gotemcoach:

MUST WATCH:  Kobe vs. LeBron

Our opportunities to watch Kobe and LeBron go head-to-head are few and far between, and dwindling by the second. 

Admittedly, at this point in their careers, the battle effectively would prove nothing - LeBron is at his peak, while Kobe is fighting against the dying of the light - yet I don’t know a basketball fan who doesn’t want to see it. 

Like Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, the wait has made us clamor.

Unfortunately, the game seemed to be in the can.  Kobe’s side was up 12 points, with 4:30 minutes left in the game, when LeBron put in the first of his two deep, 4th quarter 3-pointers.  When James made his second, LeBron’s side was only down three, with three minutes remaining.

With only 20 seconds left, Bryant went to the foul line with the opportunity to keep the same lead, but after uncharacteristically missing the freebie (although, in this day and age, that miss felt ever so symbolic, and increasingly more characteristic of Kobe’s trajectory) LeBron’s Eastern Conference All-Stars had the opportunity to tie or beat Kobe’s Western Conference foes with a last-second, clutch shot.

LeBron took the ball.  Kobe matched up with him.  Finally, we would have our moment, however small.  We would all happily settle for this one-on-one moment to decide the All-Star game, on national television, in front of millions of viewers.

LeBron had the right side of the court.  Only Bryant in front of him.  But the play was run for Deron Williams, who missed a 3-pointer.

Robbed again.  The moment had been taken from us.  Basketball fans deflated.  First, the Orlando Magic knocked off the heavily favored Cleveland Cavaliers in the Summer of 2009.  Then the Celtics dismissed LeBron’s Cavs in 2010, and sent James packing for the South.  Spring, 2011, it was the Mavericks turn to crush our roundball dreams, sweeping Kobe away, as the Phil Jackson Lakers dismantled.

But just wait. 

As fate would have it, Deron’s miss was tipped back out, and into the hands of the would-be King.  This time, the clock read 5.5 seconds.  Kobe still guarding him, and the entire right side of the court still open for his game-winning drive. 

A scant two seconds later, LeBron would pass the ball again, this time cross-court, to his Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade.  But the ball never got there.  Blake Griffin would intercept it, and be fouled.

The only thing worse than watching your hopes dashed once, is watching them die a fifth death.  This just isn’t fair.  All we’ve done is support this league through a pointless, greedy lockout, forced to endure the reign of a tyrannical, out-of-touch commissioner.  We deserve to watch Kobe and LeBron, two All-Time greats, decide it on the court. 

Blake Griffin must have felt the same way.  He would miss one of his two free throws, no doubt just to please us as a spectators, leaving the opportunity for LeBron’s East to tie Kobe’s West, and send the game to overtime.

Timeout.  1.1 seconds left.  The ball is at half court.

The teams take the court, and LeBron walks to the sidelines, out of bounds, ready to throw the ball in.  King James wasn’t even in the field of play.  Wade would miss.  The West won.

Once more we would go without our answer.  Once more, the viewers would leave angry, and no one more so than Kobe Bryant.  At :20 seconds in the video above, Kobe is downright perplexed.  Confounded.  Angry.  He’s interrogating LeBron.  Kobe, it seems, feels he was robbed of his moment too. 

And that seems to be the perfect manifestation of what separates these two men. 

Kobe vs. LeBron.

@gotem_coach

(video via @jose3030)

Lebron is such a bitch