murksiderock
Superstar
People have to learn to be okay with other people having different opinions. On this website, any objective poster will tell you the trend has been that if you favor LeBron (and to a lesser extent, Mike) over Kobe, you aren't thinking for yourself and you're anti-Kobe, which in most conversations I've had in real life, the guys who thought other guys were greater than Kobe, weren't anti-Kobe. This is and has always and will remain a very pro-Kobe board, more than any one single athlete in any sport we talk about on here...
There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, the issues mostly have arisen when people have said they think some other guys are greater than Kobe, and you get net-stoned to death with alot of tough talk....about fukking sports debates that people have always had and will continue to have...a LOT of you brothers on here are very weird, and I'm saying that in the most respectful way I can say it...
When the dust settles, people will go on having debates about where Kobe lands, as well they should. These knee-jerk reactions that guys are swearing off comparing him to other GOATs ever again won't hold up in the long run, and they shouldn't. There's nothing wrong with sports debate, we debate everything as a society, it's just compartmentalizing when guys are crossing the line. It isn't slander or crossing the line to say you think another legit GOAT was/is better than Bean, no more than the other way around---->cats not comparing and saying somebody like Speedy Claxton better than Kobe...
In the interim, we're gonna see a bit of inflation the same way we saw when Big and Pac died, even though while they were alive, it was debatable that guys from Rakim to Nas to Cube to KRS were greater all-time. Those two died and suddenly they became "greatest ever" overnight. So we'll see some inflation for Kobe's standing probably for at least the next half-decade, if not longer. People who won't automatically catapult him to Top 2 status just because he passed, doesn't make them anti-Kobe...
For the record, he deserves all the adulation he's getting for the man he was. And it's long been established he's a GOAT, no matter where you have him, the consensus is he isnt lower than 10. He was a brilliant player, a role model off the floor, and I'm gonna miss him. I've long told the story on here how I became a basketball fan, 5th grade in South Central, ripping a Kobe poster out of an SI mag in '99. Alot of my adolescence was played to Kobe, and i grew up bicoastal, from California to Virginia...
We all have different recollections depending on our age and what influenced us at the time. Kobe definitely was not this media target outside of maybe the immediate 2 years following Colorado. Prior to that, he was the golden boy, and once he put his head down and affirmed his greatness in the post-Shaq years, by the time he won those last two titles, he had earned his way back into the good Grace's of the public. The media questioned his leadership, and it was widely reported that as a player he wasn't well liked, but he was far from vilified or hated. We don't have to make up stories, people always loved Kobe, and the segment of the public who didn't, had dwindled to almost nothing by the time he retired. He became less surely and more open with his thoughts and personality and it relaxed people, not to mention, there isn't but so much you can do to deny a guy with his on-court resume...
His passing doesn't change how I view him as a player, because his career is done and can't be changed. I already knew he was widely loved and respected. I felt some hurt for his passing, took my day or so to really comprehend it and what he meant to me growing up. None of us will ever get over his sudden passing, but as life goes on, you have to be okay with it from the sense that we all have an expiration date and it WILL be sudden for a good number of us. He did everything he was called to do here, and if there was more for him to do, The Creator would still have him here...
There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, the issues mostly have arisen when people have said they think some other guys are greater than Kobe, and you get net-stoned to death with alot of tough talk....about fukking sports debates that people have always had and will continue to have...a LOT of you brothers on here are very weird, and I'm saying that in the most respectful way I can say it...
When the dust settles, people will go on having debates about where Kobe lands, as well they should. These knee-jerk reactions that guys are swearing off comparing him to other GOATs ever again won't hold up in the long run, and they shouldn't. There's nothing wrong with sports debate, we debate everything as a society, it's just compartmentalizing when guys are crossing the line. It isn't slander or crossing the line to say you think another legit GOAT was/is better than Bean, no more than the other way around---->cats not comparing and saying somebody like Speedy Claxton better than Kobe...
In the interim, we're gonna see a bit of inflation the same way we saw when Big and Pac died, even though while they were alive, it was debatable that guys from Rakim to Nas to Cube to KRS were greater all-time. Those two died and suddenly they became "greatest ever" overnight. So we'll see some inflation for Kobe's standing probably for at least the next half-decade, if not longer. People who won't automatically catapult him to Top 2 status just because he passed, doesn't make them anti-Kobe...
For the record, he deserves all the adulation he's getting for the man he was. And it's long been established he's a GOAT, no matter where you have him, the consensus is he isnt lower than 10. He was a brilliant player, a role model off the floor, and I'm gonna miss him. I've long told the story on here how I became a basketball fan, 5th grade in South Central, ripping a Kobe poster out of an SI mag in '99. Alot of my adolescence was played to Kobe, and i grew up bicoastal, from California to Virginia...
We all have different recollections depending on our age and what influenced us at the time. Kobe definitely was not this media target outside of maybe the immediate 2 years following Colorado. Prior to that, he was the golden boy, and once he put his head down and affirmed his greatness in the post-Shaq years, by the time he won those last two titles, he had earned his way back into the good Grace's of the public. The media questioned his leadership, and it was widely reported that as a player he wasn't well liked, but he was far from vilified or hated. We don't have to make up stories, people always loved Kobe, and the segment of the public who didn't, had dwindled to almost nothing by the time he retired. He became less surely and more open with his thoughts and personality and it relaxed people, not to mention, there isn't but so much you can do to deny a guy with his on-court resume...
His passing doesn't change how I view him as a player, because his career is done and can't be changed. I already knew he was widely loved and respected. I felt some hurt for his passing, took my day or so to really comprehend it and what he meant to me growing up. None of us will ever get over his sudden passing, but as life goes on, you have to be okay with it from the sense that we all have an expiration date and it WILL be sudden for a good number of us. He did everything he was called to do here, and if there was more for him to do, The Creator would still have him here...