KOBE BRYANT DESERVES HIS PLACE IN THE PANTHEON OF THE GREATS. It is quite obvious that the Black Mamba is not of the same calibre with His Airness MICHAEL JORDAN but he is great no less, a living legend in his own right and it is very likely that he is The Greatest Laker of them all.
Legacy stamped: Bryant is Lakers' best
By John McMullen, Sports Network
The Sports Network
Before the NBA Finals got underway, I wrote that Kobe Bryant was officially done playing with his peers -- that he was playing instead against history.
At some point, that happens with all the great ones.
John Elway was one of the best quarterbacks in NFL lore. To those around the game, Elway's legend was already secured long before he won the big game, but to the masses there was a big hole in his resume' that wasn't filled until the signal-caller finally won Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII, thanks to a much- improved supporting cast in Denver.
Elway was long past his prime when he won. In fact, his performance in Super Bowl XXXII, where he completed just 12-of-22 passes for a measly 123 yards against the Green Bay Packers was one of the worst of his career, a fact that is now largely forgotten thanks to the stamp of "winner" that was finally applied.
Elway could have retired before he won the Super Bowl, secure in the knowledge that a bust in Canton was waiting but he hung in -- not to beat the Packers or the Atlanta Falcons in the next season -- he did it for history's sake.
Bryant also had a rather glaring omission on his curriculum vitae that needed to be cleaned up. It certainly wasn't a championship. The Philadelphia native had already secured four of them before last night. It wasn't a title without Shaq. Kobe exorcised that demon last year when the Lakers topped Orlando in the NBA Finals.
It was, however, beating the Celtics, LA's biggest rival, in the Finals.
The Lakers' history is filled with Hall of Famers. Players like George Mikan, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and the logo himself, Jerry West.
When you talk about the best in the team's past, most settle on Magic -- simply because he was the leader of the only LA teams to beat the Celtics in the Finals -- until last night.
Bryant and the Lakers failed in their first attempt against the C's back in 2008 but came through this time winning a hard-fought, defensive-minded Game 7 to take home the franchise's 16th NBA championship.
Like Elway, it was far from Bryant's best performance. In fact, it was one of his worst, at least offensively. The Lakers' superstar forced far too many shots and finished the game shooting a miserable 6-of-24, a number that will also surely be forgotten as the years pass.
The biggest knock on Kobe has been his inability to trust his teammates and it came to the forefront early last night as he fired up contested shot after contested shot as the Celtics built a 13-point advantage.
"The more I tried to push, the more it kept getting away from me," Bryant said.
Realizing the jumper just wasn't there, Bryant finally started deferring. Derek Fisher and Ron Artest both sunk huge threes in the fourth quarter and Pau Gasol was a monster inside, parading to the free throw line late and finishing with 19 points and 18 rebounds.
Bryant, meanwhile, was content to clean the glass, defend and follow Gasol's lead by drawing contact and getting to the line.
"I'm just glad my teammates got us back in the game," Bryant said. "I was thankful that I was able to make one damn shot at the end and make some free throws."
In the end, it might have been bowling shoe ugly but the scoreboard read: Lakers - 83, Celtics - 79.
"I try not to (get caught in the hype of a Game 7). Tonight, it got the best of me," Bryant said. "I wanted it so bad. Sometimes when you want something so bad, it slips away from you. I can't say enough about (Gasol). We wouldn't have won it without him."
Before the series started, Bryant downplayed the matchup but his relief was palpable after the final buzzer sounded.
"This is the sweetest (of the five)," Bryant said as he accepted the Bill Russell Award as Finals MVP. "We understood how badly the city wanted it. This one is by far the sweetest because it was against (Boston) and it was the hardest, by far."
Now, when people look in the record book, they will see the 2010 Lakers beating the Celtics, and Bryant joining Johnson as the two signature players that got the best of Boston.
When ESPN's Stuart Scott introduced Johnson at the championship celebration on the floor at Staples Center after last night's Game 7, he used the throwaway line of "the greatest Laker of them all -- Magic Johnson."
A decade from now when the next generation of Lakers is celebrating and ESPN's newest talking head wants to introduce the greatest Laker of them all, it will be Bryant stepping to the center of the floor.
Most will remember his superlative scoring ability, his deft ball-handling or his lockdown defense.
I'll remember this series, his willingness to finally defer and his growth as a player.
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