Every team needs a leader. The best leaders rise to the top because of a subtle combination of the most impressive overall abilities. MJ and Bird and Magic and Tim Duncan were able to win multiple championships and sustain greatness over time because they tirelessly mulled over perfection in every central aspect of the game. They diversified their game as their careers progressed, they became mentally 'tougher, and perhaps most importantly, they found a way to remain on the floor when it mattered most. They did this by accepting less than perfection during the season, by being humbled in the face of injury and embracing the ebb and flow of their team’s growth, sacrificing personal achievements like stats and streaks and records to prime themselves to win and NBA Championship.

Like the past greats, Kobe Bryant has an iron will. At times it can be his biggest flaw. As he obsesses over personal perfection and accepts nothing less day in and day out, he sometimes loses sight of what he set out to do in greatness.

The reality is that like the aforementioned players, Kobe’s massive ego is matched by his competitive will, and the two forces working in unison result in the best player the game has to offer. Once again this is true because Kobe always seems to be around when it counts. If he were not, the outcomes would be different and history would not be etched and he would fade from our memories in the discussion of “The Best.”

At this stage of his career, even with arguably the most talented team in the NBA, Kobe knows the importance of staying on the floor. He’s the leader of his team…he’s the best player on his team…and he needs to help them in any way he can. But he needs to embrace this fuller and deeper.

Until the Portland game the other night, he played in 235 consecutive games. I don’t know the real truth of “who” or “what” eventually got through to Kobe (maybe, hopefully it was Kobe himself), but I only have to say one thing: IT’S ABOUT FREAKING TIME!

Kobe’s Achilles heal is his tendency to take challenges, struggles, tasks – standards he sets for himself – too personally. He seems to focus down too hard on the personal challenge and forget just what he initially set out to do, which invariably is to win... to be the last man standing. He needs to pace himself. Sure he needs to be on the floor often for the Lakers to win a high enough percentage of games to solidify a number 1 seed in the West, but you can only obsess about this to a certain degree. At some point you have to cut your losses and rest your injuries. Thank God he did. I was beginning to get really annoyed. For years now, it’s this attitude that at times has hurt the Lakers more than helped them.

Sometimes, Kobe, you gotta just give it up.

The Lakers have responded…winning their last 2 games against quality teams in convincing fashion.

I’m not saying he should continue to sit out and rest. I’m not saying he needs to miss games. I’m simply saying that when he is obviously the central focus of all the Lakers do on the court, there needs to be some predictability to what he can offer. His laundry list of nagging injuries, paired with the inconsistency of how he deals with them day in and day out, has created an uneven overall team performance for the Lakers.

Case-in-point: he needs a better game plan. Kobe could benefit from this so-called “cutting of his losses” from time to time, and truthfully he struggles with it. Reassuring is the fact that we see him struggling with it. Other “Great” players in the game today aren’t at the same level in my opinion.

Lebron James is a fierce man child…and will be the most gifted and impressive player the game has ever seen if he is not unanimously so already, but he has yet to show the world the same sick obsession with accepting the challenge of doing whatever it takes to win. He may be fooling some people by walking off the court noticeably distressed after loosing to Boston and Orlando in the playoffs in consecutive years, but it’s his childish petulance of not hi-fiving the opposing team that excludes him from the elite of the elite. He continues to back this up as he eats French fries from the hands of the opposing teams fans during games, hi-fives the Madison Square Garden front-row patrons as a possible preamble to what might be a regular (acceptable) occurrence next season and performs victory dances with his bench-mates with 8 minutes left and 25-point lead. How does any of this translate to someone who has his mind focused on greatness in a team sport?

Kevin Garnet is intense. He’s the most intense. It’s something to marvel at, but his intensity does no good if he’s not on the court, and the Boston Celtics winning percentage reflects this. Last season, including the post-season, the Celtics went 25-14 without Garnet (64%), as opposed to a 44-13 record (77%) with Garnet. This season is no different; when Garnet went down they dropped 6 of 10 games. He is the reason they kicked some Laker butt in 2008!

The Lakers will need Kobe to accept the things he cannot change for the duration of this season if they are going to have him be around and affective come May and June. The last two games for me were a huge and crucial step. Let’s hope for more humble offerings in the constant pursuit of basketball perfection from number 24.