Lol at tryna paint Kobe as this great team leader and motivator.
You can add this to the list of things Kobe gets overrated for.
wrong. now on one end, kobe did say"trade his a..." when someone brought up to him should bynum get flipped for a prime jkidd i believe it was.
But at the same token, kobe would turn water into wine if you were Willing to go thru the fire. he could turn dirt into a diamond if you were willing and ready to walk thru the flames with him.
there's a difference between kobe and jordan. when it comes to leadership. kobe didnt expect you to be as good as he was because he understood everyone wasnt blessed with the same athletic ability, and talent. but he did expect you to be the best and most locked in version of yourself that you could be. which is why he loved d.fish. he loved horry, loved rick fox. non of these guys at that time in their careers were super athletic ball handling, 3 ball shooting, dunking on people , lock down defenders/players. They were role players that were super LOCKED in aka CLUTCH when the game was on the line, when they were down by 30, when it was playoff time and winning time.
There's a reason kobe is hugging the hell out of smush parker and yelling into his ear "thats what i'm talkiing about" when he poked the ball loose from steve nash in that famous clip where kobe gets it and makes one of the big shots before the game winning shot to beat the suns in the playoffs when they had a lackluster squad and had no business hanging with the suns.
Kobe wants mental toughness over physical ability. he can work with that. he can't work with weak minds. kwame for legit reasons from his father and childhood had a weak mind. but because kobe knew why he had a weak mind he didnt kill kwame for it like he could have. sure you wish he would just catch the ball and dunk it but you also knew he's lucky to not have jumped off a bridge some where as a kid growing up the way he did. and its not that he never said anything negative about kwame's play but he always talked about him in that way and then say "but that was big cat(phil use to call him)" because they knew what he been thru as a kid.
Smush on the other hand talking reckless after he left the lakers. which is why kobe always went in on dude. because he knew smush was mentally not ready to be locked in like that for long periods to win games and playoff series.
Remember kobe is the reason trevor ariza, shannon brown got 3 pt jumpers to begin with.
Kobe had to keep a fire lit to gasol a... to keep him playing to his full abilities or else pau would at times go soft minded on you.
still not understanding whats the point of all of this 
