Kobe Johnson is the kind of player every fan base loves when he’s on their team, and he’s the player opposing fans get annoyed by.
It’s a rich compliment to any athlete when he attains that kind of identity: the guy you dearly want on your team and can’t stand when he’s on the other side.
Kobe Johnson is not an elite shooter. He isn’t a top-tier scorer. He won’t dominate games or get the big headlines.
What he will do, however, is an essential part of winning. Basketball teams can’t win without having players such as Kobe Johnson.
Winning basketball involves scoring points, but winning players don’t have to score points directly in order to win. Winning players can rebound. They can defend. They can pass. They can set screens. They can block out. They can rotate and help their teammates.
Kobe Johnson does these things better than anyone else on the USC roster, and it showed in the 74-71 win over Auburn on Sunday.
Kobe Johnson makes a lot of plays which don’t even show up in the box score: Shots he prevents opponents from taking, points the opposing team doesn’t score. However, he made 15 non-scoring plays which were an essential part of this Trojan victory.
Sure, Boogie Ellis scored 28 points. USC needed every one of them. However, Kobe Johnson’s 15 contributions — 6 steals, 5 rebounds, 4 assists — formed the connective tissue, an essential ingredient in the win. He helped force 23 Auburn turnovers, the biggest single reason the Trojans won.
USC doesn’t prevail without Kobe’s hustle, basketball IQ, and court awareness. He’s an easy-to-love player.
He’s USC’s easy-to-love player, perfect for Andy Enfield’s style of play and overall culture.
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