A Lakers-Clippers playoff series?

Bill Simmons has a great column today about the NBA playoffs that focuses largely on the two LA teams. He touches on a lot of good stuff, which made easier by how exciting the first round of the playoffs has been. He also specifically gets into the Kobe transformation that R.M. were talking about a few days ago.

Here's what I wrote then

The biggest surprise of these playoffs has been the Lakers dominance of the Suns. Really, does it make Kobe seem worse to suddenly see him play incredibly unselfish team ball? Which is worse: for him to be incapable of this or to have been capable and deliberately not playing this way? Can Lakers fans love this series and not want to stone Kobe to death for single-handedly giving Detroit the '04 championship?

Here's what Simmons writes now

Subplot No. 2: Bizarro Kobe
Well, I broke new ground here on ESPN.com: Back in January, I wrote that he was playing too selfishly. Now? I think he's playing too unselfishly -- in fact, he passed up so many scoring chances to set up teammates in Game 4, it nearly cost the Lakers a winnable game.

More importantly ... WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??

WHERE THE HELL DID THIS COME FROM?!!?!?!?!?!?

This was like watching Jimmy Fallon make it through an entire month of SNL episodes without laughing at one of his jokes. This was like watching Chris Berman make it through an entire NFL draft without tipping a team's pick as Paul Tagliabue approached the podium. This was like watching me write an entire month of columns without mentioning my friends or my father. It was simply incomprehensible. You could even call him Bizarro Kobe.

Do we praise him (for grasping the team concept, playing the most cerebral basketball of his career and finally understanding that his teammates will always play harder/better/more passionately when they have a greater stake in the proceedings) or skewer him (for not playing like this all along when it was clearly lurking inside of him). It's a tossup. If anything, his newfound unselfishness has hindered his offensive game; he played poorly for most of Game 4. But it's been mind-boggling to watch Bizarro Kobe pass up bad jumpers and openly try to get his teammates involved. It's simply implausible, like watching the Colts come out for a playoff game running the wishbone with Manning, and even stranger, Manning running amok and breaking tackles 20 yards down the field.

To me, here is the crux of the issue: Kobe has always had this in him. During the early years (and championships) of Phil Jacksons' first run in LA, Kobe was not nearly as good an individual player as he is now but consistently played team basketball at both ends of the court. Then whatever happened, happened, and he sold out his team in the '04 Finals.

On the listserve that pre-dated this blog we wrote extensively during that series about how Kobe might as well have been playing for the Pistons. At the time Shaq was still unstoppable in the paint; neither of the Wallaces could do anything with him alone. O'Neal ended up with a 64% FG% in that series, while still pulling down 20-rebound games like game 4.

At the same time Kobe seemed to have decided that if he couldn't win the series alone he didn't want the Lakers to win. The Pistons left Shaq in single coverage and triple-teamed Kobe whenever he had the ball. Every play screamed for Kobe to pass, which he absolutely wouldn't do. Play after play he dribbled straight into a crowd and then heaved up a ridiculous shot. It was so bad even the TV announcers couldn't keep from breaking the NBA's 'never criticize a celebrity player' rule. "The Lakers seem to have forgotten about the big fella" they'd say as Kobe threw up an out-of-control-airball-three while falling into the Pistons bench. Overall, Kobe shot 38% for the series but hit less than a third of his shots after the first two games. The result of all this? Pistons in 5. And it wasn't even close.

Everything leading up to and including 2004 Finals puts what Kobe's doing now in a whole different light. This isn't a guy who's coming to Jesus in the middle of his career. This is a guy who played excellent team basketball while he was become a star, then ditched it all in the Finals and for most of the next two years rather than share the limelight with anyone. While I'm wary of framing all this in terms of pop psychology, the one constant seems to be Kobe's ever-expanding ego. He'll pass the ball to Luke Walton if it gets him to the next playoff series and a bigger stage to be alpha male on. He won't let anyone pass to Shaq, though, even if it means getting blown out by a worse team in the Finals.