Phoenix Suns Experience the ‘Kobe Effect’ in Crushing Game Five Defeat

"Great players win scoring titles. Great teams win championships."

A fellow named LeBron James once gloated that he could, "win the scoring title every year if he wanted to." His follow-up to that comment was, "It doesn't matter."

Really?

James and his 2009-10 Cleveland Cavalier squad lost to the Boston Celtics..wait, were obliterated by the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs.

It appeared that the concept of "team" was nonexistent, and James lead the series in scoring but didn't even come within a sniff of winning the series.

The wily veteran Kobe Bryant most of this season took a backseat to James and Kevin Durant, staying below the radar waiting for the right time to show.

Now that the playoffs are nearing an end, who is the star scoring threat still shooting in front of a legion of fans for all of the marbles?

Yep, that ol' Kobe Bryant.

Weathering the storm that has crowned James as the best individual player in the league, a title held by Bryant for the last decade, Kobe has shown why he is not quite ready to release his grip.

There's a glaring difference between James and Bryant, and it starts with T and ends with M, as in "most titles."

LeBron has himself, Kobe has a team.

The Los Angeles Lakers have been participants in the last two NBA Finals series, winning one. The Cavs were there once, and swept by Timmy and the Spurs.

After Ron Artest's heroics in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Phoenix Suns, Kobe may make that three appearances in a row.

Kobe has done nothing but will himself and his team to give every ounce of their ability and heart to the task at hand, with the fight of a lion but the eloquence of a dancer.

No matter what faces him and his team, the Lakers find a way to run a stake through the chests of the opponent and rise above the adversit...

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