The Others: Why the Future of the Los Angeles Lakers Rests With Everyone but Kobe Bryant
By David Neiman | The Score, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, ColumnEver since Kobe Bryant’s “Trade Me, Don’t Trade Me” radio tirade this past summer, media outlets from here to Beijing have posed every imaginable question about No. 24 and his team for the present, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Is Kobe to blame for shaking the organization to its Staples Center core, or is Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss and team management responsible for failing to make any blockbuster off-season moves to placate the Black Mamba?
Was Kobe the reason Shaquille O’Neal left Los Angeles?
Has Kobe played his last game in a Lakers’ uniform? (If you believe ESPN’s Ric Bucher, he has. Several times now.)
The focal point of all discussion has been No. 24, yet strangely enough, almost no attention has been paid to the assumption underlying his original complaint — namely, that Los Angeles has failed to surround him with the talent he needs to compete for a championship.
To a degree, Kobe is right. This team has not competed for an NBA title, or gotten past the first round of the playoffs, though two seasons ago, the Lakers came within a basket of doing precisely that.
But what about No. 24’s teammates — the Others, if you will. Do they have any talent at all? Enough to be competitive? To compete for a championship?
Start asking these questions, and the answers are surprising — both because they reveal talent on the Lakers, and because they lay the blame for Los Angeles’ current woes not on Kobe or Lakers’ ownership/management, but on the players themselves.
THE PARALYSIS OF AWE
Ever since Shaq’s departure, the Lakers have essentially passed through two periods.
The first, After Shaq, was short-lived. Kobe discovered quickly that he wasn’t Michael Jordan — at least, not yet — and that winning meant more than scoring 30+ points a night. Or to put it another way, he was Early Jordan (63 points v. Boston in the playoffs for a loss, etc.).
In the second, Understanding the Team Concept, Kobe began to grasp that he was going to need some assistance if he ever wanted to reach the post-season again. Being reunited with Phil Jackson helped Kobe move through this period rather rapidly. People say that No. 24 is selfish and so forth, and I’m the first to harp on the quality of his shot-selection/ball distribution, but he wants to win more than anything. You need teammates to win. He gets it.
The problem is that the majority of Kobe’s teammates — at least, the ones who have been here the last few years — have been awestruck by him, so much so that they’ve looked lost on the floor a lot of the time.
As a result, people have reached two conclusions. The first is that the Others simply aren’t very good. The second is that Kobe has done little to make his teammates better. Once every other week (if not more often), you can find a story out of a major media outlet questioning his ability to interact with other players, as if he were a two year-old.
THE MYTH OF MJ
What is commonly meant by “making one’s teammates better?”
Typically, this refers to a few things. Some are strategy-related — drawing opposing defenses to open up opportunities for your teammates, setting them up to score via great passes, etc. A good deal of making your teammates better, however, seems to revolve around intangibles. Somehow, the true leader improves the performances of his teammates through positive encouragement, inspiring them through his own effort. And of course, Michael Jordan is the standard by which all other aspiring leaders are measured, since he — as a friend of mine puts it — managed to win a few titles with Scottie Pippen and some guys from the gym.
Except, as the following review of David Halberstam’s book about MJ, “Playing for Keeps,” points out, that that’s really just the popular myth.
Jackson occasionally stood up to Jordan; early on, he demanded that Jordan share the ball more often. It took him a long time to develop such trust in his teammates. Jackson was so effective in running this delicate ship, Halberstam doubts any other coach could have led the Bulls to those six titles. “Maybe four, no more,” he said.
Halberstam also watched the way Jordan interacted with his teammates, no idle matter. Once, during Chicago’s first championship run, two exasperated teammates counted the number of times Jordan used “I” during a pregame chat with several writers.
The Jackson that’s being referred to, of course, is none other than Phil Jackson, the current Lakers coach. The article goes on to provide some more intriguing details that show an uncanny parallel to the current situation in L.A.
Jordan occasionally showed his wicked side. He ruthlessly hassled Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, who longed for public credit and was eager to dump Jackson and start anew.
MJ, as reality would have it, was a ruthless taskmaster early in his career, barely tolerated by his teammates, who got along with him at least partly (if not more so) due to the management skills of Jackson.
