Top Gunner

There was a movie that most of you have probably seen that came out several years ago called “Top Gun.” In it, Tom Cruise played a character called Maverick, a brash, unyielding, but very talented fighter pilot, who was sent off to compete against other really good pilots in an elite, fighter pilot training program to try to determine who was the best of the best, the “Top Gun.” Maverick was a fighter pilot whose bold, cocky attitude could make him do things that were either foolhardily dangerous, or breathtakingly brilliant. Maverick could be so outstanding he could go head to head against the enemy’s best of the best and almost single-handedly bring victory for his team, or he could make selfish, careless mistakes and screw up the entire mission for his whole squadron. At the end of the movie, Maverick became the “Top Gun.”

If there was one NBA basketball player that would come closest to the character of Maverick, it would be L.A. Lakers’ star shooting guard Kobe Bryant. Bryant came to the NBA right out of high school, and there was no doubt he was intensely motivated to be the best player in the league. Some might say he was so cocky, HE thought he could become the best player of all time. All of the words used to describe Maverick — brash, unyielding, bold, cocky attitude, foolhardily dangerous to breathtakingly brilliant, outstanding, selfish, careless, but unquestionably motivated and talented — could equally be applied to Kobe. HE wanted to become the “Top Gun” of the NBA.

In a recent game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Kobe Bryant passed a milestone of sorts. He set an ignominious NBA record that he probably wishes were held by someone else. He missed the 13,418th shot of his career, passing John Havlicek as the player who had missed more shots than anyone, to coin a phrase of the late, legendary Laker announcer Chick Hearn, “in the history of the game.” There is a playground term for those players who always seem to be shooting the ball, who always seem to be hogging control of the ball, who always seem to be running up a disproportionate amount of shot attempts. It’s called being a gunner. To say Kobe Bryant is a gunner is like saying Jake the State Farm Agent is an insurance salesman. Sometimes, the description just seems to fit like a tight glove. In Kobe’s case, with his new NBA record firmly in his grasp, he, as the biggest gunner in the history of basketball, just sounds like the inevitable something that was meant to be.

But his many shot attempts produced some pretty amazing statistics over his career. As of this writing, he is the 4th highest scorer in NBA history. Third best scorer in playoff history. 15 times, he has been on one of the All-NBA teams. 16 times, he has made the All Star Team. Four times, he was the All Star Game MVP. He’s led the league in scoring twice. He was league MVP once. He played on two teams that won the United States gold medals in the Olympic Games. He played defense too. 11 times he was on one of the All Defensive teams. He once scored 62 points in three quarters. He once scored 81 points in one game. His scoring was not just for the sake of him glorifying his own statistics. He was trying to score points to help his team win games. Many a time, he would hit the late, last second shot to help win a game for his Laker teams. For his play during the key part of his career, TNT named him the player of the decade of the 2000’s.

Indeed, Kobe Bryant wasn’t JUST a gunner. Sometimes, the shot attempts had great purpose, and even better, they had great results. He was on teams that won five NBA championships. And he wasn’t just ON five teams that won championships, he was A if not THE primary force on all of those teams. It is safe to say, the Lakers would not have won ANY of those championships had he not been on those teams. His teams also made the finals of the NBA championships two other times.

It is important though to note that ALL five of Kobe’s championships were under coach Phil Jackson. Jackson the coach knows more about winning than any coach who ever picked up a whistle. Besides the five Laker championships, he was coach of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls and their six championships. It is incredibly difficult to win just ONE championship, as there are all kinds of factors that go into the fine line between winning and losing in the playoffs. Jackson has won 11 times!

Phil Jackson, in his usual understated way, once said of Bryant, “Kobe tends to force the action.” In other words, the Kobe that got it in his mind that he had to take control of the ball and was NOT doing the best things to help the team that day, would sometimes attempt to drive the lane against multiple defenders and would proceed to turn the ball over to the other team. Or Kobe would force up a difficult, off balance shot while there was no one back on defense to defend against a fast break going the other way. The net result of this forcing of the action tended to be too many easy points by the opposition, and too many losses as a result. He was much better as a facilitator of the offense, making sure his whole team participated, and they often were much better when his shot attempt totals were down and his assist totals were up. Phil Jackson understood the best use of Kobe Bryant as a ballplayer far better than Kobe Bryant ever did.

But Kobe Bryant the ball player thought HE knew everything that was needed to win these games. Cause HE, with all of his talent, could sometimes produce these amazing feats, and lead his teams to some amazing accomplishments. But HE, the sometimes breathtakingly brilliant player, was in the middle of games, and often over-estimated his own abilities as to what he actually could and could not accomplish. The miraculous shots SOMETIMES went in, so his mind was conditioned to think that they ALWAYS would go in. But, a lot of times, the miracle shots would NOT go in, and you would sometimes be left with the impression that maybe they would have been better off if he had passed some of those key shots off to someone else who was more open than him.

Phil Jackson, the basketball coaching savant, usually DID know the best way to run a team, especially during the key moments late in a game. And it was his genius to try to get the amazing INDIVIDUALLY talented Kobe Bryant to play in the TEAM framework for those championship Laker teams. They had the same basic talent BEFORE Phil Jackson arrived (Shaq, Kobe and company) and they lost from 1996 to 1999. Then, as a team with Jackson now running things, they won three straight championships from 2000 to 2002. Then, after a few years of bickering between Kobe and Shaq, Jackson retired. They had similar talent there for awhile (Pao Gasol, Lamar Odom and Kobe) and couldn’t win until Jackson again was able to coax team play and helped them win two more championships in 2009 and 2010. Then, after Jackson left, the same talent clearly could NOT win championships again. The Laker greatness was a collaborative effort, from both players AND coaches.

It is very evident now that Kobe Bryant, on his own, cannot win championships. That he has to have a coach who understands how to utilize his skill set the right way to produce championship level play. That it has to be a TEAM that wins, not an outstanding individual surrounded by other players. The Lakers, with a record of one win and eight losses early into this 2014 season, are very visible examples of that fact. And that team ownership does not have a clue as to how to pair up outstanding talent around Bryant, along with the coaching expertise needed for the team to be the championship contenders they have always seemed to have been.

All that’s really left for Laker observers is the fascinating study of the duality of Kobe Bryant. Five NBA championships, 16 All Star games, incredible accomplishments. Versus the missed opportunities of all those years that COULD have been AND the Kobe who has taken the most missed shots in the history of the league. Kobe jacks up shots from all directions. Off balance, high degree of difficulty. People ooh and ahh when he makes some. He still makes some of those shots. But when he misses them, the team loses. They’ve been doing that a lot lately.

Football coach Bill Parcells once uttered a great quote about how to determine whether a team (it could also apply to a player) was good or bad. He said, “You are what your record says you are.” Kobe Bryant was a great player who won championships, who made All Star teams, who was the player of the decade of the 2000’s. He was a success.  He became the NBA’s “Top Gun.” He also has missed the most shots in NBA history. The record now states that he’s also the “Top Gunner.”