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--------------Context for those who may be confused--------------
In an article, Kobe and 8 other former players answered questions about LeBron's legacy. Kobe gave some insight on the mindset of a champion despite facing difficult odds, as he did in 2008 when he lost to a stacked Boston team, which he then finally defeated in 2010. Is he wrong to try to pass Michael Jordan's own advice to LeBron?
"Michael gave me some really good advice after the '08 Finals: 'You got all the tools. You gotta figure out how to get these guys to that next level to win that championship.' Going into the 2010 series, I said, 'Listen, Boston, they got Ray Allen, they got Paul Pierce, they got [Kevin] Garnett, they got Sheed [Wallace], the talent is there. They're stacked.' That was the first superteam. [Michael] kind of heard me lament about it, and he just goes, 'Yeah, well, it is what it is; you gotta figure it out. There's no other alternative.' And that's the challenge LeBron has. You have pieces that you have to try to figure out how to work with. Excuses don't work right now. …
It has everything to do with how you build the team, from an emotional level. How do you motivate them? … Leadership is not making guys better by just throwing them the ball. That's not what it is. It's about the influence that you have on them to reach their full potential. And some of it's not pretty. Some of it's challenging, some of it's confrontational. Some of it's pat on the back. But it's finding that balance, so now when you show up to play a Golden State or a Boston, your guys feel like you have the confidence to take on more."
Kobe made his teammates better by forcing them to be better. He was, like MJ, a psychopath when it came to wanting to win, and despite having nowhere near the talent that Boston had, he had to figure out how to get Pau to play stronger vs. KG, how to get Bynum to be tough inside and not risk another injury like in 2008, how to get Vujacic and other role players to be consistent under pressure. He went at them hard in practice, and they won 2 straight finals after 2008, despite not making much of a roster change. LeBron passes his teammates the ball a little more than both Kobe and MJ, buys them suits and other shit, hangs out and has fun with them on and off the court, but doesn't seem to make anyone significantly better as basketball players as a result. Instead, all his star teammates seem to perform worse and put up worse numbers when playing on his teams (think of Wade, Chris Bosh, Kevin Love). I don't think LeBron is a bad teammate, in fact he's a very good one. But what Kobe was suggesting is that the leadership required to take a team from good to champions is different from the leadership most franchise players are able to develop while they grow with a team. Some role players do better on extra minutes/open shots, but not everyone plays the same way or benefits from that kind of game. A good leader knows different ways to motivate and reach different players, and people who think Kobe was a bad leader because some shitty players didn't like him are somehow on TV sharing their opinion.
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