Mastodon @Los Angeles Lakers D’Angelo Russell compares LeBron James and Kobe Bryant’s auras in the NBA: “Bron’s more involved with everybody, with everything. On the bus he’s social, on the plane he’s social. I sat next to [Kobe] on the plane. He never talked, he was real to himself”
(via Pat Bev Pod)
by Crowxzn
16 Comments
If you watched the Redeem Team documentaries, you’d find out how immense both of them are as leaders despite stark differences in personality.
Would’ve made a perfect good cop bad cop duo
DLo gotta think of the timelines
In 2015 Kobe doesn’t have Gasol, isn’t on a championship level team in year 19.
Lebron on the other hand, has had a championship contending level team arguably since his last 2 seasons of his initial Cleveland stint.
I’m so not the hugest Kobe fan, and yes he was difficult & stern. But I wouldn’t compare those two men. Of course one will have higher moral.
This isn’t anything new. It’s been documented by several people from the inside and it’s pretty obvious from the outside. LeBron has always been that guy with the handshakes and the dancing and the jokes.
He isn’t called the Black Mamba for nothing.
That’s because you sent inappropriate ravens.
So basically, Lebron is a great leader who unites the team and Kobe is a whiny baby who’s ego exceeds his team’s importance
silent killer
This needs context. D’angelo Russell explained that Kobe already announced retirement at that point and was working on his book and other ventures related to retirement. Russell said he didn’t see Kobe at his competitive peak so that’s probably the reason why his view on playing with Kobe is that way.
I love Kobe but he felt victim to the ’90s Jordan mentality of “I need to be an a**hole to win”. People looking at it as a strength but I’ve always looked at it as a weakness.
Many of the greatest players of all time (Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, LeBron James to name a few) showed that you can be kind (and even outgoing and funny) and still be taken seriously as a leader. The whole silent, brooding teammate thing seems like it’d be incredibly obnoxious to be around on a daily basis.
I wonder if his later years were just a case of his teammates being half his age. Those Gasol championship teams I doubt were less social. I imagine he was chopping it up with DFish and Pau on the regular
I know this won’t be a popular opinion but I’ve never liked the stuff I heard from the young guys who are around Kobe late in his career. It seems like Kobe never went out of his way to help young guys like Russell and Randle develop. Kobe didn’t talk to these guys, and sometimes even traveled separately. Imagine if you were rookie and the leader of your team, one of the greatest players of all time, won’t even talk to you.
There is also the story about Kobe walking into locker room before the trade deadline and saying “half of you guys are going to get traded”. Seems like he was a crappy teammate later in his career.
I understand that he was frustrated that he was ending his career on one of the worst teams in the league but that’s no reason to take it out on young guys.
Still love Kobe, still my favorite player ever, but I view this as a black mark on his resume.
Lebron is the benevolent king
Kobe is the warlord conqueror iron fist type
Kobe didn’t want Dlo to sneak record some videos
And there is nothing wrong with that.
And there is nothing wrong with that.