Kobe vs. LeBron, the final word

Is this even a contest? (check out this ESPN roundtable to see what all the fuss is about) Here's how you can make it more interesting. If we're to look back rather than forward and ignore now, then we can build a semi-solid case for the most polarizing athlete in the NBA (Bryant). By any metric, right now: statistically, athletically, as a locker room presence LeBron owns Kobe; the only exception where the self proclaimed Black Mamba beats out The Chosen One is with his three championships . That is by no means an unremarkable accomplishment, but in a sport where Michael Jordan redefined greatness and transformed the way we assess excellence using individual brilliance as a measuring stick rather than team play (basketball is the most individually focused team sport possibly ever, but that is probably due more to marketing than what actually takes place on the court ), then with Shaq aka The Diesel aka Big Aristotle aka The Emperor of the Bling Dynasty (circa 2000-2002), aka Kazaam spearheading the acquisition of said championships, well this knocks Kobe down a peg or two because he wasn't The Man on the team, he was a co-star. Ever since he got top billing the Lakers have won as many titles (and made as many finals appearances) as the Cavaliers have (they're both 0 for 1).

When Jordan was a scoring machine and championshipless all the naysayers said he'd never be Magic Johnson or Larry Bird, turns out they were right but not in the way they meant. Jordan wasn't any of those guys he was Jordan and he was better than everyone else. The wrap on Jordan was that he was an amazing athlete but he'd never won any championships so he would never be in the same league figuratively as the aforementioned players (sound familiar?). Then he went and won six. This is what happens when athleticism meets talent and determination: championships. This year LeBron will win his first (this is hardly a bold prediction, it's something like saying the sun will rise tomorrow) and certain experts will start to acknowledge greatness after the fact. Why wait though?

Kobe Bryant and the March of the Militant Atheists

This is not called Tenuous Connections for nothing.

Is raising your child in a religion a form of child abuse? (I guess it depends which one) Some people certainly think so. What is it about religion that bugs people so much? I mean besides all the wars, and rampant hypocrisy when you get down to it, religious life is all about improving yourself as a person. I guess there's also the metaphysics, which seem totally absurd in today's secular culture.

Speaking of modern culture, Kobe Bryant is arguably the greatest basketball player in the world, I don't think so, but many people do. Certainly he's right up the top though. But if we're talking greatest of all time, this is where the critics start spewing vitriol in Kobe's direction. You see there's a great divide between Kobe and the player of all players, Michael Jordan. Kobe unfortunately had the gall to fool us into to believing that he was just like Mike and the way he played during stretches reinforced the notion that maybe, just possibly, he was even better. Then the 2008 NBA finals happened. What a disappointment. Kobe was just a Jordan counterfeit, oh sure he looked, he played, he walked and talked like the real deal, but number 23 he was not (argh, Yoda speak alert).

Kobe may be a lie but science provides a provisional evolutionary march towards ever elusive Truth. It may never answer the Big Questions though, like is there a point to life? People look to God for that type of thing. It enrages scientists like Richard Dawkins that religion has such a firm grip on civilization partly because the answers it offers can't be tested objectively (and hating on it seems to sell a lot of books, which is probably as good a reason as any to make a fuss). For Atheists religion is like Kobe Bryant, a highly provocative entity that doesn't quiet live up to its promise, but because it's so tantalizing close to the real deal --for some people -- it generates anger because it's trying to fool us and our Mama never done raised no fools. We too smart for that crap, ya heard. Hey, it's a bit of a stretch, but Kobe's on the decline and Atheism's on the rise, if you look sideways enough there's a causal connection there somewhere.

Kobe ≠ Jordan = Religion ≠ Truth = (Atheism = Science) ≈ Truth = I'm a misunderstood genius

All NBA baby!

I'm all NBA: Natural Born Athlete. I didn't discover this fact until I was close to my mid 20s, perhaps a little too late to achieve anything of merit in the sports world, but I've never really allowed reality to interfere with my plans too much.

I am the prototypical late bloomer, to reinforce this label my body in spite of my best efforts conspired against me inflicting or acquiescing to a strange undetectable medical anomaly. Exerting any physical energy beyond the strain of walking sapped all my energy and left me feeling as if my right eye were going to explode. The closest anyone ever came to explaining my condition was a vague allusion to something called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the long time go to scape goat of Doctors who weren't quite sure what the hell's wrong with you.

A few weeks ago I made an unexpected full recovery. I'm back. Who's gonna stop me now?