Kobe Bryant and the new breed of Lakers
Reading a news article today from one of our tabloid newspapers intrigued me. It insinuated that with Shaq, Malone, Payton and Derek Fisher gone, Kobe Bryant is now the undisputed leader of the Lakers basketball team. Perhaps it was not an insinuation but a statement of fact. However, when I recall the recent Lakers-Pistons championship games where at one point I saw a Kobe Bryant who was asking for a pass from team mates, the news article really raises questions in my head. Was the loss of the Lakers during their recent championship game also a result of players' squabbles?
When I saw a picture of Kobe Bryant raising his fist at the beginning of the Lakers' training camp, I began to think that maybe all those superstars trying to make their mark in last year's Laker squad weighed down on player morale and sense of belongingness to the team. I knew that there was a Shaq-Kobe rift that even the win of the Lakers over Sacramento San Antonio cannot hide. Was Phil Jackson involved?
I wonder.
The new Laker team doesn't promise much. Rudy Tomjanovich will be there, and it will be a nice thing to see him in coaching again. Kobe will once more be the Laker work horse that he has been with or without Shaq O'Neal. But how about the new players on the team?
It takes ten years to build a championship team at the least. I hope that it will take the Lakers a shorter time to get another championship.