Westbrook was never one of my favorite players during most of his prime, but seeing how Westbrook has handled his last few years helped me gain a lot of respect for him.
Sure he never was the lead guy on a championship team, but his competitiveness is amazing. He played his best through all the Lakers drama. Westbrook also put up 37 in a playoff game in the most recent playoffs. I’m quite a huge fan of this late-career Westbrook.
Kobe - when I first started following the NBA as a kid, Kobe was the player I liked to root against. Near the end of his career I had nothing but love for him.
Kobe.
As a Nuggets fan he was always the bad guy, he’d rip our hearts out and gloat over it and it killed the Melo years.
But the whole “Girl Dad” phase softened me on him and I began to really appreciate his body of work and then his “Letter to Basketball” was the push that made me say “damn, Kobe is the man”
Then bam, he’s gone.
Even though he was the bane of my basketball fandom for two decades, I am a Kobe fan.
Fake nuggets fan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXPpHI0RFJw
in answering the thread question, Rondo is the one for me, even before he came to the Lakers. he really seemed try to help the young guys (i’m going to ignore who was wrong in Dallas)
Heh, totally opposite for me. I really liked Celtics Rondo but then… you know the rest. Fuck Rajon Rondo.
Kobe but the other way for me. I respect his talents and greatness but I can’t get past the Denver incident for me to like him.
Was still very sad when he passed and he’s still an absolute NBA legend but I don’t personally like him.
Yeah I hear you, certainly a part of the Kobe story that got swept under the rug