The good thing about voting for the NBA All Star game is fans can see their favorite players by their discretion; the fans decide who plays in the game and who starts. The bad? It turns into a thing where those who are deserving don’t go and those who aren’t deserving, well, yeah, they go sometimes because they’re fan favorites.
The latter could be applied this season to Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant. He’s not anywhere close to the Kobe we’re all accustomed to (this season, he’s averaging just 16.3 points per game on just under 35 percent shooting) but to his credit, that can be considered a great stat-line due to his age. Thanks to fan voting, Kobe will make his final appearance and start in the 2016 NBA All Star game next month. With all eyes going to be locked in on Bryant as he takes the floor one last time with his fellow All Stars, Bryant has one lingering idea for the rest of the players participating: don’t play soft on him.
Speaking with Yahoo Sports! he discussed a conversation he had with Michael Jordan about his Airness’ last All Star game in 2003 and what he took with him.
“One thing that Michael said was, ‘Just because it’s my last All-Star Game, I don’t want you to come out there going soft on me,’ ” Bryant recently told Yahoo Sports. ” ‘I want you to play me how you would normally play me.’ I was like, ‘Mike, what do you know about me that would lead you to tell me that?’ We both got a good laugh out of that.”
He also spoke on the essential things he’ll miss about the NBA’s All Star games and its competition.
“The thing I remember most was the competition. Those are the things that I will always cherish. Hopefully, they will come out and compete as always this year. Those are the things I will always carry with me. Just true competition.”