What I’m driving at here is this: If Michael Jordan didn’t make his teammates better by patting them on the back — at least during the first championship run — how did he do it?
HE DIDN’T DO IT, THEY DID
There’ s an old cliche in psychology that goes something like this: You can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do.
I would argue that Michael Jordan didn’t do a thing to make his teammates play better.
Yes, he played the most incredible basketball we’re all likely to ever see.
Yes, he put forth more effort to improve his game and excel than anyone else in his era, and arguably, ever.
Michael Jordan’s teammates saw how he played every day of his career, and they responded.
Will Perdue and Luc Longley worked hard enough for people to remember who they were.
Steve Kerr worked on his shot, and went from being a good college player to one of the greatest three-point shooters in NBA history.
Scottie Pippen pushed his skills so far, people argue that Jordan wouldn’t have been Jordan without him.
Yes, MJ might have inspired his teammates, but ultimately, they tried harder. They improved their skills. They made themselves better.
THE OTHERS
One crucial difference between Jordan’s teammates and Bryant’s is that MJ won his first title with the “role players.”
When the current crop of Lakers arrived, Kobe already had three NBA championships under his belt. He was already KOBE BRYANT, the superstar who Los Angeles chose to keep over Shaquille O’Neal, arguably the most dominating center of all time. The context was different. And that, to an extent, accounts for the inability of Kobe and the rest of the Lakers to coalesce the way that they would have normally.
Only No. 24 has remained on a pedestal, and for the most part, his teammates have been content persisting as more serving staff at the royal table than peers. Lucky to be playing with him, there to serve him, with no real standing of their own.
And that is their fault.
After all, if the “supporting cast” can’t see itself as anything more than the supporting cast, how is Kobe Bryant to blame for that? How is management or Jerry Buss to blame, for that matter?
Looking back, it’s amazing to me how remarkable Lamar Odom’s performance was during last year’s playoffs — not because he played so well, which he did, but because it was such earth-shattering news. Some of the attention, at least partly, was due to his injuries and his effort; he played through a torn labrum and a wobbly knee.
But people seemed to be almost more astounded that someone else on the Lakers besides Kobe Bryant was battling to win. And that is inexcusable.
Fans may not like a team that loses, but if players are fighting through injuries, diving for loose balls, and raging against the expectation of defeat, they can at least be respected. Fading into oblivion, as many of Los Angeles’ role players have done over the past few seasons — you just would expect to see some modicum of pride.
I don’t agree with how Kobe has handled his situation, but I certainly empathize with him. He’s done everything he can to make his teammates better. Now it’s their turn.
Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar and Ronny Turiaf need to stop being in awe of Kobe (I’m fairly certain Bynum has a more human view of Kobe now), and start playing like they belong. So far, there are signs that this is the case; Farmar seems confident in his abilities, as opposed to last year, when he seemed more confident in his confidence than anything else.
Luke Walton needs to stay healthy and do everything that his surprisingly wide array of talents allow him to do. Odom needs to stay healthy and pick up right where he left off last season: dominating the opposition at both ends of the floor.
Derek Fisher just got here, but Los Angeles needs him to embrace the role only he can fill as confidant and counselor to KB. (Not to mention veteran point guard.)
Vladimir Radmanovic needs to stay at sea level and keep hitting threes.
Kwame Brown needs to remember that on one memorable night last season, Staples Center actually reverberated with fans chanting his name. And he needs to make that happen more than once a year.
More than anything, Kobe’s teammates need to show some pride, and match his effort and drive with their own.
Contrary to the popular take, I do think the Others on this team have talent. Will it be realized? Can they make themselves better?
The future of the Lakers franchise — and of No. 24 — is riding on the answer.
David Neiman is a freelance sportswriter who has worked for the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Lakers Magazine, and other award-winning publications. You can reach him at david@sportshubla.com.
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17 Responses to “The Others: Why the Future of the Los Angeles Lakers Rests With Everyone but Kobe Bryant”
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You hit it on the head. I totally agree with you. Its up to each individual on that team to work on their game and improve themselves to be the best they can be and it will show. As a hard worker, one will only truly respect others who work just as hard if not harder. For the last few years they have not worked as hard on the court or off the court as Kobe.
I’ve read many articles, blogs, dissertations from the average laker fan. And I have never read anyone write something like this before. I am in complete agreement with your article.
