With just hours to go until Game 6 of the 2010 NBA Finals, somewhere in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant has alot on his mind. There is much more on the line tonight for Kobe than any of his teammates. Bryant, who has been crowned the best player in the world over the past four years, has only one NBA title to show for it. The Lakers are on the ropes, with Boston’s Big 3 looking to land the improbable knockout punch for the second time in three years on their hated rival. In 2008, the Lakers were just coming of age. The Celtics were a team of destiny, and had magically rose to the top of the mountain. L.A avenged(kinda) the ’08 Finals loss with the ’09 title over Orlando. However, this year was supposed to be different.
This year, when the Lakers realized they would be facing Boston, things would be in their favor. They had home court, and they were supposed to be the better team. Kobe Bryant had some help to defend Paul Pierce in Ron Artest, and a somewhat healthy Andrew Bynum was supposed to be the X factor to the Celtics front line. K.G, Pierce, and Ray Allen were supposed to be too old, but heading into tonight, they seemed poised. Poised to do what many outside of Boston did not expect. Doc Rivers is on the verge of defeating Phil Jackson for the second time with a NBA title on the line, something no one can say. Kobe Bryant is on the verge of losing his 3rd NBA Finals, and 2nd in the last 3 years. The core that is the Lakers may on paper look good, but the rest of the West is catching up very fast, and Kobe knows his window to win titles is closing with each playoff series.
Should the Celtics win tonight, or even Thursday night, casual fans will look back in awe with the fact of the Celtics winning 2 games in Staples Center. However, most diehards will question, for the first time, the “greatness” of Kobe Bryant’s leadership. Not taking anything away from Bryant’s skills, but when adversity has hit his teams, his ability to bring out the best in his teammates has lacked. What will ultimately seperate Bryant from the true greatest of all time(Jordan, Magic, Bird, etc), are the fact that as great as each of those guys were, their teammates knew they HAD to step their game up in crunch time. Kobe has one player on his team that he knows can hit a shot or make a big play when it’s all on the line(Derek Fisher).
Every other player on the Lakers roster has at times looked lost or scared in this series. Bryant has resembled the same Kobe that sat on the bench dejected at the end of the 2004 NBA Finals loss to Detroit, which marked the end of the Shaq/Kobe title run. It’s been six long summers since then, but should Los Angeles not rally the troops and have their role players step up tonight, this summer could be the most difficult since ’04.
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