Can I talk about this ‘ethical hoops’ nonsense?

I absolutely despise when people make what seems to be the common argument these days, comparing Kobe Bryant to the players of today, attempting to make the argument that Kobe was in some way a greater player, because he did not abuse the rules to score, in their view, for one simple reason.

This point spits in the face of Kobe’s legacy.

Everybody within the reach of this Substack Note knows I’m not a big time basketball guy. I’m a casual basketball fan, but cannot provide any level of analysis. However, I must say that I have a tremendous amount of respect for SGA, and James Harden back in the day, and all the guys who have reputations as foul grifters. I have tremendous respect for floppers, and rule sharks, and technicality abusers everywhere.

Why?

Because these people are doing everything they can to win, even though they know they’re going to get made fun of for it. When Shai draws a silly foul, at this point he must know he’s getting flamed for it everywhere, and yet he continues to abuse the rules, despite full well knowing that this is going to become his legacy if he allows it to continue much longer.

On the NFL side, we have Patrick Mahomes, who flops around like a fish at every available opportunity to try to draw a foul on the defence. Is Patrick Mahomes a foul baiter? Absolutely, and therefore, I have tremendous respect for him, because it isn’t macho to throw yourself at the ground before a physically stronger man. A weaker minded individual may attempt to immediately stand up, and prove he was not hurt by the hit, but Patrick Mahomes isn’t thinking about that. He’s thinking about scoring points.

The same is true for the guards of today. They could go out of their way to play in a way media and fans would like, to try to draft themselves an Allen Iverson-style legacy, universally beloved despite not being a great guy on or off the court, and not even being that great of a scorer.

Instead, somebody like SGA continues to play the way he plays, because he wants to score points, and win championships. Does he have a different whistle than everybody else? At this point, yes he does, but that’s basketball. If you’re a 6’10” or smaller star, you get a friendly whistle. That’s just what the game is. If the NBA didn’t like it, they’d change it.

Therefore, what fans and media are asking SGA to stop doing (and praising Kobe for not doing) is abusing this friendly whistle, but wait a minute. If we ask somebody to stop stretching the rules to their fullest, why didn’t we ask players to stop travelling, before the NBA just changed their rules to make travelling into not travelling? Why don’t we ask the same thing of carrying the ball?

If you think Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is guilty of abusing the rules, I invite you to watch Kyrie Irving play basketball, and implore you to count how many times (by the letter of the law) he terminates his dribble. Multiple times on each possession is the answer you will get.

My point to all this is that if you’re not twisting the rules to your benefit, you’re not trying your hardest to win. That’s as simple as I can put it. All those who want to win ‘ethically’ are handicapping themselves, for no gain, except for the praise of the nebulous media apparatus, who will then turn around and praise the winners instead of you anyway.

So when we celebrate Kobe for supposedly not abusing the rules, what are we celebrating? Are we celebrating a man who made the choice to handicap his own game for no reason? That doesn’t seem like something worth celebrating. Further than that, are we celebrating somebody who deliberately made the choice to not try his hardest to win, specifically because of that choice? If we’re going to do that, why even award championships?

I know full well that Kobe Bryant is not this basketball saint that the basketball media paints him to be, but I’m saying even if he was, shouldn’t we be celebrating people for bending the rules and pushing the sport forward, rather than those who elected not to take the game to its absolute limit, as these people are alleging Kobe not to have done?

To me, this feels like an insult to the supposed Mamba Mentality. If Kobe were still here, and knew he was being celebrated for this, I strongly suspect his eloquent self would either a) talk publicly about all the times and all the ways in his career he did abuse the rules, or b) reflect that he was foolish not to. I don’t mean to put words in a dead man’s mouth, but how do you think Kobe would react to being celebrated (in essence) for not trying his hardest? I suspect he’d do everything in his power to quash it, but I want to make clear that’s only my opinion.

If we’re going to celebrate somebody for not pushing the game to its limits, and not abusing the rules, can’t we make the choice to celebrate somebody noted for not always trying their hardest, like Shaquille O’Neal? It wouldn’t be true then, of course, but no less true than it is in the case of Kobe Bryant.