It is imperative that other teamates show some sort of pride and become their own individuals and ultimately, become a cohesive unit. And I think you’re starting to see that a little bit with Farmar, Bynum, and Turiaf in this early going. Walton and Odom had this transformation in the 2005 playoffs against the Suns.
I’m interested to see how this story unfolds.
Well said, my friend. Well said.
Wow, you said what so many have failed to thru this whole ordeal. Your insight is borne out by the blosomming of Farmar this year. He worked his tail off this summer because he felt if he did not improve, he might be moved down the bench behind Crittonden. Nothing motivates a person more than the possibility that they might lose their position/job or have thier ego bruised (especially in the media). As for the team as a whole, I am hopeful for what I have seen thus far. Lets hope they do not fall back into, “stand around and watch Kobe” mode.
I loved David Halberstam, really love his work. But he wrote Playing For Keeps without ever talking to Jordan. I don’t consider it his best work. Just a point.
True, Jackson didn’t stand up to Jordan, but he used other means, speaking to him through his insertions in scouting films (he used the wife cutting her own throat from The Devil’s Advocate spliced beside Jordan’s hogging the ball). And, oh, yeah, Phil also worked behind Jordan’s back, revealing unflattering info about Jordan to Sam Smith, me and other writers.
Phil manipulated Jordan into certain things. And cajoled him into others. According to Tex Winter, Phil worked 24/7 on his relationship with Jordan to get him to do things.
So, confrontation? No.
But coercion by any means necessary? Yes.
It’s the same we’re witnessing here with Phil and Kobe, which leaves people wondering what’s going on in L.A.
It’s still Phil and Kobe, on a titanic scale, with a few important extras thrown in for diversion and Phil’s amusement.
Now, about the rest of your article: Dead on!
Sorry, but I wanted to clear up that one minor part. Otherwise, it and this site are great!
Roland Lazenby
lakernoise.com
author of The Show
So close…and yet still a fair bit from the truth.
I recommend that you obtain the Mark Heisler book “Madmen’s Ball” and review Kobe’s career.
Kobe has *always* been about Kobe. It wasn’t until the Lakers brought in Phil Jackson and several established veterans with championship rings (Horry, Harper, Salley, etc.) that Kobe subjugated his massive ego and played within a team concept. Even then, there was near-constant tension between what Kobe wanted to do and what was best for the team.
The Lakers big mistake in blowing up the team in 2004 is that Kobe was then surrounded by players he didn’t respect and who didn’t have the gravitas to say to Kobe “(Bleep) you! Pass the (bleeping) ball!”. What? Bynum as an 18-old-rookie is supposed to say that to Kobe and expect Kobe to respond? I don’t think so.
Furthermore, it is difficult to show “pride” in your game when it is constantly being subverted by a guy wearing #24 that expounds a “I trust my teammates. I trust myself more” philosophy.
It’s hard to make a shot when #24 only passes to you when all of his own offensive options have been cut off and that pass comes at you is somewhere around your ankles or head.
It’s hard to play good defense when #24 decides to gamble and freelance in the hopes of coming up with a steal.
It’s hard to maintain discipline in running a proper offense when #24 responds to a double-team by retreating to 40 feet from the basket and jacking up a 3-pointer.
I had the privilege of watching the Magic Johnson years of the Lakers. Kobe has twice the physical talent that Magic ever had, but Magic understood the game, being a leader and how to mesh with his teammates 10 times better than Kobe ever will.
It’s time for Kobe to go so that the rest of the Lakers CAN grow as a team, rather than stay in their stand-around-and-watch-Kobe adolescence.
Sucka MC,
Thanks for the comments.
All great players are about themselves. I know we don’t want to believe that, but even Magic, who you used in your example, had his moments.
Back at the start of the 1980-81 season, when the Lakers were well on the plus side of the win column, Magic demanded a trade unless then-coach Paul Westhead was fired. It was about as me-first an act as you’ll find (and several of his teammates publicly called him out on it), and Westhead was, in fact, summarily fired — a year after winning the NBA title.
I disagree with your assessment of Kobe; I actually spent a good amount of time detailing No. 24’s evolution as a player in a recent post, which you can find here:
Unless Kobe Bryant Wants to Be…
DN
What a great article… Kobe will always have his critics, but if his teammates can get it together like you said, and he can win a couple more championships, this will all be forgotten.
