Jason Whitlock

[chinakobefan]

Kobes ego is Lakers big problem

Updated Dec 18, 2012 12:14 PM ET


FoxSports.com

Jason Whitlock





The return of Pau Gasol and Steve Nash to the lineup is likely to mask most, if not all, the symptoms afflicting the underachieving Los Angeles Lakers. But the perennial all-stars will do nothing to address the disease lurking deep inside the foundation of the Lakers, the malady that will prevent the high-priced collection of veterans from getting past the Thunder, Spurs or even the Grizzlies come playoff time.

The disease isn’t bungling, overmatched executive vice president Jim Buss. It’s not bungling, overmatched coach Mike D’Antoni.

The root cause of the Lakers’ dysfunction has been consistent for 15 years. It is Kobe Bryant’s ego, his desperate pursuit of Michael Jordan’s legacy. L.A.’s Dwight Howard experiment is going to explode and implode in spectacular fashion unless someone in the Lakers organization is bold enough to kill Kobe’s Michael Jordan avatar so that Howard’s Bill Russell avatar can emerge and lead the Lakers.

You follow?

The wrong player is driving the Lakers. Dwight Howard is the second-most talented player in the league. He’s the single-most gifted defensive player the NBA has seen since Bill Russell. On a properly functioning, championship-chasing team, Howard cannot be a sidekick, a No. 2, Scottie Pippen. Can’t happen. The Heat tried it with LeBron James in Year 1 of the Big Three, and we know how that ended. Dwyane Wade is an awesome basketball player and a terrific leader, but he had to surrender the soul of the Heat to LeBron in order for the Heat to win a title.

Kobe has to let go and let D12. Has to.

Kobe has to accept that he is not the 34-year-old Michael Jordan. You see, at 34 Jordan was taking his final victory lap in Chicago, completing his second three-peat, securing his sixth title, winning his fifth MVP award and 10th scoring title. Kobe wants to duplicate that feat. He’s putting up MVP-like numbers. He leads the league in scoring. He’s shooting a career-high .478 percent from the field. He’s averaging five rebounds and five assists. He’s knocking down 38 percent of his three-pointers. Oh, the numbers look great. The results? The Lakers stink.




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You can blame that on the injuries to Gasol and Nash. You can blame it on the incompetence of D’Antoni.

I blame Kobe. He’s the guy stopping Howard from eating. Kobe is the guy giving Howard room to lose himself in his immaturity and hide. Here’s what Kobe has never understood about the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s an organization built to house and nurture giants. From George Mikan to Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaquille O’Neal, the Lakers function best when the once-in-a-generation big man the organization acquires is allowed to be the man of the house.

Kobe emasculates his big men. Andrew Bynum politely admitted this week that Kobe stunted his growth.

“I think Dwight is a great player, but he’s going to have to get accustomed to playing with Kobe and not touching the ball every single play,” Bynum said.

The problem is deeper than touches. It’s a mentality that a big man must have in order to lead his team. Dwight Howard must enter every NBA arena with this mindset: “If I don’t hunt and kill, no one eats tonight.”

That’s Kobe’s mindset. But at 34, having played 1,186 regular-season games and 220 playoff games, Kobe doesn’t hunt and kill as effectively as Howard. Kobe isn’t the same as a 34-year-old Jordan. At this stage in his career, Jordan had played 873 regular-season games and 158 playoff games. Jordan was still a force of nature. Don’t get fooled by Kobe’s numbers. He’s not Kevin Durant or Carmelo Anthony, and Kobe damn sure isn’t LeBron James.

James, Durant and Melo can impose their will on the opposition. Over the course of a seven-game playoff series, they can mentally bludgeon an opponent into submission. We saw James do it to the Pacers and the Celtics in last year’s playoffs. Kobe is smart. He can be efficient. But he’s trying too hard right now. That’s why he leads the league in turnovers with 97. Kobe’s days of imposing his will in a playoff series are over. Howard’s days should just be beginning.




Why is this guy still able to write professionally? Nothing he says ever makes sense. Kobe has five national championships. If anyone is an expert on how to win championships, it's Kobe.

I remember when Jason Whitlock predicted that the Orlando Magic would defeat the Lakers in the finals because Dwight Howard is the second coming of Bill Russell. Whitlock should've been fired after the end of the finals that year. I want to start a petition to remove him from the sports world. I hope Shaq kicks his a&&!

[Laker fan in OZ]

Amnesty Kobe

[gdagreat]

Bench Kobe

[CLASSOF72]

IDK? Kobe is Kobe and in fifteen years five chips is getting pretty close to the mark? How many other players have been a key part of five chips? I agree it's impossible to have Kobe in your line up and run your system the way you intended, but thats how Kobe plays. PJ figured it out Jimbaco got the tallent here I think it's up to the coach and maybe a little of Mitch and Baco to get the roster tweeked but how do you say Kobe is the root of failure when teams still struggle to stop him? I think it's the coach who needs to meet Kobe half way in figuring out what to do with what he does.

[jsthornton7]

amnesty this thread

[Hellcrooner]

truth hurts.

[bluefire7002]

He's known for being a Kobe hater lol

[magic0320]

lol then why kobe has so many fans if he is such a terrible player?

[gocoachmike]

amnesty this thread

Exactly!!!

[Lakersfan2483]

Yeah let's turn the team over to Howard, who by his own admission is only about 75 pct. healthy. Yeah let's turn the team over to a guy that other team's can foul intentionally when the game is on the line and he won't make free throws when it all matters.......... Whitlock's column is absolute garbage and it shows he doesn't know what is going on in the Lakers' lockeroom and it also shows his limited understanding of basketball.

Dwight Howard is a great player and a superstar in this league, but he's coming off a major back surgery and cannot carry a team right now. He also has major limitations when it comes to the free throw line. These are facts that CANNOT be overlooked. Now that doesn't mean he won't be the face of the franchise, but it does mean that he isn't ready at this moment for obvious reasons.

[shep33]

Stupid article to an extent. Kobe's fga were around what? 17 per game before Pau got hurt? His fga are up to 20.6 but he's making 48% of his shots so its not what's killing us right now. That 20.6 is up because of this stretch and it was 23 per game last year.

Nash will cause that to dip. Remember during this stretch Jamison has been brutal. Legit options are Metta, Meeks and Dwight, and Dwight has been getting doubled a lot lately. I don't like Kobe shooting more than 20 times a game, ever. But you can't give the ball to Dwight who is getting doubled and already has had some problems on the block this year. If anything I would've given the ball to Metta more on the block.

Let's remember that Kobe has a 26 PER... pretty darn good. That's 4th in the league

[shep33]

Yeah let's turn the team over to Howard, who by his own admission is only about 75 pct. healthy. Yeah let's turn the team over to a guy that other team's can foul intentionally when the game is on the line and he won't make free throws when it all matters.......... Whitlock's column is absolute garbage and it shows he doesn't know what is going on in the Lakers' lockeroom and it also shows his limited understanding of basketball.

Great points.

[chinakobefan]

I'm an American expat living in China. Kobe's likeness is on the carton of the most popular brand of milk here. That's means, at any given moment, millions of Chinese children are looking at Kobe right before they take a sip of milk.

And as for handing the offense over to Dwight, Whitlock must not be watching a lot of Laker games these days. Nearly every time he gets the ball down low, he either gets stripped or fouled to go to the line and we know what happens next.

[Lakersfan2483]

truth hurts.

No, it doesn't because there is nothing factual in what he wrote.

[lakers4sho]

who's this scrub?