For Kobe: this title was his most personal.

6 for 24. Its going to sit there, weighing heavily on his mind. Eighteen field goals missed in a game 7 that went down to the wire. Sure the Lakers won, but that’s not the point.

Kobe Bryant had four championships prior to this past Thursday night’s triumph. But he was playing a totally different team. This title was certainly his most difficult. Most satisfying? No. It can’t be. It was a repeat title, the first to do so since, those Shaq led Laker teams did when they three-peated.

You remember Shaq don’t you? Big fella who came to LA and teamed with Phil Jackson and a young Kobe to win three straight championships? Kobe does. He hasn’t forgotten Shaq. Judging by his post game comments, he never let himself forget. Even while Shaq through twitter offered up congrats, Kobe was unwilling to be as gracious. How else could he justify these last 3 years of hard fought, unending preparation for that moment. He couldn’t let it go that quick. If you were looking for a nice Kobe you probably were more suited to get his thoughts a few days later when he’s not so caught up in the moment.

“I have one more than Shaq. You can go to the bank with that. You guys know I don’t forget anything.”

Those were the quotes. Do you blame him? If you thought he sounded bitter in the midst of such a sweet moment, forgive him. Mj sounded the same way during his Hall of Fame speech. Its in their blood. Kobe was never facing the Celtics. He was never being guarded by Ray Allen. He was playing for that one up on Shaq. He was fighting for that step up to the hill top where MJ sits in the pantheon of basketball gods like Zeus. He was playing for his own legacy as a Laker. I know his because of that one quote.

But 6 for 24 will sit with him. He will watch the tape and see a scrambling Kobe trying too hard to take his shot instead of playing the good teammate and kicking it out of double teams. He will scream at the TV and say what were you thinking there? Throwing up prayers and trying to will it into the hoop was Kobe in the first half. The great quandary of MJ’s career was when would he learn to trust his teammates? When he did learn to wisely trust Scottie and Horace and later Rodman and Harper, he was unstoppable. He won titles and earned the glory he now has.

Its tougher than you think. I’m not the best at anything, but on this fathers day I remember my dad. Me and my dad fight over how much I pull my weight around the house, though to be fair I’m pretty heavy so that’s not all that easy. My dad asks me why I don’t help him with chores outside the house like weed pulling or cutting hedges, yet whenever I go to try to offer assistance, my dad watches me for two seconds, sees my incompetence in such areas and he tells me to move away and I end up sitting there just watching him. He can’t help it, he’s a perfectionist. He wants it done a certain way and if its not done that way then he doesn’t want anyone but him to take care of it.

MJ and Kobe are cut from the same cloth in that respect. They are perfectionists that need to do things themselves. Thus Kobe needed to set the tempo for the game. To show his opponents and his critics that he COULD rise to this huge occasion like they all expected him to. To review, Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players ever. That was never in doubt, but Laker fans and Kobe fans and even Kobe himself was hoping for that penultimate game. That singular perfect performance that would cement his legacy and allow him to stand before the court of public opinion and allow him to stand almost toe to toe with Michael Jordan for all-time everything.

To be honest, I think we take this MJ thing too far. Everytime a player comes into the league and shows some promise, instead of allowing him to grow, we compare him to that player and if he doesn’t live up to the comparison, then his career just hasn’t lived up to the hype. You know, the hype we created. Its unfair. I do think that at some point we will see a player come along and break MJ’s records and win a bunch of championships and like the old people who defiantly hold to the “Bill Russell or Jerry West is better than Jordan” argument, we will carry on that “Jordan was better than so and so.” We will never allow ourselves to admit that a new generation of kids growing up saw a better basketball player than the best player of our generation.

But guys like Kobe and Jordan won’t publically admit this but it matters. Their goal was never just to win a championship. It was always to win multiple championships. Its not to be one of the greatest players, its to be the best. Its what drives them to compete and what gives them reason to train as hard as they do.

So Kobe had 6 for 24 in a game 7. Don’t think he forgot. Only two finals MVPs compared to Shaq’s 3. Nope. MJ had six titles to Kobe’s fifth. There are still more mountains to climb. Still more things left to do. Still more miles to travel. Kobe hasn’t forgotten, the great ones never do.