Why Kobe will be star attraction of intriguing playoffs

Kobe Bryant hasn't advanced in the playoffs since Shaquille O'Neal was traded after the 2003-04 season. Robert Beck/SI

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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Kobe Bryant has invested these past five months in trying to gain leverage over his career. The previous four years are his self-imposed burden, and lately he has been trying to lift that gathering weight and tip it over upon itself. He is succeeding.

It's like watching an undrafted guard work his way into a rotation of guaranteed contracts. That's how hard Bryant has been working to tip over the past in creation of a pedestal for himself. He is the most talented player in the world and he's playing with an underdog's mentality.

Here Tuesday night, his Lakers lost 112-103 to a young team with no more than a week left to its season. When Portland led by 16 late in the third quarter, Bryant could be seen clapping on the bench, trying to raise enthusiasm. After a timeout he scored the next 10 points, on a jumper, a three-pointer, a dunk in transition and three free throws.

What he heard at the foul line was: "Kobe shucks! Kobe shucks!'' Or something a little more vile.

This was not the kind of greeting Michael Jordan received in the second half of his career, but he probably heard many things like it before he won his initial championship, in 1991. It's easy to gloss over his first seven regular seasons and say that Jordan was "destined'' (a false sports cliché to be sure) to become the most prolific winner after the Bill Russell era. But at the time there was no certainty that he would amount to a six-time champion, and it's that same uncertainty that Bryant faces now.

Despite three championships he won alongside Shaquille O'Neal before turning 24, Bryant remains a player struggling to achieve. In a few seasons, will we dismiss these past three or four years as prelude to his fulfilling his "destiny?'' That's how winners are celebrated in America: They get to rewrite the past.

Make no mistake: Bryant now has more in common with Jordan the old champion than he shares with the young Jordan who was criticized in his early years as a flawed scorer, a hollow star. While Jordan needed to learn how to lead a championship team, the truth back then was that he lacked players who could be so led. The same has been true for Bryant. It's no coincidence that he suddenly appears more mature amid the sudden improvement of center Andrew Bynum in the first half of this season, followed by the acquisition of Pau Gasol.

I said it early this season and repeat it now: Bryant was right to exert pressure on the Lakers last summer to demand an upgrade in talent. Would you rather that he cash his checks and accept first-round defeats without complaint? In which case he would be accused of not caring enough. As clumsily as he demanded improvements to the team, those demands in the strangest way showed that he was willing to further injure his own scarred reputation in exchange for winning more championships. And if he does win them, then his momentary demand to be traded last summer surely will be written off as a successful gambit.

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