Whether it was Michael Jordan’s gambling/womanizing, or Magic Johnson getting his coach fired/womanizing, the list goes on and on, if you win the championships, they will forget…
Wow. This is a great article. I am very impressed. Never thought of it from this point of view. It is very true, personally, when I’ve played with a$$ holes in the past, we didn’t win because he encouraged us. We won because we all wanted to win. Kobe is not the problem, it is the team. They have to want to follow regardless. THEY ARE MEN, NOT BOYS.
This is a very nice article. I have been a laker fan since I saw magic jump into kareem after a skyhook (first ever game of magic), and you simply Hit it on the head!
You enlightened us that its not really all about what many think of Kobe as a “me, myself and I”. While most writers cum journalists disguise their hate & jealousy for kobe by saying, “..He.. Hes the one…Him..”
I admire all great talents in the NBA, but when my littly boy saw Kobe played he became an instant Fan like I was with magic..I have the utmost respect for him…
totally totally agree.
DN - To follow up on your comments on my comments, I stand by my assessment of Magic vs. Kobe.
What future NBA players (let alone All-Stars) did Magic play with at Michigan State? I think Greg Kelser had a cup of coffee in the league.
Yet Magic understood from Day 1 how to use his talents to make his teammates better, because for him it was ALL about winning championships. Not winning championships without Kareem, or winning Finals MVP instead James Worthy, or anything else. It was about his team playing the best it could, period.
Contrast that with quotes about Kobe from the 1999-2000 season:
Jerry West: ‘My God, is he ever going to learn how to use his teammates better? Is he ever going to learn situations in games? Is he ever going to learn how important time is in a ball game? Is he ever going to learn to value the basketball?’
Derek Fisher: ‘There were a few times that year when, as a group, we still felt just like we felt in the past, that Kobe wasn’t coming on board with everybody so that we all could learn the system and we could get used to working with one another so we could reach the potential that we’ve always had….It’s never about “Kobe, come be with us because the way you’re doing it is wrong.” It’s about “Kobe, come be with us because you can’t do it by yourself. We can’t do it without you, so let’s join together and let’s win”
(quotes from “Madmen’s Ball”, pp. 175 and 176)
It’s EIGHT YEARS LATER and these are STILL open questions about Kobe’s game and his commitment to his teammates.
At some point, a player is who he is (I’m not expecting Kwame Brown to suddenly turn into an All-Star center, for example). For every game, series or stretch of games that Kobe has ‘gotten with the program’, there have been as many or more games where he either clearly wasn’t ‘with the program’, or his commitment was uncertain.
You need only look at this season’s opening night loss to Houston to see what happens with ‘bad Kobe’. Kobe takes 32 shots, Kobe takes 27 free throws….and the rest of the Lakers stand around and watch him.
If Kobe was so dedicated to winning, he could have told Buss in 2004 “Either bring back Shaq (or get real value for him) or I’m going to the Clippers”. Heck, he COULD have gone to the Clippers (with Brand, Maggette, et. al.). He could (a la Tim Duncan) have taken less than the full salary-cap-busting NBA max contract so that the Lakers would have a better chance of signing free agents.
But he did none of those things. I believe he didn’t want to give up the $40 million that signing with Lakers provided him over signing with anyone else. To do so, he had to talk himself into believing that it would work out and the Lakers would be championship contenders despite their blowing the team up in ‘04 and his cap-killing contract.
Now that things haven’t worked out, he’s looking around for people to blame for his predicament, be it Andrew Bynum or Jim Buss.
The Lakers blew the Shaq. trade & wound up with only Lamar of any value. Brown if anything has been a joke. (MJ was right about him) Our great find form the Clippers, another joke. Bottom line is Mitch has not made one decent trade or drafted one real future super star except Luke. Sorry Mitch, bring back Jerry & watch KB change. (Would not hurt if you got rid of all 3 centers for Gasol & Miller)
This is by far the best article on the whole Lakers and Kobe situation I have _ever_ read (and it’s not as if I had read just a few). I found myself almost shouting at times “Yes!!, Yes!!, this is just what I always thought…” Thanks a ton for writing this up in such a wonderfully lucid fashion.
