Podcast: Let’s just talk about Kobe Bryant

Heading into recording this podcast, Pete and I had fully planned out a conversation following the player preview series that was going to get Locked on Lakers through August.

Welp.

Had the show gone to plan, we would have spent maybe a few minutes at the top talking about Kobe (it being his 40th birthday and all), then jump into Josh Hart’s season preview. Honestly, it was stupid of me to think that any kind of serious conversation about Bryant would take “a few minutes.” That’s on me. My bad.

So, what was supposed to be a podcast devoted to looking back on Hart’s impressive rookie season, then looking ahead to what he needs to improve on and how he fits with the Lakers as a whole next year became Pete and I reminiscing about almost indisputably the greatest Lakers career ever.

We start by discussing why Pete has Kobe as his favorite Laker of all time over some of the other potential nominees (for me, it’s Magic, but I digress). This was an interesting back-and-forth and laid a good foundation for what became a really fun conversation.

Next, we discuss how the analysis of Kobe (and especially how he compares to modern day greats) falls short. Basically, a lot of the same problems anyone has with comparing eras come into play, and when you combine that with the biases that some have against Kobe for a variety of reasons (both fair and unfair), the conversation surrounding his legacy can very quickly get wonky.

This might also be the most heated I’ve gotten in recording a podcast so, quite honestly, remembering some of it is difficult. I saw red. I’m not proud.

As always, this is just a tidbit of the full context given in the show. Listen to the full discussion below and please check out old episodes or guarantee you won’t miss any ever again by subscribing on iTunes.