Troop's Takes: Why I just can’t root for Kobe Bryant during the NBA finals
By Caleb Troop
June 5, 2008
The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are set to tip off game one of the NBA Finals tonight. I’ve thought long and hard about predicting such a neck-and-neck series between two essentially even teams.
Do I go with the Celtics after their offseason acquisitions by General Manager Danny Ainge brought 66 wins and hope to the city of Boston this season?
Or do I side with the West Coast Lakers as guard Kobe Bryant looks for ring number four and Head Coach Phil Jackson title number 10 to pass the legendary Red Auerbach?
And then all I could hear were those boos. Remember?
After a tumultuous offseason in which Bryant demanded a trade and denounced a teammate in a Youtube video, the hometown faithful lustily booed Bryant during a 95-93 loss opening night Oct. 30 at the Staples Center against Houston.
Seven months later, I’m expected to forget about the childish trade requests made by Bryant this past offseason? I’m supposed to root for the same guy who pushed Shaq out of town in 2004?
While I truly think Bryant is the best player in the game right now, I just can’t get over what he has done away from the hardwood. For that reason, I won’t be rooting for the Lakers.
It was the Lakers who stuck with Bryant even after he was accused of sexual assault following an incident with a female in Eagle, Colo., in 2003.
But in late May of 2007 Bryant was doing anything but backing up the franchise that has protected him, provided for him and made him. He demanded a trade on one radio station, and then three hours later retracted the request on a separate radio station. A controversial offseason firestorm erupted. Bryant broke the hearts of a city that had done so much to mold Kobe into the superstar that he is today.
Now, in early June, life is good with Bryant’s first MVP award in hand. You haven’t heard any boos for months now from Laker fandom.
Winning sure does make you forget about all the bad things, doesn’t it?
I realize this is the world we live in with sports. We forgive and move on way too easily. But that doesn’t mean it’s not disgusting. The Lakers could very well win this series, but I can’t really root for this selfish scorer.
It ain’t happening.
Of course Lakers fans will argue that Boston fans are just as fair-weathered as anyone else. The Celtics were in the bottom third of the league in home attendance last season, averaging about 86 percent capacity at TD Banknorth Garden Arena, as Boston stumbled to a 24-58 record. This season the Celtics averaged nearly 2,000 more fans per home game. Ainge’s ability to go out and make the big trade and spend some dough has changed the atmosphere up East, and thus the fans responded.
But it’s different with Lakers fans. Celtics fans supported a franchise that made a statement of commitment this offseason, bringing in high-character guys like Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to join Paul Pierce.
Lakers fans, meanwhile, quickly saw that Kobe was producing a winner, forgot about all the absurd statements that were uttered in the offseason, and jumped on the bandwagon.
I’ll be pulling for the Celtics because if I rooted for Bryant’s Lakers I’d be backing something I despise — a lack of loyalty.
On the court, Boston will take home the title because of the home-court advantage Head Coach Doc Rivers has, and because they might actually know how to slow down Bryant. We saw what Pierce and company did against LeBron James in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
James was irrelevant in games one and two of that series, and ended up shooting 35.5 percent for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He had the second-worst field-goal percentage of any NBA scoring champ in a playoff series.
Ever.
That is not to say the Celtics will do the same against Kobe, but I like their chances more than anybody else.
Boston is hungrier, and that whole home-court advantage thing, as Ron Burgundy would say, is kind of a big deal. Boston will win the series in six games.
I don’t see how any basketball fans with no ties to either franchise could even contemplate rooting for Bryant and the Lakers.
I sure won’t be.
Caleb Troop is the sports columnist for The Athens NEWS and can be reached at ctroop@TroopSports.com. He co-hosts “The SportsFan” weeknights from 6-7 on 970 WATH-AM in Athens.
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