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Hardwood Paroxysm Presents: NBA Free Agency Super-Overreactionizer

By HP Basketball Network

May 17, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) reacts after a play during the second quarter against the Houston Rockets in game seven of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
May 17, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) reacts after a play during the second quarter against the Houston Rockets in game seven of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jan 21, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) against the New Orleans Pelicans during a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Lakers 96-80. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 21, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) against the New Orleans Pelicans during a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Lakers 96-80. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /

The Lakers Mystique is Dead and Kobe Bryant Killed it

By Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh) — Hardwood Paroxysm

The Los Angeles Lakers are a brand and a basketball team, in a way that few others teams can lay claim to. This golden identity, and regal purple legacy, stretches back across decades. Their history is filled with championships and hall of famers, wrapped in the bright, shiny package of the Los Angeles life. Play for the Lakers and you get to be part of something much bigger than yourself, but can still stroke your personal ego with the trappings of sports stardom and a pop culture celebrity. The organization has long relied on this identity as a means for team building. Recruiting talent was easy–the best always came to them.

Well, all that crap is dead and Kobe Bryant killed it.

This offseason was the last gasp, but Kobe has been holding the Lakers’ mystique underwater for quite some time. For every step Kobe has lost, his hubris has grown. Always looking to Michael Jordan as a model, Kobe seems to have strangely honed in on the psychological torment Jordan wreaked on Kwame Brown as something worth repeating. He ruined the game of basketball for Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum. Like Count Rugen’s torture machine, Kobe’s badgering and bullying took years off Pau Gasol’s basketball life. After LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Monroe and DeAndre Jordan all opted against Kobe’s super-appealing offer of playing second-fiddle to his last few quixotic seasons of basketball, the Lakers offseason splashes have become Lou Williams, Brandon Bass and a trade for Roy Hibbert.

The best players don’t want to play for the Lakers any more. And they don’t want to play for the Lakers because they don’t want to play with Kobe Bryant. All the legacy in the world can’t gussy up the appeal of chasing 35 wins with a former all-time great whose greatness is almost completely sapped by a lack of awareness and humility. Why would anyone agree to spend the next few seasons getting yelled at by Kobe in practice, sniped at by Kobe in the media and shown up by Kobe during games? Why suffer through his parade of hurt and indignant pouty faces as you pass to an open player instead of him, or come up just short trying to block the shot of a player who arrived at the rim because of Kobe’s own defensive deficiencies? Legacy and a max contract just don’t cut it.

Kobe desperately wants to win games, he wants his team to be good. But he is so blind to his own strengths and weaknesses, and how those are perceived today, that he has robbed the Lakers of their biggest competitive advantage. The shroud of mystique has been pulled back. We can all see the man behind the curtain. It’s Kobe Bryant and he’s all by himself.

Next: David West Really Likes Winning

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