Almost as soon as LeBron James scored his 33,644th point midway through the third quarter of Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Twitter exploded with a familiar debate: Who is better, Kobe or LeBron? It’s a familiar question with an unsatisfactory answer because loyalty can’t be quantified. Stats can be cited, championships counted, analytics and the eyeball test butt heads and yet at the end of the day, no consensus is reached.
Yet again.
Then Sunday came … and none of it mattered.
In America we’ve been programmed to treat nuance like tiny speed bumps to be ignored on the fast track to the conclusions we’ve already drawn. We script rebuttals to arguments yet to be made, the byproduct of a society obsessed with being the best. We don’t stop to smell the roses because, well, we’re moving too fast to even notice there are roses. Social media is no doesn’t help, of course, but the truth is we were like this long before Tom wanted to be our friend on Myspace.
Sports is not immune to this. One could say it is a focal point with its parade of MVP awards, Hall of Fame inductions and constant pursuit of the GOAT — the Greatest Of All Time — which is the most pressing issue among fans regardless of the sport. There’s nothing wrong with wanting your favorite athlete to be the best, it just seems as if it is supplanting the reason we connect with the sport they play in the first place. So when James supplanted Kobe Bryant for third on the NBA scoring list, fans did what we always do.
Then came Sunday.
L.A. mourns the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
I won’t pretend to behave as if I have not engaged in these fruitless comparisons. They’re fun and for the most part harmless. In my business, these arguments are monetized. But unfortunately they also erode our ability to just sit back and enjoy the game, you know, be in the moment. The way fantasy football and/or gambling undermines our ability to watch without obsessing over specific markers to be reached. Why can’t James or Tiger Woods or Serena Williams or Canelo Álvarez just be great without the need to have their place in history be determined while still in the midst of their career? In a span of 12 hours, many went from dissecting Bryant’s game to wishing we could see him play one more time. The debates faded because we instinctively knew all that really mattered was his family, friends and how watching him play made us feel. Of course the reality is that’s all that really mattered in the first place. In a world driven by talk, it’s easy to forget to feel.
Saturday we monitored numbers.
Sunday we mourned the man.
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A Lakers fan sobs at a memorial for Kobe Bryant outside the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo on Sunday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans (from left) Alex Fultz, Eddy Rivas and Rene Alfaro gather with others near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center on Sunday after learning of his death. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Martin Yan, 35, of Diamond Bar stands beside of a mural depicting Kobe Bryant on Lebanon Street northeast of Staples Center. Fans are flocking to the area and having photos taken with the mural. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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The investigation continues Tuesday at the crash site in Calabasas where a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others crashed, killing all aboard. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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The pilot was identified by colleagues as Ara Zobayan, 50, of Huntington Beach. (Bernadette McKeever)
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The Sikorsky S-76B helicopter (N72EX) that crashed in Calabasas. (Geraldine Petrovic / Polaris)
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A tribute to Kobe Bryant is projected on the Los Angeles Times building. (Los Angeles Times)
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A couple pay their respects at a memorial at home plate in honor of Orange Coast College head baseball coach John Altobelli, who perished with wife Keri, and daughter, Alyssa, in Sunday’s helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
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Uziel Colon takes a photo of his wife, Maria Home, and daughter Lena with a mural created to honor Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. The mural is by Art Gozukuchikyan on the side of VEM Exotic Rentals on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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People pay tribute to Kobe Bryant outside the gated community in Newport Coast where his family lives. (Don Leach / Los Angeles Times)
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Kinzo Beachem writes on the cement next to a makeshift memorial for former Lakers player Kobe Bryant at L.A. Live plaza in front of Staples Center. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather outside Staples Center in Los Angeles to mourn the death of Kobe Bryant after news spread that Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among the nine killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Emergency responders cover remains at the site of the helicopter crash that killed nine people including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna on Sunday in Calabasas. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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From left, Christopher Pena, 33, and his wife Lizbeth, 30, of Pacoima, mourn with Jose Gutierrez, 33, of La Puente, near the site of the Calabasas helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Nancy Fernandez of Van Nuys lights a candle at a memorial for Kobe Bryant at De Anza Park in Calabasas on Sunday. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans mourn near Staples Center after learning that Lakers great Kobe Bryant had died. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners huddle at L.A. Live, across from Staples Center, site of the home court of Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman kneels at the makeshift memorial to Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A man kisses the ground as Lakers fans gather at a memorial to Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather around a makeshift memorial to Kobe Bryant at L.A. Live on Sunday evening. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Naima Smith, 37, and Swania Hogue, 48, both of Los Angeles, mourn the loss of Kobe Bryant at a vigil in Leimert Park on Sunday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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A Lakers fan touches a memorial for Kobe Bryant outside the Lakers practice facility in El Segundo on Sunday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners gather at the corner of Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street in Calabasas near the site of the helicopter crash. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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Naima Smith, 37, lays flowers at a makeshift memorial during a vigil for Kobe Bryant in Leimert Park on Sunday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans stand near a memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center on Sunday after learning of his death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Naima Smith, 37, center, and other fans mourn the death of Kobe Bryant at a vigil in Leimert Park on Sunday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans stand near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center on Sunday after learning of his death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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A screen at L.A. Live on Sunday displays an image of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant following his death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather near a makeshift memorial for Kobe Bryant outside Staples Center after learning of the Lakers legend’s death Sunday. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Bryant Hirshman is hugged by his father, Craig, and mother, Elena, near the helicopter crash site in Calabasas that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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People gather on Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas near the site of a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Amanda Gordon and her husband, Philip, mourn the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant near the site of a helicopter crash Calabasas that claimed the lives of the Lakers legend, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Jianing Zhang, right, and his girlfriend Cathy Xiao gather with others near the helicopter crash site in Calabasas that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others Sunday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Large Kobe Bryant memorial signs are illuminated at L.A. Live as fans Aldo Luna and his son Ethan of Pomona gather with others paying their respects outside Staples Center. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Lakers fans mourn the death of Kobe Bryant at a makeshift memorial. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans post sticky notes paying tribute to Kobe Bryant on a mural of the former NBA superstar outside Shoe Palace on Melrose Avenue in L.A. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather at a makeshift memorial outside Staples Center to mourn Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans gather outside Staples Center at a makeshift memorial to Kobe Bryant. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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Kobe Bryant’s No. 8 and No. 24 Lakers jerseys hang in the rafters at Staples Center during preparations for the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
May Monday be a day in which simply watching the brilliance of Roger Federer or James Harden be enough. May the play of Patrick Mahomes or Richard Sherman on Sunday do the same. More importantly, may every day be one in which we tell the ones we care about how we feel — if we haven’t done so already.
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