Recently, Kobe Bryant made public that he would definitely consider a European team's offer for him.
“As players, the business of the game (is) evolving,” Bryant said before a Team USA practice at Beijing Normal University. “I think free agency now is becoming a global thing …. When players become free agents, the team they’re currently with – their competition is no longer the rest of the teams in the NBA. But it’s global. So, the market’s opened up. So we’ll just have to see how the league responds to it.”It doesn't make sense for me to support Kobe's move. Most critics concur that he is the greatest basketball player on the planet right now. Shouldn't he play with the best of the best and stay with the NBA? It almost feels like it is his responsibility to do that. How else can all of his supporters truly say he is the greatest, when he isn't competing against them day in and day out?
What I see in Kobe if he does decide to leave the NBA is that he is finally becoming his own person. He is finally developing and understanding who he wants to be, as opposed to what the press tells him he needs to be, or what Michael Jordan was.
I truly believe that for a good portion of his basketball career, Kobe was constrained by the aura of Jordan. It wasn't even Michael Jordan himself, but the aura, and the legend that Nike created. If MJ was Kobe's father, it would be a classic psychological syndrome of trying to be that "spitting image" of your pa.
Early on in his career you could see that every detail of his game was a mimicry of Jordan. The hanging fadeaway, the tongue-wagging and the defensive intensity. No one reminded us of "the great one" like Kobe did, simply because no one really tried to be Michael as much as Kobe did.
The Shaq-Kobe feud? Part of it can defintely be blamed on this compulsiveness to be Michael's equal or greater. Kobe realized that his career would never be comparable unless he was the undisputed leader of a championship team (x6). He needed to demonstrate that he could do it. Or at least, he needed the chance.
But, in recent years we have seen progression by digression. Kobe has inched his way away from MJ, developing a better long distance jump shot (indisputable) and ball handling skills (arguably).
If Kobe were to leave for Europe, he would finally be on the path to creating his own basketball legend. Kobe is definitely a macro thinker. Kobe isn't just playing basketball, he's creating a story. If there was one thing that you could say Kobe is better at then MJ, it'd be speaking Italian--and English for that matter. Kobe should be using his international personality to his advantage.
I never believed Jordan had an international personality. Jordan had an international brand, and an international image. But he lacked the eloquence to blur borders. Ronaldinho is a magnificently gifted futbol player, but he will never be David Beckham. Kobe is lucky because he was raised in Italy. He already has international roots and influences. Jordan and Lebron will always be thought of as American. Kobe almost feels above that silly distinction.
I support Kobe leaving because I don't want another MJ, I don't even just want someone better than MJ. Just like Jordan made Kareem Abdul Jabbar an after thought, in 10 years I want to forget about MJ altogether. There is so much more about basketball that can evolve.
There is so much more about Kobe that can evolve. But really, he doesn't need to move to Europe at all. The mere fact that he's open to the possibility signifies to me, that Kobe has finally started writing his own life.
I like how he talks about gold medals being bigger than NBA Titles. I like how he brushed aside the failure in the NBA Finals as if it wasn't a big deal. I think basketball is going to get to that point sometime, a la soccer, and have global championships show who really is the best. But most of all, I like how since Kobe added an MVP to his titles and first team All-NBA and all defense awards, he has set his eyes on something bigger.
I'm excited because we are finally seeing the birth of Kobe Bryant. Now we can finally stop with the Jordan comparisons, because both Kobe and I are sick of them.
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