime win vs the Celtics, breaking a 7 game losing streak. It was the Lakers
14th win. Surely, not much to boast about. Kimmel chuckled at the clip. Bryant
was stone faced, shaking his head, sighing as he adjusted his tie. This dude is
just different.
You could see the disgust on his face, the what are these guys celebrating for
were 14-41 look. Like he has said, it is a different era, and I am old school
about it.
Bryants competitiveness is working to his detriment right now, the undying
loyalty, his love for the Laker franchiselinking him to an organization that has
won the second most championships in history, one that in the last 20 years had
only one losing season (2004-05) before last years 27 win campaignkeeping
him in a situation that could turn around next season if the Lakers get a big-time
free agent this summer, but also might not.
Its Bryants choice to not leave, to never truly consider an out, and its admirable.
Too much of that is gone in todays game. Guys want to win Championships,
sure, but they dont necessarily want it on their shoulders. Its a different time, a
different era. Not many want to go down with the ship.

You cant possibly become better than me. Because youre not spending
the time on it that I do.
Most are in bed. Surely, the party-goers of the Los Angeles night scene might just
be getting to bed. If you work 9-5, you could get up to go to the bathroom and lay
back down knowing you have 3-4 hours left of sleep, depending on a commute.
Kobe Bryant isnt sleeping. Hes working on his craft. The game that hes long
called his refuge is apparently his personal cure for insomnia. Or maybe, he just
works harder than you. While you sleep, hes been up. He works tirelessly you
could imagine, countless jumpers, free throws, three pointers, patented post up,
spin baseline, fade-away. Up fake, bank off the glass, three-pointers at
impossible angles.
A young player longing for his chance in the NBA once asked Bryant is he could
work out with him. Bryant said sure. Bryant gave the kid the time. The kid
responded with something akin to the time being too late in the day, relaying to
Bryant that he wanted to get started earlier in the day. Not p.m., a.m. The time?
3:45.

Are there other guys that work hard? Certainly. Are there other guys that get up
in the wee hours of the morning to hone their craft? Yes. But something about
Kobe Bean Bryant is different. Its having the chutzpah to challenge the greatest
player of all time as a rookie, defending him, testing himself, wanting a challenge
when most lived in fear of His Airness on the basketball court. Its going back to
the practice facility after those airballs in the 97 Playoffs as soon as the Lakers
flight landed to shoot jumpers literally all day longto make sure that those
misses didnt happen again. Its demanding that his teammates play up to his
level, with his mindset, accepting nothing less than that to lead them to back to
back 09 and 10 titles.
Its sizing up LeBron James in the 2011 All-Star game, and flushing a two-hand
jam on James as the 26-year-old understudy attempted one of his patented
come from behind blocks, and then hitting a three on the very next play. The then
32-year-old won MVP that nightthe thought process of this is my night, the
biggest stage, the bright lights, this is my night. Fast forward to 38:06 and watch
for a couple seconds. Bryant is disgusted.
The Last Mohican indeed.