Kobe Bryant: The hallmarks of NBA's biggest post-Jordan Star

It’s been fun!When Kobe Bryant penned his poem for the Player’s Tribune, he ensured that we had a finite number of times to watch the Mamba put on a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. With his play declining and Kobe finally succumbing to Father Time’s undefeated streak, we now know that April 13, 2016 is the last time Kobe will walk out and play an official game in the NBA.However, with so much having been written on his decline, which we all have to remember was inevitable, I would like to look back on a career that gave rise to the NBA star who was ready and willing to fill the void Michael Jordan left when he retired in 1998. Now Kobe was still a year away from blooming into a full-fledged superstar, but he was the right man to come along and take the Jordan torch.Shaquille O’Neal was just a tad old for his career to stretch long enough to be the defining star, Allen Iverson had a cult following but wasn’t quite good enough, and Tim Duncan just didn’t care enough to be marketed as a star.But Kobe, playing the same position as MJ, copying MJ’s moves, having the skill to do a damn good MJ impersonation, and having the business acumen to build himself into a brand was the man to fill this void and fill it he did. When I look back over the last 20 seasons, I know the first person who will drive every conversation, elicit every emotion, and won enough titles to back up all the talk will be Kobe Bryant.

#1 Purple and gold

A match made in basketball heaven

In order to be THE STAR of the NBA, especially in the early to mid-2000s, you needed to play in the right market that would attract the requisite media coverage, and what better place for that to happen than in Los Angeles, donning the purple and gold of the Lakers.

The Lakers are the premier franchise in the NBA and were about to embark on another tour de force of the league, going to seven NBA Finals in Kobe’s first 14 seasons, meaning we got to see a lot of Kobe on the grandest stage. And not only was Kobe going to the Finals 50% of the time, he was either the best or second best player every time, giving him exposure and success that little else could match.

In addition to being on the most marketable team in the league, Kobe had the business mentality to match, as evident by a story he recounted in his retirement press conference.

Kobe tells of how, at 21, he went to Italy to talk to Giorgio Armani about starting a business and what made Armani so successful at his. For a 21-year-old to take initiative like this shows that Kobe was always conscious of how and where he would market himself, knowing that he could use his great basketball skill and fame to even further his name.

Some of this fame might have been possible if he went to Charlotte, where he was originally drafted, but Kobe’s stardom wouldn’t have been as great if he wasn’t in the Lakers. In Charlotte, there is no Kobe System campaign by Nike, no near king status for Kobe in China, and there certainly aren’t five titles, the biggest thing that furthered his fame in the early years.

#2 The highlights

In today’s day and age, you can’t become the biggest superstar in the league without providing droves of highlight reel plays, and Kobe Bryant provided those in abundance. It’s not enough to just end the game with crazy stats, you have to do it with flair, something that Kobe never lacked.

It started in 1997, when Kobe took All-Star weekend by storm, winning the dunk contest that weekend as a precocious 18-year-old. This ushered in the era of the ultra athletic Kobe, someone who looked and played almost exactly like Michael Jordan by the time of the turn of the century.

If you weren’t a kid who tried to do the patented Kobe reverse dunk, jumping from one side of the basket to the finish on the other, on of those 7-foot hoops, you must have been living under a rock. As the internet began to take flight around the world, Kobe was that star providing high flying highlight after game winning shots, that fit perfectly with this growing new medium.

Now if Kobe stopped at just being a high flier, his star would have burned out rather quickly, but what made the Mamba endure was the ridiculous shots that he could uncork, seemingly with two guys on him and no time left on the clock.

As he began to combine his high-flying acrobatics with a penchant for the insane jumper, the legend of Kobe only began to grow tenfold, until he became the name every little kid would utter as they released a shot they were sure was going in.

And this was really the skill that allowed Kobe to stay the master of the highlight even as he got older and his athleticism started to wane. Kobe would make use of the smarts and guile compiled over years of practice to continue to make the shots everyone, including the person guarding him, knew was coming.

What then truly cemented Kobe’s legend as the master of the highlight, were how many game winners he would take and make.

There was a time it seemed like every time the Lakers needed some late game dramatics, the Mamba would waltz onto the court and unleash a quick scoring flurry or that one final shot that would push his team over the edge, propelling the Lakers to another inevitable victory.

