What issues? You're perfectly fine in addressing them on a basketball forum. What else besides the highly publicized rape case in 2003, should we know about, with regards to Kobe's "serious issues?" Which obituaries mentions the bad with the good? Links, please.
I'm still processing the news myself. As I said in the NBA Dish thread, it doesn't seem real. Kobe Bryant is gone at the age of 41. Tragic. That said, I'm totally against all these ideas. "Every team retiring his number(s)" "Change the NBA logo to Kobe!" "1/26 (in the future) is a "NBA holiday" (league wide off day)" The Lakers have retired his numbers. That is appropriate. They'll probably build a statue. I'm sure there will be a patch honoring him that all teams will wear. What if Jordan or LeBron or Duncan or Shaq or Bird drop dead tomorrow?
They should retire 11 for Maxwell lakers and rockets had rivalry Not going to happen for Kobe he gets the respect of the organization though
I respect the man’s career, but no, we shouldn’t retire his number. Kobe didn’t play here and he’s not as symbolic as Jackie Robinson. He’s already got two jerseys at staples. If 24 hangs in the rafters, it’s for Moses.
OMG what is this bullsh!t? He was never found innocent in the rape case! He paid the woman off. And he was 25 and married at the time, not anything close to a college student. Hell yeah I'm judging him bro and you too if you insist on hitching yourself to a rapist's wagon. Even if Kobe wasn't a rapist, he was still a narcissistic chucker who chased off Shaq. Even his own parents didn't like him but yeah let's retire his jersey whatever.
Jackie Robinson was a SPECIAL case. That was a man who CHANGED society. Kobe was loved as basketball player and was starting to do things outside of sports. However, he is not on Robinson level when comes to his meaning to the history.
According to OP it "technically" can be done. Also according to the OP, the Mavs' gesture is the first time (e.g. precedent) a team has ever retired the number of a player that never even suited up for them. But don't tell Pat Riley that.
No. You'd have to do this for everyone. What's the criteria? Dying early? Dying tragically? Wilt died early at age 63 tragically from congestive heart failure. There is no deceased player in the history of the game that would be worthy of having their number leaguewide-retired than the unfathomable, irreplaceable Wilt Chamberlain. Cuban can do what he wants with his team, but for everyone to start leaguewide number retirement calls would be just the ugliest fallout from this tragedy because of all the disgusting media arguing about it for the rest of time. Each team should decide in their own way how they want to (if they want to) honor Kobe Bryant and any other legends of the game.
Wait what? Did kobe played for the rockets? There are alot of rockets that passed away that deserve it more than kobe.
what we did is irrelevant bc no on is talking about retiring our jersey numbers league wide. Kobe may be better human than all of us combined, but how is he better than every other NBA great to where he should get the honor of having his number retired for every team? It made sense when baseball did this with Jackie bc he did something that was groundbreaking and changed the face (literally) of baseball. Dying tragically, while really really sad, cannot be the reason for this kind of honor
The sentiment is nice, but let’s not do this. It feels kind of disrespectful to Moses Malone and lessens the significance of his jersey retirement. I’d rather look for a way to honor Kobe’s history with the Rockets without taking away from other Rockets legends.
Kobe was a global icon whose mythology became bigger than his game. On the court he certainly owns a spot as one of the most overrated players in NBA history, and the second you begin to entertain advanced stats it becomes painfully clear that he was never in MJ’s stratosphere. But whether he was a top 5 player or a top 20 player in NBA history is immaterial. I won’t do any disparaging of his off the field history; it’s absolutely tragic what just happened, and pro sports probably has no parallel to it save for Roberto Clemente. The more relevant point is that, pro sports hasn’t retired MJ’s number across the league. It hasn’t done it for Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Bird, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Jerry Rice, Manning, or Montana, and it will not do it for Brady. One person has that honor in the three big sports: Jackie Robinson. Kobe was great, but he did not break the color barrier and make it his entire career with death threats. Mark Cuban did what he did, but in the future kids will be wondering some random franchise retired a number of a guy who never played for them. Just like we wonder now why the Heat retired Jordan’s number. It’s so random.
