Choosing Who to Follow
As an immature youngster, all that mattered to me was scoring. Who cares about rebounds, blocks, assists or steals as a youngster? Scoring was king for me, and the same was true for the league: offensive-minded players were THE stars. If you scored big, you got paid in the NBA. No advanced analytics. A player such as Draymond Green wouldn’t succeed in the NBA of the early 2000s when size and scoring was all the rage. I followed the trend and picked up 4 guys I considered following:
Tracy McGrady
As this was my first interaction with the NBA, I didn’t know what McGrady did till this point of his career. McGrady played in Toronto for 3 years and put up decent numbers as a young player, but the Raptors saw Vince Carter as the franchise player.
When McGrady arrived in Orlando for the 2000–2001 season, he exploded! What I saw then was a long, sometimes goofy-looking player, who was a scoring machine. His averages for that season were 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks. He was 7th in scoring that year. These are crazy numbers; just think what damage he could have done if he played in today’s NBA. He was long, had great vision, could hit the three, and could go inside for a basket at will. It is a shame his career was cut short by his injuries.
Vince Carter
Half-man, half-amazing. It is crazy I am mentioning this guy here. I considered him 20 years ago; he was playing this year before the COVID-19 stopped everything on earth. Also, as I mentioned before, he was the first star I saw while watching my first NBA game. Vince was a rising star. A year before, he had won the Slam Dunk contest, I still think it was one of the greatest contests till this day. His averages for that season were 27.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.1 blocks. He was 5th in scoring average that season. He was one of the promising young players in the league, and if not for the injuries he had, his career may have better results. One of my friends immigrated to Canada that year. I gave her money so she could buy me an original VC jersey. Multiple months afterward, I received it. It was 2XL in size and way too big for me. I looked like I was wearing a dress.
Allen Iverson
If you were a kid and you didn’t idolize AI, something was wrong with you for sure. AI was the leading scorer in the NBA that year. He wasn’t big physically, but he was super cool with all his tattoos and corn rows. AI played as if he had nothing to lose, diving on the floor, jumping into big guys and getting smacked to the ground, always coming back for more.
His averages for that season were 31.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 2.5 steals. Today, AI wouldn’t be a good player. There were problems with his attitude and a problem with practices. He shot tons of midrange jumpers at 42 field goal percentages. He shot 32 percent from three. But man, he was cool! Watching old AI games today, I cringe during almost every shot he takes. He was shooting so many hard and contested shots, it’s crazy! But I almost picked AI over Kobe; he was the closest.
Kobe Bryant
Then there was this dude. I gravitated toward Kobe. He was great looking. The fro he rocked was cool too. Maybe he reminded me of myself. Back then, he was a silent guy, always keeping to himself. Kobe was an outsider. You would see him alone on the sidelines, alone on the team bus rides or outside of team huddles. It looked like he kept a lot to himself. Growing up as an outsider because of the language barrier, you can see why he reminded me of myself. Maybe Kobe went through what I went through as a kid, moving at 6 years of age from Philadelphia to Italy for 7 years.
He was good at this basketball thing. His averages for that season were 28.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.7 steals. He was 4th in scoring average that season. Kobe was living in the shadow of the big diesel himself, Shaquille O’Neal. Together, they formed a fierce twosome. They also won a championship a year before that. In today’s NBA, I don’t think Kobe would have succeeded as a volume shooter that he was for all of his carrier.
These were the options. As a 15-year-old boy, I needed to decide.
The decision
Why I picked Kobe?
He reminded me of myself.
The Lakers won the championship the year before that, which was a good enough reason for a teenager.
The Lakers had an excellent team. At the least, they were better than the Toronto Raptors and the Orlando Magic (the 76ers, had the best record for most of the season losing five games in a row towards the end. The Spurs finished with the best record that season).
Life as a new Kobe and Lakers fan
All my friends hated Kobe, or they were indifferent to him. I had a friend who liked McGrady and hated Kobe’s guts. We always argued about who was the better player, McGrady or Kobe. Thinking back, I don’t recall meeting Kobe fans at all. It was always the same: “Kobe sucks. We hate him, and MJ was better.” I would lose my shit trying to defend him all the time.
Kobe was my man. Following my decision, I started following the Lakers. I couldn’t watch many games. ESPN and local Sport 5 only showed nationally televised games. There were 29 teams and only 2–3 games a week. I started reading game recaps on nba.com. My English was terrible! I couldn’t have a conversation with a 4-year-old kid in English. My grades at school were D’s and D-’s, but I couldn’t have cared less. I was so thirsty for basketball information, so I started reading the recaps. At the beginning, I didn’t understand what I was reading, but I picked it up quickly. Nothing would stand in my way! I set my mind on following this guy no matter what. At the end of that year, I got an A in my last English exam. My teacher was in shock over the turnaround I had made.
Here I was:
- Favorite team? Check!
- Favorite player? Check!
- English? Check!
I set sail on my journey, ready to conquer all the haters.
