Kobe Bryant a Dirty Player?

Kobe Bryant, one of the NBA's finest players, is he dirty? That's a question that's been surrounding him after incidents where he's flailed his arm back and hit two players in the face after his shot was blocked. The first incident which happened on January 28 against Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, outraged many fans and NBA analysts, including the Knicks fans who only get to see Kobe play once a year. Most people out there didn't consider it as something he did with intent to actually hurt Manu Ginobili, he was either attempting to get the foul or create space for the rebound, but hurt? No way.

Fast Forward to March 6th, late in the game with the Lakers up four points, Kobe's shot is blocked by Marko Jaric and basically the same incident that happened with Ginobili several weeks before happens again. The league is in a tight spot, because now they are forced to suspend him to maintain consistency with their rules, so he is suspended for the next game against the Bucks.

That second suspension is different though, because now talks of Bryant being a dirty player arise. Were his acts with intent to hurt Jaric and Ginobili? Was he just trying to create space? Were his acts intentional at all? Now all of a sudden all of Kobe's actions have been put under the microscope, sports news outlets start showing Kobe doing things in the past that were questionable, a game after his suspension against the Philadelphia 76ers, Kobe does a sort of a little push off move on Kyle Korver to create space, now this is a move, Kobe does basically every game, luckily, he wasn't suspended, instead he was hit with a flagrant foul, but nonetheless this is a clear indication that the NBA is making sure Kobe knows "they've got their eyes on him"

Stu Jackson, who is the man that mainly hands out the fines and suspensions of the NBA called Kobe's move an "unnatural basketball act", but it's not like Kobe has only done it on those two occasions. This video created by LakersRule24 of YouTube, shows several occasions where Kobe has done the same move, or similar too it.

The truth of it is, Kobe doesn't deserve this "Ron Artest" treatment by the NBA. Okay, maybe it's not Ron Artest, but my point is, he isn't a dirty player. He's just a very physical player who does what it takes to win. Dirty players consistently do things with intent to injure, or knowingly doing things that have a high risk of injuring another player such as Bruce Bowen, who may be the dirtiest player in the NBA. He has many dirty moves, but one of his more dirtier moves is where he goes right under a player after their jump shot, this is a move that has injured a couple players including Steve Francis of the New York Knicks. Kobe didn't even realize that Manu was down until several seconds later.

The move that Kobe did was either one of two things: He was trying to create space for the rebound, or he was trying to get the foul called. Notice on neither of those things did I put "to see how hard he could smack Manu Ginobili, and Marko Jaric in the face". It was the equivalent to someone in the paint pushing another player so he could get the rebound. It was just a loose ball foul gone a little to the extreme.

If the league is going to start watching Kobe and putting him out there as if he is a "dirty player" like they are now, for doing two incidents that weren't event that bad, they need to start watching all of the other players out there who have some questionable moves, that includes virtually all of the superstars of the league today. Including Lebron James and Dwyane Wade, who as a whole, probably get away with more then any other players in the NBA.

James Worthy on the post-game show for Lakers broadcast said there is a "conspiracy against Kobe", now he was obviously upset by Kobe's suspension, but he may be on to something. Lebron James and Dwyane Wade seem to get a lot more love from the NBA then Kobe Bryant. Now I'm not saying that the amount of love you get from the NBA and their referees should be based on how popular you are, but let's face it, you are, at least I thought, and Kobe Bryant is the most popular player in the NBA. He's on the Lakers, the most popular and biggest market in the NBA, you would think he would get a little more love. But for some reason he isn't, I can't quite put my finger on it, but I guess I'll have to investigate that and put it another article.

It's funny, because if you put 90% of the NBA who played in the 80's in todays NBA, almost all of them would be considered dirty players. It's quite sad how the physical play of this game is dwindling by the season. Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, World B. Free, John Stockton, Karl Malone, they were all great, and they all played a little dirty...except Karl Malone, he didn't play a little dirty, he played dirty on every possession.

Players are going to get hurt in the NBA, it's somewhat of a physical game last time I checked, you can't just go suspending players because someone gets hurt, fining them is okay, but suspending them makes them and other players feel they can't play hard anymore on offense. I don't think the league wants NBA players to stop playing hard, especially when most of them don't start playing hard until the last two minutes of the game. They've already taken defense from players, don't take offense from them too.