http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/phil_taylor/05/10/kobe/index.html Dominant then invisible, Bryant is a conflicted star Posted: Wednesday May 10, 2006 8:57AM; Updated: Wednesday May 10, 2006 12:55PM There are still plenty of games left in the NBA playoffs, but now that the Los Angeles Lakers have been eliminated, the most fascinating games of all have disappeared with them -- the ones that go on in the mind of Kobe Bryant. The rest of the postseason promises to be an exercise in inevitability. The Detroit Pistons are almost certainly headed for the Finals, where they will in all probability beat the San Antonio Spurs to win their second championship in three years. LeBron James will continue to progress toward superstardom in predictable stages, losing to the Pistons after a heroic performance in the first round against Washington. There are very few real surprises in a typical NBA postseason, which is why we'll miss delightfully bizarre Bryant, who is arguably the most talented and inarguably the most psychologically complex player in the league. Watching Bryant work his magic on the court is amazing, but you get the feeling that watching the workings of his psyche would be the real fun. Lakers fans, however, probably found Bryant's most recent eccentricity more maddening than fascinating. For reasons apparently known only to himself, Bryant took only three shots and scored one -- one! -- point in the second half of the Lakers' loss to the Phoenix Suns in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series last weekend. After scoring 50 points in Game 6 two days earlier, after scoring 23 points in the first half of Game 7, Bryant for some reason decided to spend the second half merely passing the ball and barely looking at the basket. He might as well have been Sasha Vujacic. Bryant and Lakers head coach Phil Jackson both spouted some nonsense afterward about Kobe trying to get teammates involved in the offense because he couldn't beat the Suns single-handedly. Jackson shrugged his shoulders, as if Kobe's virtual work stoppage was nothing out of the ordinary. Hello? When the NBA's scoring champ suddenly acts like he couldn't find the basket with a GPS system, it's kind of a big deal. Maybe Jackson was hoping that the rest of us wouldn't notice Bryant's voluntary scoring slump, but the guess here is that Phil can't wait to rip him for this in his next book. When Kobe doesn't shoot, something's up. Can you imagine Michael Jordan pulling such a disappearing act in a big game? Or even James, who has already shown a psychological steadiness at 21 that Bryant, 27, still hasn't achieved? Maybe something was said at halftime of Game 7 by Jackson or one of the other Lakers players that rubbed Bryant the wrong way, or maybe he was disgusted with his teammates' jittery play and decided to teach them a lesson by refusing to bail them out. Whatever it was, something brought Bryant's pouty, immature side to the surface again. It reminded Lakers watchers of the last time he removed himself from the offense, in a game against Sacramento a few years ago after he had come under fire for shooting too much. It was a shame, in a way, because Bryant seemed to have made such strides earlier in the Phoenix series. He had found the perfect balance between creating his own shots and being a facilitator for his teammates as the Lakers took a 3-1 series lead. Even when the Suns came back to win the next two games, Bryant could hardly be faulted. He wasn't the point-hungry Kobe, ignoring open teammates because he didn't trust them to carry their share of the offensive load. Bryant had grown up, or so it seemed. But in Game 7, the old Kobe came back -- the Kobe of extremes, the one who insists on all or nothing. This time he gave the Lakers nothing -- nothing but a headache as they try to figure out whether Bryant will ever be even-keeled enough for them to trust him completely. But that's Jackson's problem. The rest of us can just relax, watch and wonder where the next stop will be in Bryant's bizarro world.
Yes... blame Smush Parkers' dissapearing act, Luke Walton returning to reality, and the Lakers overall talent or lack there of on Kobe. I'm no Kobe lover by any means but all this blaming and psychological mind-reading into Kobe is ridiculous. The Lakers vs. Suns series was a perfect example that the better team prevails in a 7 game series. Put it to rest.
It's not the first time Kobe has used a big game to 'send a message', he's done it in the past. You take the good with the bad, he's a great competitor and at the same time self-centered and a bit sensitive to criticism; I would live with those shortcomings in his personality as long as he performs on the court. People often forget these guys are human beings, not machines.
