For both fans and foes alike, Kobe Bryant’s tragic, unexpected exit from the game of basketball was a shock. With a completed career and maximized life now fully available for review in retrospect, it’s time for a take from a Utah Jazz fan — yours truly.
I never liked Kobe Bryant.
And truth be told, you wouldn’t have needed any kind of formal detective training to pick up on my disdain for the guy as a professional basketball player.
If you’d ever had the displeasure of watching him take on the Utah Jazz with me from the comfort of a living room couch, you would’ve witnessed me repeatedly screaming at the television, throwing (throw) pillows and passionately cursing his on-court dominance.
There are plenty of these out there, but just to bring up a few painful memories …
The Jazz started the 2006 regular season on a 13-3 tear.
With Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko, they weren’t only one of the best teams out West, but in all of the NBA. On November 30 in Los Angeles, however, Kobe would remind Utah that he owned them — come the final whistle, he’d amassed 52 points on a mere 26 shots.
During the first game of the second round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs, Kobe set a personal tone for the series against Utah, scoring 38 points. What drove me most mad was that 21 of those came at the line — very “James Harden” of him, don’t you think?
The performance would prove to be no fluke, though, as Kobe’s six-game scoring totals were 38, 34, 34, 33, 26 and 34. The Lakers took down the Jazz in six games.
And of course, in his final game, Kobe dropped 60 points against Utah — his career’s fourth-highest scoring total. And if that wasn’t enough to grind the gears of Jazz fans everywhere, he made sure to do it in the most “Kobe” way possible, jacking a career-high 50 shots to get there.
See what I mean? Frustrating.
But even outside of Salt Lake City, I wasn’t alone with how I felt about him …
If you weren’t a lifetime Lakers fan, born and raised in the city of Los Angles or a Hollywood celebrity with courtside seats, there’s a good chance you felt the same way about Kobe as I did.
Still don’t believe me?
Run a quick Google search query for “most hated NBA players of all time.”
When you do, the first result you’ll get back will be to a Bleacher Report article written over a decade back. The usual suspects make an appearance: Isiah Thomas, Reggie Miller, Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace and The King himself, LeBron James.
Number one on the list, though?
Yup, you guessed it — Kobe.
So, as a Jazz fan, how will I remember Kobe?
It won’t be for the heartbreaking way he, Gianna and seven others lost their lives on Sunday morning. It certainly won’t be for the five NBA championships he won with the Lakers over a number of wildly talented Jazz teams. And though consequence requires a responsible bearing in mind, it also won’t be for what took place in Eagle, Colorado nearly 17 years ago.
It will, however, be for the pure hatred — and a hint of admiration, of course — I had for him as the league’s fiercest competitor. I’ve never personally met Kobe, but if he were still around today, I really don’t think he’d have it any other way.
It was Kobe himself who once said:
"“It’s strange the idea we’re heroes or villains. We’re really a combination of both. It depends on what perspective you’re looking at it from.”"
Respectfully, I’ll always view Kobe as a villain. The “free agency destination” of Tinseltown against the small market team in the mountains. That said, it’s easy to see why many view him as a hero, too.
As members of #TakeNote Nation, we loved to hate him; now, we’ll forever miss what he brought to the game of basketball.
“Mamba out.”