Caught Game 7 at home on Saturday night and now it is my turn to toss up my partially digested crow.It was the young Lakers who gagged as Smush, Kwame, and Lamar all left their game at the hotel. They couldn't score inside, and they couldn't stay in front of Diaw or Barbosa, and they couldn't guard anybody. Why didn't Kwame knock the Brazilian into the stands? Why did Smush switch on S/R instead of going under and making Nash shoot? Why didn't they put Kobe on Nash?
As much as I enjoyed the Suns win, my feeling is that reality will hit when they run up against Elton Brand and the Clippers. Nashie's only hope is to bait Cassell and the young Shaun Livingstone into a run and gun game that leaves the bigs huffing and puffing down the stretch. Clips in 5.
V
Hey Believers,
ReplyDeleteDid anybody else happen to notice the way Kobe just sort of disappeared
like foam out of the bottom of my $7 Canucks GM Place brewski?? What
happened to him? Was he trying to get back at the LA Beat writers for
saying he shot too much in the previous games? Biggest disappearing act
in quite some time.
"The Dude Just Doesn't Get It" Add "the Black Mamba" to the endangered
list.
Sincerely,
Rick Mahorn
aka Rod Embree
We'll I (mostly) stayed quiet until the Suns won so it's time to weigh in.
ReplyDeleteOuch - Everybody jump back on the I hate Kobe bandwagon.
First of all, who ever said he had class. I don't think even Rence said that. It's was always all about talent and MVP.
My two cents:
While Kobe is possibly the most talented player in the NBA (I still vote for KG but will accept that I may be wrong) and is definitely the most talented player relative to his team mates, he certainly is not the league MVP. There are lots of intangibles besides talent that make up an MVP, including ball smarts, maturity and leadership. With the possible exception of ball smarts, Kobe pretty much fails at the rest of them.
Thinking of TD, Magic, Bird, Jordan, .... They rarely pouted (except for TD who always has that Pete Sampras expression on his face), their team mates looked to them when the going got tough, and they understood when to take it all on their shoulders and when to let other people help them. They also were more valuable (maybe not more talented except of course MJ) to their teams than Kobe is to the present day Lakers. Their team mates expected them to make the whole team better as well as win games on their own and they did.
Kobe, generally, does not. He tries to win with his pure talent, regardless of who his opponent or team mates are.
The Lakers will improve next year, probably make it to the second round, and may even win a championship someday with Kobe but right now in his career, he lacks what is required to lift his team higher than their combined talent says they should.
Thanks
Jude