Somewhere, Kobe Bryant is kicking himself. Shaq is in the conference finals, creating mismatches and opening lanes for his able sidekick. His sidekick is going off for 30+ and being compared to Michael Jordan. Each time the kid gets the ball half of the opposing team mobs him like junior high girls on Romeo. Combined Shaq and his able sidekick are going to propel a group of nobodies into the NBA Finals.
Seems like 2002 all over again doesn’t it? Sadly for one Mr. Bryant it’s not. And he’s on a beach somewhere while his former partner is in South Beach helping Dwyane Wade make everyone forget Kobe Bryant exists. What’s even more impressive is that Wade and Shaq are succeeding with even less of a supporting cast than Shaq and Kobe had. Udonis Haslem and Damon Jones are borderline rotation guys with out the new dynamic duo. Stan Van Gundy would be the coach most likely to die of a heart attack before his first finals appearance with out the fearsome twosome. Without Shaq and Wade there’s a strong possibility that Pat Riley and his blond highlights would be laying out in the sun in L.A.
Perhaps worse yet for Bryant is that Wade is everything that Kobe was supposed to be pre-Colorado conquest, a polite family man who is respectful of the game and his fellow players. Wade is even starting to crack into the lucrative endorsement market. Bryant has already seen his public image tarnished, he is now in danger of becoming an also ran to the upstarts Wade and Lebron James.
Kobe can now join Britney in hoping that somehow we can just turn back the clock to 2002.
Check out ESPN’s coverage of the Eastern Finals here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/series?series=detmia
