Kobe Discussion: shark swimming / #prayforthesharks (664)

MadMax wrote:

Leadership is responsibility.
There comes a point when one must make a decision. Are YOU willing to do what it takes to push the right buttons to elevate those around you? If the answer is YES, are you willing to push the right buttons even if it means being perceived as the villain? Here's where the true responsibility of being a leader lies. Sometimes you must prioritize the success of the team ahead of how your own image is perceived. The ability to elevate those around you is more than simply sharing the ball or making teammates feel a certain level of comfort. It's pushing them to find their inner beast, even if they end up resenting you for it at the time.

I'd rather be perceived as a winner than a good teammate. I wish they both went hand in hand all the time but that's just not reality. I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.

This is my way. It might not be right for YOU but all I can do is share my thoughts. It’s on YOU to figure out which leadership style suits you best.

Will check back in with you soon.. Till then
Mamba out

This is my way. It might not be right for YOU but all I can do is share my thoughts. It’s on YOU to figure out which leadership style suits you best.

This is my way. It might not be right for YOU but all I can do is share my thoughts. It’s on YOU to figure out which leadership style suits you best.

MadMax wrote:

Leadership is responsibility.
There comes a point when one must make a decision. Are YOU willing to do what it takes to push the right buttons to elevate those around you? If the answer is YES, are you willing to push the right buttons even if it means being perceived as the villain? Here's where the true responsibility of being a leader lies. Sometimes you must prioritize the success of the team ahead of how your own image is perceived. The ability to elevate those around you is more than simply sharing the ball or making teammates feel a certain level of comfort. It's pushing them to find their inner beast, even if they end up resenting you for it at the time.

I'd rather be perceived as a winner than a good teammate. I wish they both went hand in hand all the time but that's just not reality. I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.

This is my way. It might not be right for YOU but all I can do is share my thoughts. It’s on YOU to figure out which leadership style suits you best.

Will check back in with you soon.. Till then
Mamba out

KEVIN DING ‏@KevinDing

Brown called Kobe "spectacular at times defensively" tonight. Also praised Nash on D: "I like the way he's been defending."

Doc Brown wrote:

intuitivelOve wrote:

Different speculations on what is going on with Kobe and his wife have been floating around, and with this footage, we are able to confirm that not only is the marriage on the rocks, but Kobe is living all alone in the doghouse. By the looks of it, Vanessa is definitely regulating on Kobe, and continues to punish him for recent scandals. She has also stopped wearing her $4 million wedding band, according to several reports.

http://www.starzuncut.com/2012/10/13/kobe-bryant-split-with-wife-living-alone-and-possibly-heading-for-divorce/

WoW....

For me, the most striking part of Smush's 40-minute interview on the Hard 2 Guard podcast was the very beginning, when he says, "It makes me blush — for my name to still come out of that man's mouth?" Incredulous, frustrated, Smush has a weary air that says "Can't Kobe just let me move on with my career?" Of course, the answer is no, and Smush seems to know by now that whatever he says to defend himself, the deck of public opinion is stacked in Kobe's favor. Kobe is the NBA legend. He's the player who'll likely be competing for an NBA championship this season. He's the guy to whom reporters can't afford to lose access. Kobe's mouthpiece is ESPN, Lakers.com, and the Los Angeles Times. Smush's mouthpiece is Hard 2 Guard. It doesn't matter if Smush is right, because Kobe is bigger than him, and Kobe is better than him, and the NBA needs Kobe.

But Smush is right. Kobe's record as a teammate is not a pretty one, and it grows out of a mind-set that Smush described on the podcast: "Basketball is a team sport … It's not tennis or golf, it is a team sport. When you are the star of the team, you have to make your teammates feel comfortable. You have to make them feel welcome. And he did not do that at all."

Not only did he make them feel unwelcome, but over the years Kobe has joyfully attacked lesser teammates and treated fellow Lakers stars like rivals instead of allies. There's the Smush smear campaign, the recent clowning of Jodie Meeks, and the way Kobe mocked DJ Mbenga's English4 on Jimmy Kimmel Live after the 2010 championship. Kobe also drove Shaq out of town and, in the midst of Kobe's 2003 rape trial, outed Shaq's marital infidelities. Kobe has publicly questioned nearly every basketball decision-gone-wrong that Pau Gasol has made in a Lakers jersey, including making last year's "Pau's got to be more assertive" speech after the Lakers fell into a 3-1 series hole against the Thunder.

Smush was able to respond comfortably and — as it seems to me — honestly to Kobe's insults because he no longer has anything to lose by helping Kobe preserve his image. The NBA is done with Smush and he knows it, so he might as well speak his mind. Smush's stories about Kobe separating himself from the other Lakers at team dinners, the anecdotes about being instructed that he was not allowed to speak to Kobe because he hadn't accomplished enough, foreshadow the arrival of what could be a dark chapter in Kobe Bryant's legacy — the stories of all the lesser teammates he gleefully hounded and bullied during his record-breaking career.

Eventually, Kobe and his teammates will retire from basketball. Eventually, the people he stepped on will have nothing to lose by sharing a few stories about his behavior. And eventually, some of them will decide to tell those stories. Will those stories change the way we look at one of the greatest basketball players of all time? It depends how bad, how ugly, how craven they are. But if that happens, then maybe Smush Parker won't just go down in history as the also-ran on whom Kobe shat whenever he had the chance. Maybe Smush will go down as one of Kobe's first ex-teammates to speak out.

therealdeal wrote:For the last time, nobody cares about Smush Parker.

intuitivelOve wrote:

therealdeal wrote:For the last time, nobody cares about Smush Parker.

obviously somebody do because people still writing about it.

MadMax wrote:

Leadership is responsibility.
There comes a point when one must make a decision. Are YOU willing to do what it takes to push the right buttons to elevate those around you? If the answer is YES, are you willing to push the right buttons even if it means being perceived as the villain? Here's where the true responsibility of being a leader lies. Sometimes you must prioritize the success of the team ahead of how your own image is perceived. The ability to elevate those around you is more than simply sharing the ball or making teammates feel a certain level of comfort. It's pushing them to find their inner beast, even if they end up resenting you for it at the time.

I'd rather be perceived as a winner than a good teammate. I wish they both went hand in hand all the time but that's just not reality. I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.

This is my way. It might not be right for YOU but all I can do is share my thoughts. It’s on YOU to figure out which leadership style suits you best.

Will check back in with you soon.. Till then
Mamba out