Coach said:
You've got to be kidding me. Other than Laker fans, who roots for Kobe? Even his own teammates and coaches dislike him.
other than pistons fans, who roots for rasheed wallace? other than kings fans, who roots for bonzi wells?...etc
who roots for what player is irrelevant. we're not talking about the most rooted for player in the nba. we're talking about the one who is liked the least. the terms on which that player is disliked were not discussed, either. had the original poster titled the thread "who is the one player in the nba that is so damn talented that it frustrates every player, coach, and fan of the nba into hating him?"...then we can say kobe bryant. but we're talking about most "disliked" player, in general. that's a broad spectrum to cover, and the competition in the poll is quite stiff. so much so, in fact, that it shouldn't be as lopsided as it is.
i don't "dislike" kobe bryant because of his amazing talents, but i do "dislike" latrell sprewell cuz he's a jerk. kobe bryant may be arrogant, but he's got the talent to back it up. i'm not calling that a justification, but its true. the man can ball. and people hate him for it. imo, that's lame. his teammates may dislike him because he's a ball hog, and his coaches may even dislike him because of his will to disobey, but outside of that group, who has any justification to actually "dislike" the guy? he made a mistake not too long ago in cheating on his wife, and maybe that's a valid reason to dislike him, but that's a personal issue for kobe bryant, and nba fans shouldnt concern themselves with that matter.
latrell sprewell, on the other hand, once choked his own coach. he also claimed that he should be getting paid more because he has a family to feed. now those are proper grounds to dislike someone. the former is inexcusable behavior. the nba should have expelled him from the league after that incident. the latter is a ridiculous statement that pisses people off because of it's outright ignorance. the guy has a violent history and a big mouth. ron artest has the same. i don't personally dislike ron artest, but i'm sure plenty of pacers fans do. of course, this is all my opinion, but i will argue it no further, because most people (kings fans especially) are so biased in their hatred for anyone in a lakers jersey (kobe bryant especially) that they tend to argue irrationally. i'm not saying that you're arguing irrationally. i'm actually not really saying anything at all. i just dont think many people have given proper reasoning concerning why they "dislike" kobe bryant (edit: actually, with 43 votes, very few people have given
any reason whatsoever as to why they dislike kobe bryant. this may very well say something about the bias in the polling. just an observation i found interesting).