Does it make it difficult to root for Kobe ...

fair enough. and when they're caught, they get on the list, too.

edit: and, frankly, I look down on adulterers more than on drug cheats. cheating a game isn't quite the same as cheating the person you've pledged your life to.

 

He's a Laker - Strike 1

He's a rapist - Strike 2

He's well-versed in the I'm Innocent Act when he knows what he's doing is a jerk move - Strike 3

Can't stand him, but he's still the best closer in the NBA. Certainly not the best Laker ever, but the league's best crunch-time shot maker right now.

 

If I stopped rooting for athletes because they are adulterers they may not be anyone, aside from AC Green, left.

 

like I said, ross - it's just the way I roll. and, again, the rape trumps all anyway.

 

I know, I meant to put a smiley at the end of that, I was trying to be funny.

 

Just think of this all-time adulterer team.
Magic.
Jordan.
Kobe.
Bird.
Chamberlain --- well I don't know if was actually married, but sweet lord, at some point on his quest for 20,000 his "relationships" likely overlapped.

That's a great starting five. And then you could have AC Green coming off the bench just to help a bit with karma.

 

Key words there are "right now."

The Lakers, ironically, have had a few of the best ever in that department, haven't they? And again, Kobe may not be the best among just them.

Jerry West -- Mr. Clutch, himself -- quickly comes to mind, and Robert Horry was pretty good, too, when it came to crunch-time heroics.

 

I don't think you're ever gonna get that answer, dawg. Not that anyone was owed the answer. 8)

 

For sure.

 

You know, I just don't care for his game. Kobe, that is.

Can't quite put my finger on it, but it well predates the Colorado business.

I notice at 82games.com that Kobe has missed the most potential game-winning shots of anyone in the league during the run of his career. Maybe that's it, I dunno.

Or maybe just the sense I have that he doesn't, to my eye, elevate the players around him the way I'd expect an All Time Great to do.

 

I don't think he's much of a teammate-elevator, either. Teammates seem to get out of his way instead of play off of him, as opposed to LeBron James, Chris Paul, Tim Duncan.

Dwyane Wade's the same way.

 

This thread was based on a faulty premise, that the sex was clearly non-consensual. That point has never been crystal clear, so it's a loaded premise designed for someone to create a strawman to bash the crap out of.

But to the point that's evolved from that sophistry: I am not sure I like Kobe as a person, for many reasons, but as a stone-cold clutch player, there is none better right now. He doesn't mainly rocket by people to the basket or muscle inside to dunk garbage, both of which he could do. He faces up against a defender on the outside, lets him get right up close to him, then creates just enough room to bury a jumper just beyond the defender's fingertips. All with a scowl that indicates he really doesn't get enjoyment from the game, but from getting the best of someone. As I told a friend, Artest's BS against him was so stupid, making Kobe even more intense than usual and thus more lethal.

So I respect him as a player and enjoy watching the gears crank in his head. Off the court, the less said, the better. That all an athlete owes, his or her best in competition. The same way all a politician owes us is doing stuff that's in our best interest.