In this overall comment thread started by Jakanzi, there are several replies detailing the specific “context” as to why they feel Kobe found way to be a positive for his team while he worked through certain (major) offensive struggles in the game being referenced…

I don’t know that that is “hilarious”. You are welcome to do the same for LeBron/Steph/KD/whoever else.

Your KD example (imo) is not a comparable. The general opinion (amongst this comment thread) appears to be that Kobe found ways to make up for his deficiencies in that game. In contrast, the context you are creating essentially serves as an excuse response to people who claim KD choked.

For clarity, I’m not hating on LeBron/Steph/KD here, you may be able to find positive ways they contributed during games they struggled! But in your specific example, KD is the main star on the team, he needs to adapt his game when he gets doubled, because that is not really a unique defensive strategy. If he can’t adapt then it may well be a legitimate choke job? It feels like a cop out to just say “oh, well, he was doubled, and he had to take on a higher playmaking load, how could he possibly win that series??”

Many times, stars don’t live up our expectations (like KD in the game you reference and like Kobe in the game being referenced by Jakanzi). But what ELSE did KD do on that night to best ensure his team got the W? If there are standout things he did, THAT is the type of context you need to include to sway people away from believing it was a choke job.

If you feel there is some sort of bias in favour of Kobe here, then I think you should provide some examples of how you feel these players contributed to their teams success (or attempted to help them succeed) in similar highstakes games that people say they “choked” on. I think there are people who are willing to hear rational examples, I don’t think it’s just Kobe-stans blindly upvoting. Guys are providing legitimate explanations…