Kobe Bryant may have only won a single MVP trophy in the NBA, but that isn’t keeping the Sporting News from naming him the player of the decade. The superstar guard narrowly beat out Tim Duncan, and LeBron James wasn’t even in the conversation. Those Kobe-hatin’, LeBron-leg-humpers at ESPN must be going crazy right now!
The honor is part of a 14-page feature in the new issue that highlights the top players, coaches and personnel of the past decade. Remarkably, the magazine — whose new issue hits stands this week — even got Kobe’s once-embittered teammate Shaquille O’Neal to praise No. 24.
“The thing about Kobe is that, over the course of my career, I have never played with anyone who was as fierce as he is,” said the big fella. “By fierce I mean just having that extra killer instinct that you know when the game is on the line he is not going to shy away from the big shot, he is not going to make excuses. If we would go into the fourth quarter, playoffs or just some game in the season and we were within a little bit of the other team, Kobe was not going to shy away from the challenge of getting the win.”
The Sporting News also made their picks for the NBA all-decade team. The starters would be guards Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant, forwards Tim Duncan and LeBron James and center Shaquille O’Neal. Their second team consisted of guards Allen “Meet Me in Memphis” Iverson and Dwyane Wade, forwards Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett and center Yao “I’ll Be Back” Ming.
After being the scourge of ESPN for all these years, it’s great to see Kobe getting the praise he deserves from other outlets. It’s just fortunate they didn’t deduct any points for Kobe giving himself the stupid nickname Black Mamba. Come on, Kobe, just stick with Player of the Decade.
Photo by Picchick14 courtesy of Flickr.