Lakers survive drama-filled journey to this point
Only quarterbacks, goaltenders and Alex Rodriguez are exclusively blamed for playoff failures the way the NBA's leading men are.
In Minnesota, Kevin Garnett was judged too reticent. In Houston, Tracy McGrady is known as Mr. One-and-Done.
In Cleveland, LeBron James caught an alarming amount of flak for passing to open teammates against Detroit last year, even though that's a basic basketball fundamental. Then James backhandedly proved the critics right by slamming Detroit with 48 points in Game 6.
Dallas' collapse against Golden State was a team and franchise effort, but the bricks of criticism fell mostly on Dirk Nowitzki. And O'Neal and Wilt Chamberlain were haunted by their own playoff stumblings, plus those of their teammates.
Bryant is also following a rich tradition of diva behavior. The world has forgotten that Magic Johnson went abracadabra and got Paul Westhead fired.
Jason Kidd pried open the trapdoor for Byron Scott in New Jersey (gee, how's that working out?). Karl Malone set a Western Hemisphere record for number of renegotiated contracts. Isiah Thomas was not exactly low-maintenance.
And Jordan regularly warred against his teammates and his general manager hardly imagining that selecting a player might be a bit more complicated than it appears - i.e., Charlotte, under Jordan, picking Adam Morrison over Rudy Gay and Brandon Roy in 2006.
It's much harder to find a prominent NBA franchise that ran harmoniously on and off the court. The `04 Pistons? Yeah, but they were an ensemble, like the `70 and `73 Knicks.
The Celtics and Lakers of the `80s? Their stars were different. They had a league to revive and they were pitted almost solely against each other.
Besides, Johnson and Larry Bird were surrounded by stars themselves.
Within that frame, Bryant's behavior during the years hasn't been out of context. Just more grandiose, like everything else he does. We never realized we'd get old watching him grow up before our eyes, but we have and he has, and we've lived long enough to hear Bryant say that he wouldn't be what he is without the other Lakers around him. Then the game starts, and he demonstrates that the vice is versa.
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(c) 2008, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.). Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.
