[Edge34]

For what its worth, I haven't watched many Lakers games, mainly because I'm from Minnesota and also because watching that pitiful team would make me want to gag. The NBA as a whole is not very interesting to me anymore outside of whether or not the Pacers are doing anything good, and I can see that on SportsCenter.

Kobe has made it clear for a long time that he needs to be the biggest star on a team. I know that he's the best player on that team by such a long margin its unbelievable. But you can't win a title by yourself. He's proven that without Shaq. Jordan didn't do it all by himself either - he had Pippen as another huge star, and guys like Cartwright and Paxson backing him up. To me, there's a difference between knowing you're the man in the clutch, which Kobe is by far, and knowing that you can use your talent to help make the team better. Hucking up 1800 shots and barely making the playoffs isn't doing it.

I'm sure Kobe is content to sit back and say "look at what I've got around me", but they're NBA players, and if they actually played like a team they'd probably be even better. Nash has guys like Stoudamire, Diaw, and Barbosa backing him up, but when its time to help them out, he does it. Kobe has the skill to play more like Nash and still be a huge scorer, but he doesn't do it.

Long post somewhat shorter - Kobe isn't helping any of those "bad" guys get any better by shooting every time he touches the ball. They're not particularly good, but not every championship team is going to be run by 5 superstars. The Utah Jazz are doing very well this year with a starting 5 of Deron Williams, Derek Fisher, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, and Andrei Kirilenko. None of them are anywhere near the status of Kobe Bryant, but they win by making each other better.