OK, I think we can all admit after watching Kobe and D-Wade going head-to-head on Chirtsmas day without Shaq to muddy the waters that Dwayne Wade is the best player in the NBA. Ever since Michael Jordan retired for the second time in 1998, the NBA has been looking for a player to be the face of the league, someone who isn't a gangster, and for darn sure someone who isn't Michael Jordan.
Kobe Bryant has worked so hard to be MJ he forgot the most important thing to follow in Jordan's steps. Jordan tried to be Michael Jordan, not Larry Bird or Magic Johnson or Jerry West. Kobe Bryant always tries to be Michael, the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he shoots the jumper, even the way he chews his gum. All the hype surrounding Kobe when he came into the league didn't help. He was tapped to be the next great NBA player, the next Jordan.
D-Wade has not had that pressure, he flew in under the radar, 'Melo and LeBron were the class of the draft. And D-Wade doesn't try to be someone else. He is Dwayne Wade. He is comfortable with being Dwayne Wade, and he is always trying to be better. Like Jordan he makes the players around him better, and he is never satisfied. Also like Jordan he has a great public image, someone the league can promote and be proud of.
Unfortunately that is something Kobe threw away in a Colorado hotel 4 years ago. It is to bad Kobe become so obsessed with being Michael Jordan, that it destroyed him. If Kobe would just be Kobe how much greater would this new rivalry be?
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