Kobe Bryant played along side Derek Fisher for years, one of the better guards at drawing the charge in the league for many years.
But you don’t see Kobe take them. Pretty much ever.
And he said Tuesday there is a reason for that. From the Associated Press:
“I learned from my predecessors, man,” Bryant said Tuesday. “Pippen had a (messed) up back taking charges. Bird had a (messed) up back taking charges.
“I said, `I’m not taking charges.’ I figured that (stuff) out at an early age.”
With Kobe, you know he is speaking honestly when his conversation is littered with words we need to replace with euphemisms in parenthesis on this site. He went on to say he saw Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson only take one charge each.
That quote is pretty much a Rorschach test for what you think about Kobe. If you can’t stand him you think what he said selfish and fitting with his me-first not team-first personality. If you are a Kobe fan you think that’s just smart — guys who carry the team should not be risking injury standing in front of LeBron James waiting to get run over.
I’ll say this — plenty of guys feel the way Kobe does but wouldn’t say it.
