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Couple of months ago, at the peak of the Kobe public meltdown, I wrote an article trying to make people understand Kobe, explaining his story with a bit more compassion. While there are still those that hate him, people I believe have grown to sympathize with him more, largely thanks to a Lakers organization that serves to be the ‘larger of the two evils’. Today, the Kobe debate has shifted to something else, and for once it is actually basketball related. The question today: “Is Kobe worth it?”.

Ever since Dr. Buss came out in preseason and revealed that Kobe was tradable, I have expected every single team in the league to at least make an offer. You don’t lose anything by trying right? Instead, weeks have passed and there has yet to be a serious offer on the table. The main reasons for this I thought to be: Kobe’s large contract and the salary cap, his trade kicker and the no trade clause, and Kobe’s desire to play for a championship caliber team. However, Chad Ford over at ESPN tells us that it’s in fact been many different reasons why the Lakers have yet to receive a worthwhile offer. Apparently, teams doubt whether he is actually worth it! Here are the 3 real concerns, according to Ford, that are bothering teams considering acquiring Kobe.

Question 1: Does Kobe have too much mileage?

The first question teams seem to have on their mind is how many more competitive seasons does Kobe still have in him. In Ford’s article, comparisons are made to a vehicle and the ‘mileage’ on Kobe’s legs, and similarities are drawn between Mourning/Cassel/Webber’s minutes with KB24’s – but I don’t buy into any of this crap. First of all, what I see with my eyes today is that Kobe is in the best shape of his life. He plays defense like a rookie trying to get some burn, and still lights it up as reliably as General Electric. He is one of the hardest working athletes…ever….and it is quite hilarious to compare him to Sam Cassell. The number of minutes played in the league is also not completely indicative since he skipped through 4 years of grueling college practices. Besides, Jordan was much more reliant on his athleticism as a youngster than Kobe has been and even so Jordan could adjust with older age. Kobe is absolutely deadly from beyond the arc, on pull up jumpers, or in the post and losing a couple of inches off his vertical will not limit his abilities as much as people might think. At this point in time, anyone short of cowardly managers and heavy statisticians wouldn’t dare argue that Kobe is fragile physically.

Question 2: Is Kobe really the best player in the NBA? 

Again, a bunch of cleverly cooked up stats is thrown at us in attempts to re evaluate our opinion on Kobe’s worth. I’ve already expressed in other posts how much I hate stats when we rely on it too much, and this is exactly what has happened in Chad Ford’s article. Player efficiency ratings, plus or minus ratings, clutch time stats, playoff success in recent years – all this junk I’ve heard of before and as I’ve done before I urge anyone with half a brain to not read to deeply into these stats. I would like to ask this John Hollinger or anyone else following stats religiously whether they includes the following elements into their formulas: quality of players on the team and double/triple teams on the players in question. Say Dirk is put into a team with four 13 year old kids this season, would he still have those numbers, would he still have that clutch ability with the whole defense shadowing him, would he still take his team to the finals. My example is exaggerated but you should understand that certain factors differ across teams and players’ situation can’t be compared with mere stats. Let’s please stop this stats attack, it’s new age sports propaganda, that’s all it is. We have all seen Kobe make countless fade-away cross-court passes out of a double team to a wide open teammate who ends up bricking the shot. We’ve seen Kwame travel more often than the Globe-Trotters. We’ve seen Smush Parker put up enough bricks to build another Great Wall. Do these stats not have any worth? 

Question 3: Is Kobe a winner?

Hmm ok lets think about it for a second. Kobe has three rings. LeBron, Nowitzki, Wade, Arenas, Pierce, T-Mac, Garnett, Nash, Kidd, Iverson, Carter have how many? 1. Using my Oytun Championship Efficiency Rating © , I calculate Kobe to be three times better than all of those players combined. If you bring up the fact that he had Shaq on his team then you would be a complete hypocrite because you say his team was too good when he did win, and now that he isn’t winning you don’t consider that his team isn’t good enough. The double-standards rack up faster than Duncan’s double-doubles when Kobe Bryant is concerned.

Question 4: Is Kobe worth it?

At the end of the day, teams need to think what their priorities are. Today there are only a handful of teams that can seriously challenge that title: Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio, Detroit, Boston. Other teams that claim they can be champions are just lying to themselves. So every other team should theoretically be building towards a championship. You got some teams that build from scratch because that is the only way they can, and then you got the rest who probably need to be on the verge of a championship in a couple of years or they will need to start over themselves. Teams such as Chicago and Washington have a chance to become immediate contenders if they add Kobe to their team. So why not go for it? Well as Chad expressed, it is always safer to make a non move than make a move. Also truth be told, becoming Champions isn’t something most of the NBA teams think about…realistically at least. They rather fill up seats, and have promising young players than risk it all for a small shot at the championship. This is not a league full of teams that live and die by wins and championships. This is the entertainment league where your image in the papers is just as important as your strength on the court.

Essentially, I believe these teams are trying to create excuses for themselves so they don’t have to deal with the Kobe headache, they can’t seriously be doubting Kobe’s worth can they? There is also a possibility that this ESPN article was a result of clever manipulation by team managers to reduce Kobe’s trading value. Whatever the reason, it is clear that Kobe still has a lot to prove. In fact, it is no question that after several NBA titles, consecutive scoring titles, All-NBA, All-Star, All-Defensive Team awards– it is in fact these last remaining years of his career that will define who he really is. Is he really the next Michael Jordan, or will he be yet another one of the wanabe’s that just couldn’t live up to the expectations. Only the future will reveal Kobe’s true worth.  

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