Sports Chatter

Allow me to re-introduce myself..! lol.

I'm back, I know it has been a minute. I was so busy catching up on school work that I procrastinated on all semester, preparing for graduation, graduating, celebrating(a little too much), moving out, moving on...etc, that I didn't really have the time to sit down and write like I want to. Now, I'm in Liberia for the summer - plotting my next move, working, studying for the LSAT, and mooching off my folks (c'mon, you know you all did it at some point). I've got nothing but time on my hands to search for inspiration and get my creative juices flowing - so on to the post..

I used to want to be a sports journalist - the next Michael Wilbon - until I realized to be successful it required more harassing, annoying, and pissing people off than I was willing to do (I've got this disdain for media types in general, definitely wasn't my cup of tea). However, my fascination with sports has not diminished at all. I probably spend more of my day looking up stats and reading sports articles than I do anything else (if you ask my girl she'll probably tell you that I spend more time on espn.com than I do with her..lol). This blog would be incomplete if it did not encompass my sports' obsession, so 'Sports Chatter' is my first foray into sports blogging - sports geeks should enjoy..

The NBA Playoffs has been dominating the sports circuit for the past month or so, with the prevailing topic of discussion being the anticipation of a dream finals matchup between Kobe and LeBron. David Stern is salivating over it, all fans (besides Nuggets and Magic fans) want it, and the media is begging for it. There is the vitamin water ads, the MVPuppet commercials, the countless atricles online and sports shows debating who's the better player.. really in the past couple weeks, I guarantee even if you hated basketball and avoided it like it was the bubonic plague you still have managed to see something pitting Kobe Bryant versus LeBron James.. and that brings me to the question.. Who is the better player?

Ultimately it's a matter of opinion, and if you ask any of the niggas who hang around me they will probably say my opinion is biased. So with that being said.. YES, I am a Kobe dick rider, and proud of it. If I was a white woman working at a hotel in Colorado and Kobe came in I would've willingly let him rape me, lol. At least I can admit it, some of my boys meat-ride LeBron so hard it borders on the fine line between heterosexuality and homosexuality, yet they claim to be just casual fans (Yes, you PJ....naah sike, you my nigga). I still feel like I can objectively debate the merits of the arguments for each player, so here goes..

See, The Black Mamba, is the definition of beauty on the basketball court. Bryant's work ethic, intensity, myriad of moves, impeccable fundamentals, and exceptional footwork is what seperates him from LeBron James and every other basketball player on the planet. I would argue that you could rank his footwork up at the top in terms of the best of all time. He has grown into an incredibly cerebral player, no longer just relying on his athleticism. However you want it, Kobe can give it to you. You can't resort to fouling him because he's wet from the charity stripe (Sidenote.. *Wet- lingo my boys and I use to describe just about anything.. a silky smooth J, how drunk we are - "Damn niggas was WET last night!", the degree of a female's arousal.. you get the point). To top it off, Kobe has the mentality of a mass murderer - he is Charles Manson on the basketball court. That killer instinct combined with his skills make him such a dangerous basketball player, ask just about anyone in the league who they fear most in games that matter and the answer would overwhelmingly be Bryant. He is as close to a lockdown defender as you'll get in an age of pro basketball defined by rules changes to boost offense (Even though surprisingly I think his defense is a little overrated - he roams too often, doesn't collect that many steals, and has a tendency to disrespect his man.. it's like c'mon Kobe these niggas are in the NBA, they can hit an open 12-footer. He's lockdown, but nowhere near lockdown in an M.J. or Scottie sense, or an Artest sense for that matter). Kobe's only weaknesses are himself and his sometimes questionable shot selection. His shot selection I can live with, I blame it on overconfidence; he attempts difficult shots because he feels he can make them (which a lot of the time he can), fact is though, that kind of shot selection isn't always conducive to efficiency on the basketball court. I can't live with his attitude; his attitude is what holds him back and gives credence to the arguments of his detractors. He has quit on his teammates, can become disengaged in any given game, and is quite frankly, universally recognized as an asshole.

Now on to LeBron. He is the only nigga who could tattoo "The Chosen One" on his body, and it literally be legit. It's as if God sat around one day and was like "Im bored, I'm going to create the prototypical basketball player - Jordan was an asshole, anyway". He is huge, strong, and fast as shit. Seriously, the man is probably 6'9" 270 pounds, and basket to basket with the ball in his hands might be fastest guy in the league. His athleticism is just fucking ridiculous - there is no way to even describe it, he's just a beast. Combine that with an incredible feel for the game, excellent court vision, unlimited range, and a love for the team concept and you've got the basketball Jesus. The man can play all five positions on the floor, defend all of them - and do it WELL. Everyone thinks I hate LeBron but I really don't (he is going to be better than Kobe to the point that it won't be an argument anymore, it's not a matter of if but when). He dominates games like we haven't seen since Shaq was in his prime. The easiest way to get a bucket is a dunk or layup, and LeBron can get to the hoop pretty much whenever he wants, making LeBron an incredibly efficient basketball player - Kobe doesn't have that luxury. However, I see it as a gift and a curse. LeBron gets so many easy buckets because of his athleticism that I think it is hindering the development of his overall offensive repertoire. While as when Kobe can't slash to the hoop to get easy buckets, he can kill you with his post game and the mid-range, LeBron can't do that.. and don't even get me started on the free throws (I just feel like for a player of his caliber it is inexcusable to shoot less than 80% from the free throw line..he missed five free throws in the fourth quarter of the last game, five! In a hotly contested game you can pretty much guarantee he'll start to brick them from the line, soon your going to start seeing Hack-A-Bron, you heard it here first). His offensive skill set is still somewhat in it's rudimentary stages.. his footwork definitely could use some development. His killer instinct is somewhat lacking in comparison to Kobe also - while LeBron treats games as if he is doing his own skit show, Kobe has the face of a gladiator in the coliseum. LeBron is by leaps and bounds a better teammate though, and can give you a lot more on the court than Kobe. He is a constant triple double threat, and will probably be the only player to even come close to Oscar Robertson's incredible feat of averaging a triple double for a whole season.

What the argument boils down to is the beauty or the beast, and in my case I've got to take the beauty. While you can attribute a lot of LeBron's skills to sheer athletic ability, the same cannot be said for Kobe. One game, One shot, One series.. in every hypothetical sense I'm taking Kobe over LeBron. But that's just me, the argument for LeBron is just as credible, and eventually at the end of his career we will be asking who is better Jordan or Bron Bron? ..but right now, The Black Mamba is still the king of the jungle.

What do you think? Check out this article, great in-depth piece, a couple of bloggers debating the arguments for each - http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-40-80/The-State-of-the-Great-Debate--Kobe-vs--LeBron-2009.html.