After LA Lakers fans asked who in the world Ian Mahinmi was, they began to bash the unknown bench player whose most notable moment in the league was getting posterized by LeBron James in the 2011 NBA Finals.
According to BasketUSA.com, Mahinmi mentioned in an interview, “Kobe is super arrogant but everybody loves him. To me, Kobe is more arrogant (than LeBron James).”
Mahinmi is absolutely right about his assessment of Kobe’s arrogance though. Kobe and LeBron are both arrogant, but in different ways.
LeBron is egotistical, conceited but that doesn’t translate into having confidence on the basketball court come crunch time. Kobe on the other hand is so over-confident that he’ll take a fadeaway three over two defenders at the buzzer instead of passing it to an open teammate, but that’s exactly what makes him so great. He isn’t afraid of the moment, he embraces the closing seconds.
Arrogance isn’t a bad characteristic for a superstar to have. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever and he was the definition of arrogant. His Hall of Fame speech was priceless comedy; for example, when talking about Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Krause he said:
“Jerry’s not here. I don’t know who’d invite him. I didn’t. I hope he understands it goes a long way. He’s a very competitive person. I was a very competitive person. He said organizations win championships. I said, ‘I didn’t see organizations playing with the flu in Utah. I didn’t see it playing with a bad ankle.’”
No humble person says that, but tha...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
