pro sports

There's been a lot of talk lately about Kobe Bryant being selfish. With both Phil Jackson and Shaq leaving, it does seem like Kobe must be making noise and forcing the team to give him what he wants.

I was discussing the whole Lakers debacle with my roommate last week, and I came to the following conclusion: Kobe is just a guy trying to advance his career.

Imagine for a second that Kobe works for a typical Fortune 500 company. He has a regular job, but he's very talented and sees a lot of potential for career growth. However, he feels that one of his co-workers (Shaq) is getting in the way of his career advancement, and he also doesn't really get along with his team lead (Jackson). It's not that he and his co-worker don't do good work together, but he feels that he could do better (and get more recognition) flying solo. If I were in that situation, I'd talk to my boss (aka the Lakers front office) about rectifying it, and I imagine most other people would too.

The problem is that with pro athletes, we (the public) don't like to think about the fact that playing ball is their job. We like to imagine that they all play purely for love of the game, loyalty to the team, and the pleasure of the fans. Career ambition isn't palatable to sports fans; it's fine in a 9-5er, but it isn't okay in a pro athlete.

As a footnote, I really wonder if this whole selfishness question would have come up if Kobe wasn't being tried for rape. Regardless of whether he's guilty and/or convicted, Kobe has lost a lot of good faith, and people are way more eager to brand him as a selfish pro athlete than they were before.