Finally a good article about Kobe
ilya
Posts: 740
Pro-con: Kobe is good, but clearly not the best
There has been this fashionable myth making its way around basketball, embraced by the lazy who simply like to repeat what they've heard elsewhere, and it states that Kobe Bryant is the game's best player.
The myth excludes Shaquille O'Neal from the equation, giving him the title of ''most dominant'' instead, because Shaq is so much bigger and stronger than everyone else in the league that ''player'' is an understatement and ''monster'' might be, too.
Bryant, a champion, is excellent and versatile and nice (when he isn't punching people), but he's something else, too: overrated.
Not terribly overrated because he's very good, but overrated nonetheless if you think he's the game's best player. Because there are at least half a dozen players who could put up Kobe numbers, and better, if they had the absurd luxury of playing with Shaq.
I'm sure this is blasphemy to all the marketing people making sneakers and Sprite for Kobe, but among the group of players I'd rather have than their spokesperson is Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Chris Webber and maybe even Gary Payton, to name a few.
It is impossible to overstate how much Bryant benefits from having Shaq swallow double- and triple-teams. The floor opens up for him in a way it doesn't for, say, McGrady and Pierce and even Shareef Abdur-Rahim, none of whom has real big-man help.
Those three all put up Kobe-like numbers and they do this without Shaq's help, mind you. Bryant passes a little better than, say, McGrady (5.5 assists per game to 5.3) but, again, even that is skewed by the 7-1, 350 pounds of assistance he gets that McGrady doesn't. Even Jeff Miller would have five assists a game if he were passing to Shaq -- which he wouldn't be because Miller is a selfish ballhog, but Shaq would push him down and take the ball five times a game, thus giving Miller his five assists.
Doesn't it stand to reason that they (McGrady, Pierce and Abdur-Rahim, not Miller) would be even better with Shaq's presence in the middle? As it is, all their shooting percentages are right up there with Bryant's even without Shaq's help.
The easiest job in basketball is being Shaq's teammate, which is how the Rick Foxes and Robert Horrys of the world stay relevant.
Bryant is not the player defenses worry about stopping first when they play the Lakers, not unless Shaq is out of the lineup, at which point the Lakers tend to become a .500 team.
Remember Penny Hardaway? He was supposed to be the next Michael Jordan, right? You saw what happened to Hardaway when he left Shaq's side, right? His career hit the ground as if a puppeteer had let go of the strings. Shaq inflated his value, made him look better than he was, far better.
Remember Scottie Pippen? He was, absurdly, named one of the greatest 50 players in NBA history. People were fooled by how much he was helped by playing next to that Jordan guy. You saw what Pippen really was when he flopped in Houston and is now just another guy in Portland.
Bryant? Maybe not as much as Hardaway and Pippen, but he'll get exposed, too, if he ever leaves Shaq's side
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i agree with EVERYTHING, but the part about Pippen.
whoever wrote it, good job! (it was in some Miami newspaper)
There has been this fashionable myth making its way around basketball, embraced by the lazy who simply like to repeat what they've heard elsewhere, and it states that Kobe Bryant is the game's best player.
The myth excludes Shaquille O'Neal from the equation, giving him the title of ''most dominant'' instead, because Shaq is so much bigger and stronger than everyone else in the league that ''player'' is an understatement and ''monster'' might be, too.
Bryant, a champion, is excellent and versatile and nice (when he isn't punching people), but he's something else, too: overrated.
Not terribly overrated because he's very good, but overrated nonetheless if you think he's the game's best player. Because there are at least half a dozen players who could put up Kobe numbers, and better, if they had the absurd luxury of playing with Shaq.
I'm sure this is blasphemy to all the marketing people making sneakers and Sprite for Kobe, but among the group of players I'd rather have than their spokesperson is Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Chris Webber and maybe even Gary Payton, to name a few.
It is impossible to overstate how much Bryant benefits from having Shaq swallow double- and triple-teams. The floor opens up for him in a way it doesn't for, say, McGrady and Pierce and even Shareef Abdur-Rahim, none of whom has real big-man help.
Those three all put up Kobe-like numbers and they do this without Shaq's help, mind you. Bryant passes a little better than, say, McGrady (5.5 assists per game to 5.3) but, again, even that is skewed by the 7-1, 350 pounds of assistance he gets that McGrady doesn't. Even Jeff Miller would have five assists a game if he were passing to Shaq -- which he wouldn't be because Miller is a selfish ballhog, but Shaq would push him down and take the ball five times a game, thus giving Miller his five assists.
Doesn't it stand to reason that they (McGrady, Pierce and Abdur-Rahim, not Miller) would be even better with Shaq's presence in the middle? As it is, all their shooting percentages are right up there with Bryant's even without Shaq's help.
The easiest job in basketball is being Shaq's teammate, which is how the Rick Foxes and Robert Horrys of the world stay relevant.
Bryant is not the player defenses worry about stopping first when they play the Lakers, not unless Shaq is out of the lineup, at which point the Lakers tend to become a .500 team.
Remember Penny Hardaway? He was supposed to be the next Michael Jordan, right? You saw what happened to Hardaway when he left Shaq's side, right? His career hit the ground as if a puppeteer had let go of the strings. Shaq inflated his value, made him look better than he was, far better.
Remember Scottie Pippen? He was, absurdly, named one of the greatest 50 players in NBA history. People were fooled by how much he was helped by playing next to that Jordan guy. You saw what Pippen really was when he flopped in Houston and is now just another guy in Portland.
Bryant? Maybe not as much as Hardaway and Pippen, but he'll get exposed, too, if he ever leaves Shaq's side
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i agree with EVERYTHING, but the part about Pippen.
whoever wrote it, good job! (it was in some Miami newspaper)
I NEED 01-02 RCs of ZACH RANDOLPH!!
Ebay ID: mysteryman152
"Kid, get off me! Go back to school"
eat this, nikobe
Ebay ID: mysteryman152
"Kid, get off me! Go back to school"
eat this, nikobe
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Ebay ID: mysteryman152
"Kid, get off me! Go back to school"
eat this, nikobe
dave
http://groups.msn.com/kidatheartcardz/basketballcollectionscans.msnw
oh yeh, 2 rings? hell, steve kerr got 4. he must be better than him. Kerr for Kobe, lakers would get a deal! c'mon, make that trade!
derrick, wha? where you been? oh did you get bored without all the kobe-bashing? haha
Ebay ID: mysteryman152
"Kid, get off me! Go back to school"
eat this, nikobe
I guess the point is proven Kobe and Vince Carter are the greatest players EVER to grace the game....
Kingdom of Loathing Rocks!
I just sat back and thought, just imagine Carter in a Laker jersey........with Shaq opening the floor...man I don't think they would lose a game.
Yes he can dunk better than kobe, But "dunks don't win you titles"
another mofu%kin quote by the guru