kobe bryant - doin' work

kobe: doin' work, is probably the worst piece of work spike lee has ever been involved in. this is one of the great film makers of his generation. in addition to turning real life stories into great movies, spike lee is a documentary film maker extraordinairre. he turns documentaries into art. however, in this case lee's skills are for naught because the subject is simply not compelling.

kobe: doin' work, is technically sound. everything looks good. the lighting is right. it is a courtside seat for the lakers-spurs at staples center and the movie conveys that feeling to the viewer. music is interspersed throughout the production effectively. kobe and the other professional players are terrific basketball players capable of amazing athletic feats. still, kobe bryant is boring, unbelievable, and at once milquetoast in his predicatability and outrageous as he sets about managing his perception. the title could just as easily be 'kobe: doin' work trying to be perceived exactly as i want to be perceived.'

kobe bryant really is a wonderful basketball player. among the greatest of all time, bryant has a unique combination of skill and size. he is a scorer, to be sure, but it is his jump-shot that sets him apart. it is one of the best jump-shots of all time. bryant's ability to consistently make that shot under pressure, with the best defenders in the league as close to him as they can possibly be, is what is special about him.

it's not his drives to the basket. michael jordan was significantly better than bryant at that. jordan went with a certain power that made defenders reconsider getting in front of him as jordan would hold the ball away from the defender, throwing his body headlong towards the basket and into the air but leading with his shoulder and his left bicep. kobe can do that on occasion but mike did it with regularity. jordan's jump-shot was just as good as kobe's but kobe's longevity in the league will add to his legend some day whereas jordan's hiatus from basketball may cause his stats to pale by comparison.

it's not kobe's basketball i.q. bryant is solid in that area. he understands the game, moves well without the ball, defends effectively and by instinct. still, bird, abdul-jabbar, west, nash, and yes, jordan, also compare favorably to kobe in this area. kobe still makes a lot of thoughtless mistakes on the basketball court. as an example to begin game six of the western conference semifinals recently, kobe turned the ball over twice in the first three minutes of the game as the lakers went down 17-1. the elite players of their respective generations made mistakes but not like kobe. his mistakes belie his greatness.

kobe bryant has always wanted to be recognized for his prowess on the basketball court. this was never more clear than when shaquille o'neal departed los angeles. bryant was interested in being seen as the laker. he wanted the team to be identified as his team and this is a concept kobe has always struggled with. he never seemed to understand that leading by example would lead to the personal accolades he coveted. post shaq he whined like a child, demanded a trade at one point in time, threatened to test free agency. he has simply owned a blind spot of epic proportion.

in kobe: doin' work, all of bryant's words come across as designed to give a certain impression. kobe: doin' work is a work of kobe's marketing skills. some viewers may buy kobe's message, which would seem to be; "kobe bryant is an unreal basketball player because he is a hard-working, student of the game whose dedication is unsurpassed and who is also humble." (yes. seriously. kobe wants you to believe he is humble. you can hear it between the lines every time he deigns to compliment a tony parker or a d wade or a manu ginobili.)

in a way kobe is superior to michael jordan and all the rest. what he does on the court that is positively unstoppable is in how he explodes into the air like a rocket. he can be dribbling and running in any direction but he has the ability to pop, straight up into the air, at which point his shot is effortless because his legs have done all the work. the ball must feel like a feather to kobe.

what is puzzling is this reputation kobe has for hitting big, last second shots. as a laker fan i root for him to hit these shots and while he has hit some, i remember a deluge of missed shots as time expired. yes, it started in utah in his rookie season... he hits big shots. he does-no question. last week he hit a big shot with ron artest all over him from about 35 feet away from the rim. it was a momentum changer, but not a game winner. i was in attendance at staples center one night a couple of years ago when he caught fire late in the third quarter against the clippers. he was unconscious. cuttino mobley wanted to crawl in a hole as kobe fired threes while falling out of bounds and every other manner of shot, and everything found the bottom. it was unbelievable but it was not game-winning.

remember those big shots when the lakers were three-peating their way through the beginning of the century? remember ron harper's shot from the baseline? remember "bob's," shot? hell, robert horry had like three big, game-winning, season-saving, playoff-delivering shots. brian shaw had a big one. d-fish had .4 to extend a losing season. kobe? well, he has had some game winners to be sure, (one against the suns comes to mind two nights before i got married,) but over the last five years he has taken pretty much every last second shot the lakers have had. this reputation kobe has is more legend than truth. still, he does not crumble at game's end. just last night he dished to d-fish for a couple of big buckets. he draws a big crowd after all, when he has the ball at the end of games.

the point of the film is to study the man who is kobe bryant. spike lee is documenting the work ethic of the superstar basketball player. the viewer should be impressed with kobe's work ethic, his attention to detail as he explains how things develop on the basketball court and strategy, and how giving he is as a subject, opening his life to lee's camera and an adoring public. the problem is, there is almost nothing about his life.

the documentarian recorded a day in the life but since basketball is just basketball and not a mystery, since the pros are merely a slice above the d league and the euro leagues, which are just above the middle eastern and australian leagues and the college game, since so many americans have played some organized basketball, the mystery we might sense and thereby be amazed at the simple feats of kobe bryant's basketball wizardry are essentially debunked.

had kobe bryant waxed philosophical or expounded on his thoughts on barack obama, (a la james blake at the australian open,) had he weighed in on the issues of the day or even talked about what he learned from his banishment post rape allegations, had he been the first to mention that he really has not hit a bunch of huge, game winning shots, (thereby showing real humility instead of the faux version he foists upon the public regularly,) had he, instead of praising dwayne wade's crossover dribble move to the basket, admitted that wade would beat him nine times out of ten in a one on one game, had he explained how it was he came to make a "rap," record, had he said something, anything at all that was remotely interesting instead of the snide, self-promoting drivel he oozes unceasingly throughout the piece, (spike lee held up his end of the bargain after all,) this could have been a good documentary.