I picked up Phil Jackson's "The Last Season" today and am already a couple of chapters into it. It's quite an interesting read; it doesn't necessarily portray Kobe in the most positive way but it's not exactly a smear campaign either. Phil seems to admit fault and blame himself for the way he handled various situations. Perhaps I'll post a review and some noteworthy quotes once I'm finished so we can all discuss (I said discuss, not flame!

) it sometime.
j.23 wrote:you have shaq dissing kobe in a radio interview/mixtape whatever, and you have phil blasting kobe in his book. wow that's a really manly thing to do.
While I'm not saying that Shaq's approach is necessarily admirable or that Phil's side of the story is without a doubt the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, would you describe Sam Smith's "Jordan Rules" the same way? While it would be foolish to declare the entire book a work of fiction, is Sam Smith not taking a similar approach in an attempt to denounce a famous basketball player and "expose the truth" as it were?
I apologise for bringing up that famous former basketball player who once played for an NBA team based in Illinois, but the criticisms and the subsequent criticisms of the criticisms has been interesting. There's no question that the media is milking Kobe for all he's worth at the moment, but it's hardly unprecedented. That famous former basketball player took his share of harsh words, and the reaction was somewhat different.
While books such as the Jordan Rules have "exposed the real Michael Jordan" and considered to be completely truthful and justified (perhaps only because they present a different side of the story and differ from the traditional sporting celebrity worship), criticisms and accusations lobbed at Kobe get played down as "hating". While I empathise with Kobe fans and Lakers fans about the true hating that has gone on the last few years, I feel I must point out that it was only six years ago that "hating" was widely considered to be "telling the truth", which I find to be a frustrating double-standard.
So much Kobe criticism is defused with phrases such as "Give him a break", "Kobe is Innocent!", "Shaq and/or Phil is/are just bitter" and so on and so forth. He is given the benefit of the doubt, and rightfully so. We tend to judge celebrities by a different standard. But I think the media and the public was just as hard, if not harder on Michael Jordan and as I noted before, the reaction was quite different.
It was more of a case of "Ah, so that's how he really is!", "So much for him being a nice guy" and "Man, what an asshole!". The criticisms and accusations were more readily accepted, condemning fingers were pointed. That's not to say that Michael Jordan is perfect or has never been in the wrong. But for all the wonderful things that have been said about him, he's been held to some unfair double standards as well.
When the rape allegations arose, Kobe was given the benefit of the doubt. That's only fair. Though I can't be sure, I highly doubt he's guilty of rape. But he still received the benefit of the doubt, the cries of "Kobe's Innocent!" and the alleged victim was dubbed a golddigger. When Michael Jordan gambled in a casino with his father, an act this is completely legal (though in some people's eyes, somewhat poorly timed), there was an air of "How dare he?!?".
Criticisms of Kobe Bryant's game and in particular his scoring are usually brushed aside because "MJ was a ballhog at that age too". Jordan's fondness for scoring was never really justified in the same manner with comparisons to guys like Wilt Chamberlain and Dominique Wilkins. Reports of Kobe being a bad teammate must be false. Any accounts of Jordan's huge ego and selfishness must be true. I know not everyone holds this to be true but it's a double standard that pops up from time to time and as a longtime fan of Michael Jordan, it does irk me a little.
My point is not that Kobe should be blasted or that he's evil or anything like that, it's just interesting that he keeps getting the benefit of the doubt while similar comments about another player some ten years ago were more readily accepted as gospel. I do think that Kobe would benefit from following MJ's example in 1993 however: backing off from the media would really help. From the other discussions in the forum, I know a lot of other people feel that way and I'm far from the first person to suggest it.
Once again, I apologise for bringing up Michael Jordan in a Kobe discussion, but unfortunately I am prone to blurting these things out when I see what I perceive to be a link between the two.
On Topic Edit:
If Kobe truly intends to apologise to Shaq then all I can say is that's admirable that he'd like to make amends now that Shaq's moved on. I can't and won't find fault with that (as if it's my place to judge him in the first place). Whether Shaq will be as willing to heal the rift is yet to be seen, but Shaq is entitled to his own beliefs and feelings too, so I can't and won't fault him for his stance either.