Farewell to Arms
I’m pretty sure Hemingway wouldn’t mind if I would usurp the title of one of his most iconic books that took place in Italy, to describe Kobe’s last season.
All off-season long, Kobe tried to not answer it. Is it or isn’t it his last season? Well, he might be giving us the correct answers but surely he’s not passing the eye test.
First time he touched a basketball was at the age 3, in Philadelphia, where his father Joe “Jellybean” Bryant played his best years as a Sixer. However, it was in a town called Rieti, 80 km distant to Rome, in Italy, that Kobe started to understand what basketball was all about. He was getting VHS tapes with the NBA Finals games by mail and trying to memorize and emulate all the moves he was seeing. That’s also when his mind-set started to be fed.
We are lucky. We’ve seen 20 years of Kobe. But as every relationship, we should be there for the good and bad moments. And oh Boy, here are the bad one’s coming for Kobe. Once in a while we’ll have a good moment again, like Sunday against the Piston, where he nearly notched a triple double plus the win (17 pts, 9 ass, 8 reb). Those moments will make us dream and wonder if everything will be back to be the same again. It just won’t. At the end of the game, even the Black Mamba mind-set wasn’t there anymore.
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After the game, by the locker, Bryant said:
“I can barely stand up, my feet and legs are killing me. Physically as I stand, I’m not looking forward to walking to the car right now. Seriously. I’m not going to BS you. It’s tough.”
This was just after 36 minutes against the Pistons!
We can all dream about how our farewell tour it’s going to be. Look, MJ had 3 of them. He couldn’t decide. First one while he was at his peak. Second one as the Last Dance. And Third one as a Wizard, with father time calling him.
Kobe played 46 games in the last 3 years. I’m sure he doesn’t want to end his career. He was always a freak of nature. He once went for a 40 mile bike ride overnight through the desert, came back www.cialis5mgbestprice.com/ at 2am, at 7h30 he was back at the gym working out. Even Blake Griffin couldn’t believe it. He had to ask him personally to believe. He’s Kobe!! He doesn’t know how to be any other way unless his body doesn’t allow him to. That’s what’s happening right in front of our eyes.
Kobe is currently averaging 16.3 points per game, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists – figures well below his career averages. He’s shooting a dreadful 32% overall and an even poorer 21% from behind the arc. He’s in love with the three point shot. Of course he is. It’s the easiest way for him to attack the basket right now.
We don’t need stats. Eye test is showing us how slow he’s defensively in rotations and that’s just fine because he’s Kobe. We all know that if he could, he would be doing it faster, better, perfect, because he always left everything he had on the floor.
This could be a Farewell to Arms or a Hello to swansong. You pick. Either way, stand up and applaud. It’s Kobe. Our sons will ask us how it was to watch Kobe play.
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