The Lakers (Kobe) Win and Nobody is Impressed

I am far removed from idolizing professional basketball players anymore. Even if I had the desire to idolize them I am very happy that I don't. It is nice remembering what it was like to want to be Larry Bird; running around my basement on Friday nights watching the Celtics on TNT; that is one of my fondest memories of being 10 years old. I can't remember, back then, if old people told me that Bird was nothing compared to the likes of Havlicek or Cousy or other fellas a generation before...maybe they did, but I believe that those "old people" still secretly thought Bird was the most amazing thing they had ever seen. I feel sorry for the kids growing up today who have the likes of Kobe Bryant or even Lebron James to emulate and idolize. The fact is, those guys are tired heroes. There is nothing to them that should be appealing except for the fact that they are great athletes...freaks even.
Not that Bird was "Mr. Personality" because quite frankly he was not someone you expect entertained guests at parties with his witty banter and charm, but at least he was real. Kobe is a manufactured character. He is a film script so influenced by other movies you feel you are watching a parody of sorts. He is so unoriginal you almost feel a little sorry for him...until you remember he is just an simple egomaniac lost in his own uninteresting psychosis. The scowl (which looks like an angry possum to me), the Jordan like speech patterns in interviews, the constant "I" comments littered throughout his tireless post game monologues...Its all calculated and manufactured and all very droll. Bob Knight is surely getting a laugh at Kobe and his conjured up "game face".
As my brother has pointed out numerous times in the last two days, "This was the most forgettable championship team in the last 25 years and any championship team from the last 25 years would handle these Lakers in 4 games." I couldn't agree more and that's not just because we were all hoping for a Lebron/Kobe matchup, it is because the '09 Lakers, ho hum, were not a 1 man team they were just 1 man...Kobe wanted it that way and thats what he got...boring as hell. Today's athlete would trade in 3, 4, 5 championships, shared with another great player or two, for 1 that they feel like they can call their "own". If that is not a sad, sad, joke then I am as confused as I have ever been about professional athletics.