Stephen A. Smith | Kobe Bryant showing just how special he is

The 76ers, essentially, are a franchise in disarray. They possess just enough talent to avoid being pathetic on a consistent basis, but not enough to avoid reminding us of their inferiority just as often.

With that in mind, you place your palms together and close your eyes, desperate for divine intervention - praying that a basketball jewel like Kobe Bryant will find his way to Philadelphia in the near future.

We've known for years that Bryant was something special, that rare basketball junkie who signs for seven years at $136 million and still plays as if he would starve without a basketball in his hands. What we're learning now is that he's the quintessential superstar, the player every team covets as much for his mental approach to the game as, well, for his natural talent.

Bryant is the kind of star the Sixers would tell anyone they wanted Allen Iverson to be, so the rest of us wouldn't have to sit here hoping that the likes of Andre Miller and future draft picks would elevate this team to a level that reached once-upon-a-time status a while ago.

When the weekend arrived, we were preoccupied with the NCAA tournament, and, still, the basketball world was transfixed by Bryant, who was conducting his own version of March Madness. After dropping 65 points on Portland on March 16, he scored 50 against Minnesota, then 60 at Memphis, before ending the week by scorching the Hornets for 50 Friday night in New Orleans. The Lakers won all four games.

Surprise, surprise.

For those who weren't paying attention, that means Bryant joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to score 50 or more points in four consecutive games. It also places him right in the discussions for league MVP honors with Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, regardless of what the haters may say.

"I can't worry about any of that right now," Bryant told me a few days ago. "I'm scoring because I've got my guys back [from injuries] in Lamar Odom and Luke Walton making the plays that are making me look good. They understand the triangle, what Coach [Phil Jackson] wants. And, quite honestly, it's time we all understand we've got to play with urgency.

"If we don't win games now, we miss the playoffs, which means we're home in April watching the playoffs. That's just unacceptable to me. That, and people trying to label me a dirty player [due to two suspensions for smacking Manu Ginobili and Marko Jaric in the face with his elbow after shooting attempts] is more than enough motivation. You've got to understand what I put into preparing myself for this game to understand how motivated I am right now."

While other players sleep and party, Bryant's got a basketball in his hand, a fact that could qualify as the worst-kept secret in NBA history. It's well known that Bryant spent the better part of his career playing Nintendo, studying film, and practicing his jump shot while most other players in the league were partying. In fact, he once took his sweat suit to an endorsement meeting with Reebok, promptly asking to use the court to shoot 300 turnaround jump shots from the right baseline.

Behind closed curtains in the Wachovia Center, the Sixers are quick to say these are things Iverson didn't do, that Iverson's reliance on natural ability contaminated Andre Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert and others. They'll tell folks there was little commitment to conditioning, that it was like pulling teeth to get players to lift weights and do their cardio workouts, and how that has contributed to this team's demise as much as anything else.

So times are supposed to be better now that Iverson is gone, despite a record on the bad side of .500 since his departure. Iguodala cares more now. So do Dalembert, Steven Hunter and others. Gone is the complacency that infected this franchise like a virus.

"It never existed here," Odom said recently. "Not with Kobe. You can't imagine his commitment to his game. Some things you've got to actually see to believe."

No offense to LeBron James, but we are all witnesses now.

James is a stud whose star has faded a bit with his struggles from the free-throw line. Dwyane Wade is the real deal, but he has never shot from the perimeter with the ease Bryant displays.

"The goal is not to have a weakness in my game, to do everything I can to ensure there are no weaknesses in my game," Bryant said. "I've got a ways to go, personally. I don't think I'm finished."

The rest of us should be, when it comes to doubting his game.

We can only hope we'll say the same of another Sixer someday.