Kobe

What a difference and year makes. My man Kobe last year was hoping not to go to jail and trying to win a championship. This year he is a free man but trying to figure out why he isn't in the playoffs. What happened? Well in my opinion:

1. Kobe needed to be humbled
Kobe is a great player. I feel he is the best in the league personally. But he though that basketball was all hard work and pride. An idea that was quickly dispelled when he started playing with a bunch of guys with much less talent than him and even less pride. Basketball is a skill, and even in its highest form like all other sports it is an art. You have to all work together yes, but you need to have a high level of skill and intelligence to play it and win. Just ask Chris Webber :-p.

2. Kobe benifited from Shaq.
I will be the first one to say Shaq is a jerk. He never embraced Kobe like he did with Dwayne Wade. And really I think the only reasons he has done that (something he also never did with Penny Hardaway) is he wanted it to see like he did try to take the time to get to know Kobe as well as the fact that he realizes he need a player like Dwayne to get him through the season. Shaq isn't giving you 82 games anymore. Hell, you be luckly from him to play in 70-75 games yet alone play hard in all of them. Wade can go off on the Knicks, Hawks, Lakers and other lesser teams in the league while Shaq can save himself for the TV games and Playoffs.

What I think Kobe did realize to a degree but not totally until he was gone is that Shaq for 50 games helped him more than Shaq for no games. People fear him. He gets doubled coming down the court. And that makes a difference. I'm not saying Kobe didn't get doubled either, but now teams can put 3 guys on him at all times. Which you can see by Kobe's turnovers this year. Shaq demand attention which helped him and now Wade do more things.

3. Karma
Nuff said.

4. All a part of the process.
If Kobe is as smart as I think he is, he had to go through something like this to become great. He had to learn how hard it was to do things alone to truely appricate the team concept. He has all the skills, now he just has to figure out how to make his team better instead of trying to be the greatest individual on he court at all times. Flow with the game and don't force it though you. As much as I hate Phil Jackson he understands that concept. He is an expert of finding ways to to trick people in to working together. That is one thing that if Kobe is smart he will remember and start using.