 |
| |
|
 |
 |
Kobe's beef Bryant will exact vengeance on Philly for years to comePosted: Monday February 11, 2002 5:40 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor touches on a Hot Button issue each Monday on CNNSI.com. After you read Phil's take, give us yours. I fear for you, Philadelphia. I fear for you because you don't know what you got yourself into when you booed Kobe Bryant for virtually the entire NBA All-Star Game on Sunday. It's not exactly clear why you were so obsessed with making Bryant's evening miserable. Maybe, because he spent part of his childhood in Philadelphia and is now a Los Angeles Laker, you despise him as a native son gone Hollywood. Maybe you're holding a grudge because the Lakers dismissed your Sixers rather easily in last year's Finals, and Bryant had the audacity to smack-talk Philly hero Allen Iverson in the process. Maybe it's just that Philadelphians seem to take a perverse pride in being the undisputed heavyweight champion of booing. Whatever the reason, I fear for you, Philadelphia, because Kobe will make you pay. You could see the hurt in Bryant's eyes as he accepted his All-Star MVP award while the boos cascaded down Sunday night. Other stars, like Iverson or Vince Carter, probably would have been able to play the tough guy and act as if the chilly reception didn't matter to them, but Bryant's shell isn't hard enough for that. He was obviously wounded, wondering what he had done to deserve such treatment other than contribute 31 points, five rebounds and five assists to the West's 135-120 victory. But the hurt will fade quickly, to be replaced by anger, and the prediction here is that Bryant will exact vengeance on Philadelphia for years to come. I want to be courtside every time Bryant plays in Philly for the next decade, because I suspect that he will do everything in his power to light up the scoreboard until its circuits short out. With every hoop, his message will be, "You want something to boo, Philadelphia? Boo this." The scary thing for Sixers fans is that he's good enough to do it. Of all the similarities between Bryant and Michael Jordan, perhaps the most striking is their need for revenge. They don't just want to settle a score, they want to run up the score. In fact, you can be sure that Jordan will be in Bryant's ear, if he hasn't been already, encouraging him to make those boo birds regret what they did. Jordan has tormented Cleveland for years with clutch shots and scoring outbursts, motivated partly by the hostility of the Cavaliers' fans who never really bought into Jordan-mania and have treated him as just another hated opponent. When it comes to Philly, look for Kobe to be like Mike. This isn't necessarily to say that the fans at the First Union Center had no reason to be irritated with Bryant. He was definitely point-hungry on Sunday; not content just to be part of the show, he wanted to be the show. But it's hard to blame him for that, especially when so many other stars act like it's a chore to even attend the All-Star Game, much less play hard. If someone from the East had responded to the challenge and taken it upon himself to try to stop Bryant, or at least match him offensively, it would have made for a truly compelling contest. In every game he plays, Bryant instinctively tries to establish that he's the best player on the court, an approach that sometimes gets him into trouble, but more often leads to a sensational spectacle. That's what the fans in Philadelphia got on Sunday, but they didn't really appreciate what they were seeing. They'll have other chances, though. You get the feeling that for the rest of his career, Bryant will be intent on showing them there's much more where that came from. Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the
writer.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