Poll any person under the age of 30 and they will no doubt say they tried many times to be the Mamba, with the clock counting down, and drill the game winner as they played by themselves in the park.

#3 Titles

Bling bling!!!

As I mentioned previously, no one becomes the biggest star in the NBA without winning titles and winning a lot of them. Dirk, star. Kevin Garnett, star. Paul Pierce, star.

Each of those guys are all time players, but none of them will quite endure like Kobe, in part, because they weren’t winning title after title. In basketball, where only five players play at one time, thus allowing the best player to dominate each and every game, winning a title when you are the best player is one of the distinguishing marks to show that you are truly a stand out.

If you look back at all the big superstars of eras past, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, they all won multiple titles because they were the best players of time.

It goes hand in hand, and just like the best of the best of the past, Kobe cemented his legacy by winning the NBA championship five times throughout his career. Even if he won three as the number two guy on his team (the early years with Shaq), he showed that he was truly an all-timer by coming back and winning two more titles while being the unquestionable leader and best player on his team.

#4 Mamba mentality

One of the few self-bestowed nicknames that fit perfectly

Ah the nickname, the Black Mamba. When Kobe bestowed this moniker on himself, people scoffed at him because “Who the hell comes up with their own nickname?”

But as he began to explain why he picked it and what it meant (the Black Mamba snake is one of the quickest striking and deadliest snakes in all the world), you could see how he actually did embody this menacing animal on the court.

Whether it was through quick strike dunk or jumpers, Kobe always seemed to have the perfect actions on the court to fit this nickname, only increasing its popularity amongst his legions of fans.

As the years progressed, the Mamba mentality became synonymous with everything Kobe did, from his exploits on the court, to his willingness to take the big shot, make or miss, to his desire and ability to play through any injury that might come his way.

Quick 10-point flurry to build a lead, Mamba mentality. Go 5-19 but hit the shot to decide the game, Mamba mentality. Go 13-22 and miss the game winner, Mamba mentality. Play the majority of a season with your index finger on your shooting hand broken, Mamba mentality.

Nothing quite personified the Mamba mentality more than Kobe’s last full, healthy season in 2012-2013, when he began to drag an underachieving Laker team back from the abyss to lead them to a playoff berth averaging 38.6 minutes per game with averages of 27.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 7.1 assists over the last month and a half of the season.

For a 34-year-old in his 17th year in the league to do this was and still is unfathomable, it is simply a feat by a person who is better than and has a stronger will than almost anyone else in the league. That it all came crashing down when he tore his achilles and had to take his last two free throws of the season on one leg, is a testament to what exactly the Mamba mentality is.

#5 Old man status

Kobe uncensored

As Kobe got older, he needed one final chapter of his legacy to cement himself as the superstar of the post-Michael Jordan era, and where he found that was in the form of soundbites, press conferences and interviews.

Unlike Mike or Tim Duncan, the only other star who had the requisite on court accomplishments to be THE NBA superstar, Kobe became a quote machine as he got older, knowing that his legacy was all but cemented and he could begin to say anything he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Now don’t get this confused with some immature player who will just say anything to get a rise out of people, Kobe was very calculated with what he said, but was also brutally honest about both himself and others.

He wouldn’t mince words just to play nice, if he thought a player or idea was dumb, he’d give the classic Kobe laugh and eye roll before popping off a good one-liner that all the websites, blogs, and sports shows could run on endless loop for the next 24 hours.

He would casually swear in a press conference, come out and say that he sucked in a particular game, or offer introspective insights into both the game and himself that began to endear himself to even his most staunch opponents from his younger days.

He was afforded the classic old man status, something that only comes due to past accomplishments, which were many, that then allowed him to speak more candidly about his surroundings without everyone rushing to say how he shouldn’t say those things.

It’s a freedom that only the select superstars get, and that’s exactly what Kobe was afforded after years of tireless domination. Let me leave you with some of my favorite Kobe quotes as you remember the legend who will soon play no more.

“I don’t talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.”

“We were playing the Blazers and I hear this voice from the bench talking s*** saying, ‘We are going to beat your a** tonight.’ I look over and tell him, ‘If you were born after I started playing, you don’t get to talk s*** to me.’ And I hear the voice respond, ‘Yessir.’”

“These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out here playing chess.”

“If you are afraid to fail, then you are probably going to fail.”