Kobe just doesn’t get it

By Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)

By now, you’ve probably seen or heard some of the tweets sent out by Kobe Bryant during yesterday’s Laker loss in game 1 to San Antonio.  Here’s just a brief sample:

1)     “Gotta get to the block.  See wat spurs r gonna do with pau and d12”

2)     “What I would say if I was there right now? ‘Pau get ur ass on the block and don’t move till u get it.’ ”

3)     “Post. Post. Post.”

4)     “Matador defense on Parker. His penetration is hurting us.”

After the game, a bothered Mike D’Antoni was asked about Kobe tweeting that the Lakers should get the ball down low to Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard.  D’Antoni, clearly unhappy, simply stated, “that’s what we did.”  The Laker coach then said, “It’s great to have that commentary.”  He then went on to state that Kobe, right now, is “a fan.”  Kobe responded with another tweet: “A fan?? Lol”

WHAT WAS KOBE THINKING???

Obviously, he wasn’t.  Once upon a time, a leader would get into a huddle during a timeout or take a player to the side and express what he (the leader) thought would be best for the team.  With a sensitive guy like Pau Gasol, probably the worst thing you could do is make what should be a private comment public.  That’s what Kobe does over and over again with these tweets.

Whether he understands that or not is entirely a different question.

IS KOBE JUST STARVED FOR ATTENTION?

That’s certainly what it looks like.  After putting in an amazing effort to put the Lakers on the verge of the playoffs, Kobe tore his Achilles and is done for the year (the Lakers then went on to make the playoffs without him).  Now just “a fan” (according to his coach), he still needs the attention.

How do we know?  How about this tweet from Kobe the day before game 1: “I will probably tweet and follow more fans during the game on sun so if u wanna break the game down with me, tweet me.”

Yikes!

When he put the hash tag “nostupidwquestions” at the end of that tweet, he should have committed to himself to not make any stupid tweets criticizing his teammates publicly.

Obviously, he didn’t.

MAYBE HE GETS IT NOW?

Probably not.  After the post-game furor, Kobe sent this tweet: “I see my tweeting during the game is being talked about as much as the game itself.  Not my intention, just bored as I guess #not again.”

Not again?  What did he think was going to happen?  Kobe does this to himself.  An intelligent guy on and off the court, he, like some other adults (and many more kids), doesn’t understand the potential power (and stupidity) of tweeting. 

Especially when you are publicly critical of your teammates when, in the past, virtually all of that criticism would have been done privately.

Here’s hoping there is somebody with a brain who has Kobe’s ear and can tell him all of the above.  If he has to tweet, maybe they can tell him to stay positive.  If he has to criticize, maybe they can tell him to just keep it to himself. 

At a minimum, his coach and his teammates will be thankful if he does keep it to himself (or, if physically possible, maybe he should be on the bench with his teammates – what a concept).

Kobe is smarter than this.  But he just doesn’t get it.

Hopefully, he will now.