The Kobe Bryant (maybe, possibly) farewell tour continues. After playing what might have been his last game at basketball’s most hyperbolic arena, Bryant is in Miami Tuesday for what could be his final head-to-head matchup against long-time rival and pal Dwyane Wade. And Wade wasn’t at all shy about heaping praise on Kobe, even to the point of downplaying both his own and a certain former teammate’s place in the NBA’s historical hierarchy. Via Michael Wallace of ESPN.com:
“I do feel — and I’ve said this before the last couple of years with LeBron [James], when he became the best player in our game — that Kobe Bryant is the greatest player of our era,” Wade said. “The Kobe Bryants aren’t around no more. There are good young players, but there will never be another Kobe. So every opportunity you get to [face him], you want to seize that moment.”
It’s a comment that almost certainly will be misconstrued as a slight to LeBron James, who some argue has overtaken Bryant as the definitive player of the last decade or so. But there’s an argument to be made that Kobe is from a slightly older generation. After all, he was already a hardened veteran who’d won three straight championships and was en route to four consecutive Finals appearances by the time LeBron entered the league as a precocious 18-year-old.
There’s no question that LeBron is the best player in the NBA and has been for several years now, but King James’ coronation has also coincided with a certain growing dismissiveness toward Bryant’s career accomplishments, which in case you haven’t been paying attention, have been considerable.
And perhaps there is a tinge of residual resentment to what Wade said. The subtext and implicitness of that comment are inescapable. That would be understandable as well, given LeBron’s abrupt departure from Miami in 2014. But maybe it’s also just a matter of poor pronoun usage. By opting for the first person plural pronoun “our,” he places all three of them in the same generation, which as we’ve pointed out, is debatable. Had he gone with the third person pronoun “his,” he would have positioned both himself and LeBron in a different generation and thereby reserved a No. 1 distinction for LeBron.
It’s also very likely that we’re reading way too much into this. And that’s the only thing for certain here: Wade’s comments are going to get blown way out of proportion.
(Via ESPN.com)