Especially the point concerning the talent of the squad surrounding Kobe, where, as you say, it seems almost consensus that the talent level surrounding Kobe is fairly low or at least not all that high.
(For instance the very last post by the Kamenetzky brothers (who are undoubtedly doing a fantastic job with their blog) expresses I believe exactly this sentiment (even though they’re using the term skill and not talent), saying: “The Lakers, *not exactly the NBA’s highest skilled team*, will need all hands on deck if they’re going to make a surprise run to the top of the conference. (Emphasis mine.))
Yet, a simple consideration of what talent actually means makes it I believe just very clear why your take and not the popular one is right, insofar as it is pointing out the obvious to say that talent does not refer to what you actually do, but to what you *can* do. Of course not in a purely theoretical fashion, but insofar as having at least a single game showing spectacular or at least very good play should in general be enough to justify being called talented. Now by that definition I believe it might even be hard to find another team having so *much* talent in the sense of potential as do the Lakers.
That for instance Lamar is one of the most talented players in the league should I guess be still fairly uncontroversial (depending perhaps only on how many players you want to include in that category…), and *if* he can stay healthy then opposing teams have indeed reason to be afraid (as even Mike D’Antoni pointed out in last years playoffs if I remember correctly, saying that the Suns could be fairly happy that Lamar was hindered as much as he was.)
But even more so in the case of Kwame, where you rightly point out how he played in Game 3 against Phoenix last season, so here the question of *talent* is quite obvious too, the actual (in his case almost dramatic) question being again just whether he can actually *realize* this talent (I really liked it when Jeff Miller from ocregister wrote on the aforementioned game: “Kwame Brown, the personification of unrealized potential, the overgrown underachiever, finally stamped himself worthy of Lakers colors (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/columns/article_1672725.php, because this expressed it so clearly that it’s not a problem of talent but of execution. (And yes, for the philosophically minded, the relation between talent and execution is of course a complex and dialectial not a simple and dichotomic one, but still… (The following article (from 2005) I found interesting concerning Kwame’s personal struggle by the way: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/050505&num=0))
Now I don’t want to make this post all too long, but I think it is clear that the same case could just as easily be made for Radmanovic, Andrew Bynum, Luke Walton and several others, just as your comments on the players already suggest. (Even Brian Cook’s contract extension in 2006 wasn’t done without any reason, taking a look at for instance his shooting percentages…)
So even though Kobe officially blamed the Lakers management, I think between the lines he also sent a message of “stand up and fight or else I’m (at least mentally) gone” to his teammates and with that he may in fact have done exactly the right thing, at least the start of the season so far seems to provide some distinctive hope in that direction…
One should never forget how this team did last season before Lamar and Luke went down and this was with Smush Parker instead of Derek Fisher (the result of a comparison between them being I believe fairly obvious). Bearing that in mind I believe that if the individual players on the Lakers squad can manage to give a positive answer to the question you posed above, the Lakers can get much, much farther than most people even dare to believe right now…
Y.
“Contrast that with quotes about Kobe from the 1999-2000 season :”
I believe at the time Kobe was 21 yrs old… what were you doing when you were 21 yrs old???
“It’s EIGHT YEARS LATER and these are STILL open questions about Kobe’s game and his commitment to his teammates.*”
Eight yrs later and he won the MVP award, the most coveted and highest award given to an NBA player. He was also having dinner with all of his 15 teammates while talking about their chances of winning it all this year.
“You need only look at this season’s opening night loss to Houston to see what happens with ‘bad Kobe’. Kobe takes 32 shots, Kobe takes 27 free throws… and the rest of the Lakers stand around and watch him.”
Is that the same game where the Lakers were winning until the last second 3pt shot by Shane Battier stole the game from them? Is that the same game when Kwame Brown is still the starting center for the Lakers, and Bynum coming off the bench scoring only 4 pts for the 19 minutes he played? is that the same game where he dropped 45 pts, 8 rebs, 4 ast, and 4 stls??? –http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=271030013
Coming from a tumultuous summer and uncertainty about his future with the franchise, his teammates, his coaches, and especially with his fans, I think Kobe just did fine. About your comment in regards to the rest being standing around and watching him… prove to you exactly what this article is all about.