Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Happy Hump Day!
I have a guest! He's new to the blog family, but I challenged him to write for me today - so let's see what he's got! He beat Annamaria being first yesterday - so Annamaria, be nice!
If you've been following the NBA Finals, or are a basketball fan in general, you'll appreciate this blog (Unless you're a Kobe hater....like myself) :) This is a great read, and I may even be swayed....MAYBE :-)
He has a lot of aliases, but I'll simply introduce him as DMoe. Show him some love y'all! oh...and Rameer...feel free to re-post :-)
LiKOBElity...by DMoe.
Good morning everyone...
Since I'm new to the blog, I gotta tell ya'll how cool it is to read everybody's thoughts on here...
I'm a blogger in another world, but I was glad to accept the challenge of guest writing here in Brooke's spot.
The topic I chose today is a corner where Sports intersects a societal matter of acceptance. And on this eve of the NBA finals, before the proverbial light turns green at this corner, there's no better time to engage the fellas with the "sporting" side of the story, while ringing the ladies' bell for the "societal" matter at hand.
With that being said, I'm sure everyone has said the title slowly to themselves a few times by now….I coin this concept "LI-KO-BE-LITY."
Basically, this concept of "likobelity" is exactly as it reads...One's "ability to Like Kobe" (Bryant).
I possess this ability cuz I'm a fan of the player he is, and some other fan-type folks have that ability also - Lakers' fans (male/female) most definitely have it, and as a matter of fact, they are connoisseurs at it. Of course we all are, when the subject in question is on OUR team, but let's continue...
Here's where we're going: A deep dive right into exactly how this concept lives, breathes, and rears its ugly head at a moment's notice.
So...As I watch the games of these NBA playoffs, I've found myself in the constant company of "Kobe/Laker Haters."
We know the routine:
Dmoe: "Are you a Jazz/Rockets/Nuggets fan?"
Hater: "No, I just don’t like Kobe"
I almost always oblige the next, hilarious phase of the convo. The consistent, hazy response as to exactly WHY they don’t like Kobe and/or the Lakers. It never varies, and the answers are almost profoundly uniform...
Here's the list of my fave 5 Kobe Hate reasons. (Picture 5 little Kobe faces on a T-mobile phone...Or better yet, I made my own Fave 5 right here. Enjoy!!!!)
5. "He's a punk!"
4. "He was out there doin’ his thing with the white chick and BAM! Good for his azz."
3. "He's arrogant!"
2. "He pulled a b***ch move on Shaq!"
And my all-time favorite...
1. "I just don't like Kobe...He rubs me the wrong way!"
Listing these in order of least to greatest, its pretty easy to determine the varying degrees of the emotional blindness/paralysis that limits one's ability to see the Kobe Bryant point here in 2009: He's the BEST on the basketball court.
Notice – Items 1 through 5 had NOTHING to do with his blossoming talent as a basketball player. Absolutely nothing. Blossoming you say? Yes indeed. The kind of blossoming cultivated by thousands of jumpers in empty gyms, hundreds of free throws, and dozens of bench presses and deadlifts in the weight room day after day. He worked at it. Mr.Bryant was a decent player in the early days. But these days? You can smell what he’s cookin’ every time he steps on the floor. All the while, other players are out shooting commercials, buying rims for the Maybach, making constant cameos at the Tattoo parlor (aka the Denver Thuggets – lol, that’s copyrighted, so don’t even think about jackin’ it), signing cats to their labels, and playing celebrity Pro-Am golf tourneys. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the expansion of one's personal empire with such ventures - its just that Kobe focused on one thing, and it shows.
Now...Back to those words. Blossoming. Cultivated. Those are words associated with the kind of growth we see in rose bushes. You know roses well. Those sustaining, timeless flowers filled with ---- (gulp) thorns. The rose is the "standard" by which flower-bearing is set. Whether you like the aroma or not, we all are pretty sure roses got a bad rap for sticking somebody with the pointy thorn (or rubbing somebody the wrong way) --- but ended up becoming ----- definitive.
That's right. Definitive. Kobe's "blossoming" was a result of tireless "cultivation." And as a result, he has become the "definitive" player in professional basketball today. No slight to all the other names that will be tossed at him besides Lebron. But - the kid from Lower Merion High School is 9 times all-defense and dropping 30 per night. That speaks loudly.
I'm sure you're all up on your hoops lingo, but that’s basketball talk for "doin it all." Kobe's checking your best player and serving facials on the other end at a moment's notice. We all know it. That's the thing. EVERYBODY knows it. Haters scoff at his fadeaway, and "teeth smacks" fill the room when he sinks the free throws after the hard foul he just took to seal the deal late in a game. But for all we watch him do, its never enough for people who quite simply operate on the "torn drawers" principle.
Not familiar? Take this quick quiz: Ever kept ONE pair of torn drawers? Nope. Not one. Once they're torn, they're done. You throw 'em away - gone forever...
