Kobe Bryant showed great leadership skills by calling out his teammates.

[eliteballer]

There's a difference between losing games, and losing control of a team and having players not showing up to play and being disruptive to the team.

guess which player loses control of the team year after year?

Guess which team is constantly having issues?

Guess which player wins championships year after year?

Guess which team is constantly winning championships?

[G-Funk]

Guess which player wins championships year after year?

Guess which team is constantly winning championships?

Kobe

Lakers

??? Too easy!

[FlashDwyaneWade3]

There's a difference between losing games, and losing control of a team and having players not showing up to play and being disruptive to the team.

guess which player loses control of the team year after year?

Guess which team is constantly having issues?

I wanna play the guessing game.

It's Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks!

[TheBigVeto]

It's not leadership, but rather, an insight to the future.

Kobe knew ahead of time he's not going to play well in game 7. So he tried to talk smack to Gasol and Bynum. His logic was, "I know these guys will play better than me in Game 7 and if I mention this to the media ahead of time I will look good". Mission accomplished.

That Kobe the Nostradamus, always got carried on Game 7s.

[HorryIsMyMVP]

I still stand by my comment. Gasol and Bynum hate Kobe. They stepped up because Magic Johnson was gonna push to blow up the team. It really had nothing to do with a Kobe comment when management is threatening to give you the axe.

[Dresta]

He did a better job in actually passing the ball and not trying to take every shot for once. Not surprising that in an elimination game even Kobe knows he can't win with Kobe ball.

[HorryIsMyMVP]

He did a better job in actually passing the ball and not trying to take every shot for once. Not surprising that in an elimination game even Kobe knows he can't win with Kobe ball.

lol he just threw his team under a bus then kept passing it to them. If anything Kobe has no risk here.

[RazorBaLade]

Narratives seem to rely much more on the result, rather than how it was achieved.

Did Kobe not say anything to fire his team up last year when they got swept? I'm sure he was saying the same shit in the locker room last year to them to at least win a game as he was saying this year to make sure they win the series and advance (for sure at least to Gasol).

Because they won, his leadership is top notch and he said all the right things...but because they lost last year it means.....nothing?

This isn't to say Kobe isn't a great leader because he is but suggesting this series is proof of it when last year wasn't, is just idiotic to me.

Doesn't this kind of thinking mean that there is never any good leadership? If a players team has ever lost, and every player has lost, does that mean he does not have the ability to be a good leader and says all the right things? No matter how many times its worked, just because sometimes it hasnt?

[Simple Jack]

Doesn't this kind of thinking mean that there is never any good leadership? If a players team has ever lost, and every player has lost, does that mean he does not have the ability to be a good leader and says all the right things? No matter how many times its worked, just because sometimes it hasnt?

No, you misunderstood my point. I'm trying to suggest that a one time thing can't be used as proof. Similar to my stance on players and a single performance...not much should be made about it in the overall analysis of a player. It was what it was.....one game. As this was, what it was....one series; specifically one game.

Using this single game as proof of Kobe's great leadership is silly to me, and my reasoning was something as simple as the result last year against Dallas. In order to see how well Kobe leads teams, I think it would be more wise to take a look at his career, a long one so far, rather than an individual series or game in a 15 year career that either side can use to argue for or against his effectiveness.

[LA_Showtime]

Kobe's actions spoke louder than his words. He played game seven the right way. He didn't force the issue and he made sure Gasol and Bynum got touches. While he didn't put up video-game numbers, he impacted the game in a lot of different ways.

Of course Kobe should always play the right way, but we all know that doesn't happen.

[Jimmy2k8]

The excuses are rolling in now.
Kobe called out his team, then they played well in game 7.

[Jimmy2k8]

I still stand by my comment. Gasol and Bynum hate Kobe. They stepped up because Magic Johnson was gonna push to blow up the team. It really had nothing to do with a Kobe comment when management is threatening to give you the axe.

If that were the case, wouldn't they have demanded a trade earlier in the season? You must have some inside info on why Gasol and Bynum hate Kobe. I am interested to hear this.

[andgar923]

Guess which player wins championships year after year?

Guess which team is constantly winning championships?

Everybody knows that Fisher was the true leader of those teams, and before that it was Shaq.

They also had Phil to contain them.

And besides that, they usually had the best teams.

Kobe was always known to be an introvert, he's known to push teammates aside for his own goals. Not saying that he's never been a leader... he's just not the caliber of leader that people love to portray him as.

Every season there seemed to be some issue with him or the Lakers. FISHER was always the leader on and off the court... not him.

[(e)]

Kobe knows his team better than anyone, especially anyone on ISH lol.

Some people react well to getting chewed out and called out. Others don't. Obviously Pau and Bynum reacted well to getting called out.

[andgar923]

I still stand by my comment. Gasol and Bynum hate Kobe. They stepped up because Magic Johnson was gonna push to blow up the team. It really had nothing to do with a Kobe comment when management is threatening to give you the axe.

EVERYBODY was on them!!!

And it wasn't as tho they were wrong, they themselves knew they didn't play up to par. Gasol has a history of not showing up one game and then play amazing there after, so it's nothing new. I guarantee it will happen again vs the OKC.

So Kobe said some things... yeah... so did everybody else in the media and the organization, they (Laker players) usually tune out Kobe anyway. They don't respect him, they're always throwing shots at him, specially Bynum.