It seems that quite some time ago, Kobe Bryant was a full-blown spazz back in Los Angeles. He wanted to be traded to who knows where, he wasn't on amicable speaking terms with the Lakers GM & even his teammates, among other things...Kobe was on a huge ego trip we thought he'd never get off of. Not only that, but in a talent-laden Western Conference, we felt that Kobe & company would never be able to compete with the likes of Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, or the Spurs in general.
Fast forward to now: couldn't we have been more wrong. This season, Kobe could best be seen as a Renaissance Man, making a triumphant comeback for the ages. True, he's still the star of the show but this time around, he's getting help from his fellow teammates (one issue he fumed about no end last summer) & the Lakers are playing some of their best hoops since the good ol' days when Shaq was in town. (If only they had Shaq in a Lakers uniform again instead of him playing for those dreaded Suns...ugh.)
Who says attitudes can't change for the better? Well, Kobe has found redemption in more ways than one this season; he can still score points like a mofo but he's gained some selflessness in doing so. Sure, all eyes are still on the franchise player, the man of the hour. But lately, we haven't heard him pouting & fuming that the Lakers are underachieving. We haven't heard him screaming for an early exit, a move over to Chicago or Cleveland. The way things have gone with the Lakers for 2008, it looks like life is going Kobe's way. Not exactly, but from the way Los Angeles has been playing thus far, life is once more beginning to look good in Lakers land.
And no YouTube rants of Kobe asking us if we're kidding him or not: this year L.A. is a hoops force to be reckoned with & rightly so.
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