Well, my sports just doesn’t work like that. Moreover, my humanity doesn't work like that. He was humbled, contrite, asked for forgiveness, lost all the endorsements, got tried in the courts, and suffered the greatest loss: the loss of integrity and trust at his crib.
Does Kobe need to pay some higher toll for the Haters to be appeased?
Well, as one who is not without sin, and subsequently not throwing stones, here's where I stand:
Kobe's hard work, subsequent passion/dedication to the craft, attention to being the best, and overall winning attitude should at the very least count for something...
(wait for it…………………………………………………)
Here it comes people………(wait for it)………………………………
Forgiveness.
As a black man, I'm here to tell you. The answer is No, we're not above the rules. We get no passes, but it takes a certain spirit to go beyond a past mistake (and the shame involved) to consciously say, "I'm going to move past this, and be the best I can be at THIS thing."
That returns us back to the original "LIKOBELITY"...Some of us are just plain jaded by his younger foolishness and simply CAN'T forgive him. We just don’t know how to move on. The rape trial, the subsequent apology from that infamous press conference, the bus that landed on Shaq, and some b-ball court displays here and there where (upon further review) we may have said/did something a bit different for image's sake after a bit more maturation. And that’s just it...We have watched him grow the entire time - from THAT dude a while back, to THIS player right now...
Wow...I’ll tell you what...
If America had a camera's eye on any of us from age 18 to the age of 27, I'll let you fill in your own "foolishness blank" here:__________________________________
Yet, Kobe's drawbacks as listed above seem to not allow us to fully grasp the basketball greatness we are actually "witnessing" in this era. As a matter of fact, 4 of the 5 items on that list are ALL related to the rape allegation...Imagine that. Personally, I love the "arrogant" thing. Its my favorite. That whole mantra is completely subjective, and the men on this blog know it all too well.
DYK?? You can't actually BE arrogant. Somebody has to think you are. Awesome. Quite simply – That’s awesome. Moreover, hang your head and your labeled one type of dude. Hold your head "too high" in some people's eyes, and you become another type of dude. But hey, that’s another blog topic.
Mind you, I neither condone nor approve of many of the aspects involved in Kobe's past. Throwing anyone under the bus to save your own azz --- is wack. Period. Nuff said. However, I'd like to hear from someone on this blog who HAS NOT done SOMETHING they've come to regret in the name of foolishness, youth, emotional ideas, not thinking, etc. and the “reason” list goes on and on to da like break o’ dawn...
As is the custom, I'll leave you yet another blank for you to fill in your own past idiot moves here: ___________________________________________
Point being: None of us are beyond reproach. The only difference in the circumstance with athletes, celebs, public figures and politicians, is the fact that they live in a bubble. A clear, acrylic bubble we can see clearly through at a moment's notice. However, they are no more man or woman than us, and neither are their "soap opera moments"...But therein lies the whole tragic point...
When it's somebody we can identify with, or are cool with, we allow a little wiggle room for foolishness. Of course some of us may not admit this, but our beloved Micheal Jordan was exactly the kind of "a**hole" we’ve seen Kobe be on the floor to a teammate. Off the floor of course, “his Airness” had no rape trial. There was no putting Shaq's biz in the street, no white chick in the Rockies, and so on. Capisce?
Bill Clinton? Got love - and STILL gets love to this day despite lying to "us" directly. But hey, he's a cool dude. Ever since he played the Sax solo on Arsenio, kid could do no wrong. Impeachment? Please. He's the blackest white dude we know! Cool as hell!
There are dozens of examples, and feel free to list your own in your responses. But the point is...People we like in our minds receive "preferential foolishness treatment." Call it the Victor Newman rule. No matter how many people Victor screws over in the course of the "Young & the Restless" lengthy TV run, some of us just keep rooting for him cuz Vic's just a cool-azz dude. And yes, there are others...
Which leads me to this final point. Since the NBA finals will be (as my french friends from France would say)....."Sans Lebron"...
Had Kobe pulled a similar Lebron-bolting-after-the-loss stunt/exit from the Orlando arena, mouths would be flapping full of disgust and contempt for him based on harbored hostilities that only needed something new to climb onto....You don’t have to admit, but - you know.
I'm a sucker for comebacks people. What can I say? I dig the redemption. I'm actually rooting for Kobe to get a ring.
Cuz after all, he's just a man...and we all deserve the chance for redemption.
Like these people:
1. Mike Tyson - after "whichever" jail stint
2. Whitney Houston - after Bobby (TBD)
3. Roy Jones - after "whichever" knockout
4. Michael Jordan - after baseball
5. Michael Jackson (TBD)
6. Kobe Bryant - Post-Colorado
And just like I've rooted for these others, Kobe deserves credit for hard work and above all.........forgiveness.
Thanks for your time.
Your thoughts, opinions and comments are not only welcomed, but invited.
DMoe aka Jules bka Ernest Forgivens
