I hate Kobe.  He is a great player and has some outstanding career accomplishments, however my dislike for him is still there.

 

I have seen him a lot as a Jazz fan because we play him 4 times per year.  Honestly, whether you like to believe it or not, star treatment is so real in the NBA.  Basketball is all about confidence, and how can you have low confidence when you come down the court knowing full well that if you miss, you'll get free throws?  Countless times Kobe bricks an off balance contested 3 while being triple teamed, and after the officials see that he misses, they blow the whistle and award 3 free throws.  

 

I'm not blaming the officials for the outcome of games, but I certainly am blaming them for giving star treatment to players like MJ, Kobe, Shaq, LeBron, Russell Westbrook, etc..

 

It's hard for me to love a player that gets all the calls.  Karl Malone was arguably our best player of all time on the Jazz, and even at ten years old I could see that he got tons of calls he didn't deserve.  Kobe has made a career off of shooting 20 free throws per game even when he is not aggressively driving to the hoop.  Any decent shooter should average 16 ppg off of those Free Throws alone. 

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