Kobe not like Mike
more rings carry the most weight
no heavy mettle
Ultimately to no one's surprise, Kobe Bean Bryant got an MVP but lost a ring.
Here's a physics anomaly: One award is physically larger but the other is heavier. How?
When it's on your ring finger. Mettle weighs more.
And, yes, Kobe's middle name is Bean.
Much like his name, in the NBA Finals Kobe Bean was the prime cut, pampered and well-fed by his Lakers teammates, made ready for the moment where he would emerge from the grill of public scrutiny as something extra special...and then the Boston Celtics boiled him in a pot, mushed him up, and spread him too thin over Phil Jackson's triangle tortilla.
Kobe says it's unfair to compare him to the champion's champion, Michael Jordan, and he's right. Kobe is not as good.
Never has it been more obvious than this season, and Game Six of the Finals was merely the clincher, not only for the Celtics.
If you walk down the line of your bench barking at your teammates about effort and those teammates roll their eyes clearly enough for many -- including Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling -- to see, then sorry, you're no Michael Jordan.
Oh, you might stack up favorably on the court, but if your teammates roll their eyes at you off of it, you lose "next" at the Michael Jordan's Successor One-on-One Tournament. LeBron James is already taking his practice shots.
If Michael barked at his teammates they would listen. Michael also wouldn't have half his locker cleaned out before the season, in part because no one would ever have pictured him as trade bait. No one would ever have questioned his value and abilities to lead.
Old Bulls and current Lakers assistant coach Tex Winter would never have gone to Michael Jordan's MVP trophy presentation and opened old wounds, asking Mike what he thought of Tex's triangle offense these days -- exactly what he did to Kobe. (Watch about 7:10 in).
The question seems innocuous, but you just couldn't see this happening to MJ, in part because Michael liked the triangle, liked getting his teammates involved, and if he ever had a beef with a coach you found out about it when that coach (Doug Collins) was looking for a job. That's how much the Bulls respected Jordan.
The way last off season went for Kobe Bryant, he might consider himself fortunate to still be a Laker.
Gradually, Kobe has had to rebuild relationships with all those he had wanted to throw away. Jackson and the guru's guru, Winter, namely.
Credit to Kobe -- he sucked it up, including moving back the half of his locker he'd already moved out in the pre-season, and he won an MVP trophy. Talked about team instead of smack about Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Talked about teammates instead of GM Mitch Kupchak.
Even Shaq said nice things about how Kobe had grown.
But respect? Did you hear anybody say respect? Like Rodney Dangerfield, Kobe Bryant gets none.
For one guy, it was a punchline. The other has more work to do.