No matter the sport , all of us can appreciate greatness. It is a word in sports that is used too often but does not always apply to any particular situation. However when speaking of one Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers we are watching a great player who should be approaching the twilight of his career. We are watching an athlete whose skills should be clearly diminishing at 34 years old. We have seen it happen with many of his peers, some of them no longer in the NBA. Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, and let’s not forget the next Michael Jordan candidates Vince Carter and Grant Hill who are still hanging around as shells of their former selves . No indictment on those guys but they all aged well and saw their skills slowly dwindle away. What 34 year old Bryant is doing is highly unusual, we have seen it before in Michael Jordan who was still winning championships at this age and Kareem Abdul Jabbar was still a force as he approached 40. Currently Bryant is third in the NBA in scoring and shooting the highest percentage of his career. He still has the ability to rise over defenders and throw down vicious slam dunks, he still has his younger defenders watching in awe as he hits big shot after big shot. Greatness. That is what we are all witnessing with Bryant, we should all appreciate it while we can. It is easy to recognize in other sports as well, Jerry Rice and Brett Favre in the NFL who were able to be so great for so long, athletes who display that will to be the best, to train harder, to outlast their opponent like Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe in tennis, like Sugar Ray Leonard in boxing who flat out refused to quit in that first fight with Thomas Hearns. This is about that sheer desire to be the best and making the commitment to maintain that standard. Whether the LA Lakers make the playoffs or not this year is not the point here, it is the level of play of the Black Mamba with all of those years of wear and tear on that body. He defies logic. One would expect the games best player today LeBron James to dominate as he has, he is 28 and at the prime of his career. Bryant is another story all together. The seventeen year veteran is not showing many signs of slowing down. Father time will win in the end, last I checked he was undefeated. Nobody beats father time, but Kobe Bryant is giving him one helluva fight. We should all watch, appreciate and enjoy.
About Jeff Fox
Jeff is a diehard Laker and Raider fan, but he supports the Canes, Marlins, Heat and Dolphins just the same. Jeff Fox honed his radio skills as a host in the Bahamas on ZNS 3( under the name Jeff Williams ZNS-3 Freeport) . After moving to Miami, he has also held it down on radio and in the club circuit, going by the name DJ Jeff Fox “In the Box”!
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