The Ain't Promised Land! (Kobe tears Achilles)

"I know this ain't happening right now bruh?"

Calvin Coolidge got deep on boyz when he said, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” Vince Lombardi immediately jumped up and said, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

Well, the Black Mamba has succeeded! He’s given the very best that he had in his determination to get his team to the playoffs and he’s taken them as far as he could go. In the process of carrying them on his back he tore his Achilles tendon on Friday night in a 118-116 win over Golden State.

I'll continue to say that if I was ridin’ dirty and saw Kobe walking down the street I wouldn’t pull over and give that dun a lift. However, I’ve got tall respect for his game. As dull as the Lakers season has been, Kobe has been the only constant. Ole ego trippin’ Jim Buss tossed Mike Brown just 5 games into the joint without locking Phil down first.  Idiot move! Then they were forced to grab the chick that was a 4 from the club that boyz never paid attention to until the parking lot was empty and her ride happened to stall in front of them. They saw that she had low self-esteem so they asked her out because it was a lay up in Mike D’Antoni.

Then 147 year old Steve Nash literally got bumped into and was out forever.  Buster Brown has to be constantly motivated to do his freaking job and by the way, he still hasn’t committed to play in LA next year. Kobe’s done everything but wash boyz feet, do the laundry and become the team barber and manicurist.  He just started flying the freaking team plane and serving peanuts last week playboy! Now this!

To have been in that locker room and to have seen him on crutches had to have been so dull! Like I said earlier in the week, he’s playing the best basketball of his career hands down because he’s been asked to do so much with so little and he’s been a beast in the process.

When boyz in the barber shop in 20 years start arguing about greatness make sure that the Kobe Bryant 2012-13 season is part of the discussion pimpin’! Whether these cats make the playoffs or not you’ve witnessed his greatest season. Players don’t win championships, organizations do! I explained that last year in the Hot Joint entitled, “The Firm!” In order to win championships the organization has to put the right pieces together and LA didn’t do that.

Championships are a T.E.A.M. award playa! GREATNESS is an individual honor! Don't ever forget that. Why? Because not only did he put in work, he led a bunch of cats that were never on the same page to the mountain top and at least gave them a chance to look over into the promised land.

They’re one game ahead of Utah that holds the tie breaker with only two games left to play. They’ve got San Antonio and Houston coming up and now what type of heart will these duns play with? Do they fold up and die because the dragon’s head has been cut off or do they man up and at least finish the task at hand?

Greatness is determined by how much desire a man wakes up with and what he’s willing to do with it during the course of the day. Does he hold on to it or does he deposit it into his dreams? If he’s consistently empty at the end of everyday then he’s accomplished his goal whether he’s able to complete the task or not.

Remember, neither Moses nor Martin Luther King Jr. made it to the promised land but their greatness lives forever. See this is bigger than sports playboy. The Black Mamba just expressed his with a basketball! We all have the same opportunity to be great so in my Sweet Lou from the car wash voice, “So what chu gone do wit it homie?”

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Get @ me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport
The quote under the caption isn't real.