Written by Zach Harper | 05 June 2009

When I woke up to my Seesmic Desktop Twitter application this morning, I had a response from a follower, @NOVC216, in which he (I'm assuming it's a he, which leads to the beauty of Twitter -- complete sexual anonymity) stated that Kobe looked so young old (Ed. Note: I wrote young earlier when in fact the observation was that he looked so old. I'm illiterate.) in response to a video of his press conference after last night's game. It lead me to remember a post on The Sporting Blog that I saw late last night when I was clearing out my Google Reader.

I'd like to take you back to a simpler time. It was a time in which the NBA had a clear-cut best team in the league and a definitive best player in the league. It was a time of rough play and true flagrant fouls. Pat Riley was still respected, Charles Barkley wasn't a TV icon yet and there were a couple of young rookies garnering attention as they approached the national spotlight.

This video is Kobe Bryant in his rookie season in an ad for Adidas (if only he had stayed true to his first sponsor! There would have been a Dwight-Kobe puppetfest!). Now, obviously the commercial is exaggerated to portray some streetball between friends. But look at the way Kobe handles the ball compared to how polished and precise his game is. I think a lot of people remember the cocky, arrogant, Moesha-dating Kobe Bryant with the flashy crossover and shit-eating grin on his face. They don't realize that he's grown up into a cocky, confident basketball hired hitman.

Enjoy the video:

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