Remember the game against Sacramento a few years back where he decided to mail the game in with something like 6 points after someone criticized him. What a Effin Baby. Nice way to show your competitive edge by half assing a Game 7 against a team that you just went 3-1 on and let them come roaring back. I love the way Kobe plays, but his antics are worse than Tmac's back. Atleast there is something physically wrong with tmac, where as Kobe decided, hell we ain't gunna win, so why try. Jordan, sure as hell wouldn't get 1 point in the 2nd half of a game 7. Competitor my ass. Killer Instinct is nothing when ur ego is bigger than the EFFin Sun.
when you are are the focus of the offense on your team, especially after scoring 23 first half points, it's not unreasonable to expect Kobe to shoot more than 3 times in a half. i don't recall Kobe ever giving up like this before. maybe it's b/c it's never been this blatant.
Maybe it was a display of passive aggressive behavior. Or, maybe he was trying to do the right thing, what Phil Jackson wanted him to do, and it didn't work. It's all speculation.
Some guys just never can meld scorer and creater personas together. They can only flip flop between the two. Francis and Starbury are prime examples. Even Wade is having more trouble with this than is talked about. Very few guys in the league have ever been good at it. Drexler was, Bird was, Isiah was, and Magic may have been the best. (90s) Jordan knew when to distribute. Kobe just doesn't have a knack for setting others up. He can pass, but has a habit of overpassing in spurts to prove that his teammates can't make good. A lot of that has to with his cast (a) not being set shooters (Odom), (b) not getting the pass where they want it, (c) not being able to get a connection with Kobe since he picks and chooses when he'll be a passer. You can't just turn it on and off like a faucet. You have to be in a system all year. Guys need to know that if they get themselves in a certain position, Kobe will find them. When Kobe decides, hey, I'll do a 180 and be a passing machine in the second half today, it doesn't work. Obviously, Kobe needs to be a scorer first and foremost. But like Dream and Jordan, he has to hit guys off CONSISTENTLY in EVERY game so that the team can find themselves. If the Suns became a halfcourt team tomm, it would be a disaster. If we switched to a high post offense next season, it would be a disaster. You have to find a single identity and stick with it. Evan
Kobe has yet to prove that he can carry a team anywhere without Shaq. Granted the team is not as talented as it once was, but Odom is a good second option. The Lakers should have eliminated the Suns up 3-1 and the star of the team should take some blame for the melt down. The Suns are only one of I believe eight teams to ever come back from being down 3-1. The bottom line is if you're the main guy on any team you have to score more than one point per half. Kobe is not my favorite player, but there's no denying his talent. He still has a lot of maturing to do to reach his full potential and at this point after being in the league for so many years you have to wonder if he's ever going to reach full maturity.
while odom is nice, he's just that, nice. he's not going to carry the team while kobe is off or when he goes to the bench or anything. he just goes with the flow. and he certainly forgot to show up for game 7. and the rest of the starting lineup they played in the playoffs averaged 7, 3, and 3 ppg last year. smush wasn't really even in the league so i'm not sure we should even count his 3 ppg (he played 18 or so games). and he was their starting pg. and he was God-awful. not that kobe is as good as shaq was, but this team doesn't tell us much. the thing is, the lakers never had any real control of any of the games. even the 3 they won, they were basically executing perfectly on defense, guys were playing above their heads on offense, and phoenix was missing shots. they were always a phoenix hot streak from losing. they just barely managed to pull out all 3 games (and obviously game 4 was pretty much a miracle). like when phoenix was up on us 3-1 back in 1995, they weren't just edging us out. they beat us by 33 in one game. they were dominating us and then we stormed back. that team fell apart (and we were awesome). the lakers were never more than a key made 3 by phoenix from losing all 3 games. once the phoenix offense came around and smush fell off the face of the earth, they didn't have much of a chance. they almost got lucky in game 6 with kobe hitting a few shots at the end to turn a game-long deficit into a brief lead, but thomas hit that 3, and they never recovered. the better team won, it just took them a while to get going. why do people keep referring to it this way. first a disappearing act would mostly imply you were trying to be good but were overwhelmed by the moment or stifled by the other team and completely taken off your game. judging by the 23 first half points, this clearly wasn't the case. disappearing act doesn't really apply to something voluntary like this. and why do people keep saying "in a big game." yeah, when the game started it was a big game. and kobe scored 23 in the first half to give the lakers a tiny shred of hope, but they were still down 15. then he came out and tried to get people involved and the lead ballooned to 20+, then he took 2 shots to seemingly see if he could get on fire and go for the win. he missed both and then it was about a 25 point lead and that was all she wrote (this was something only kenny smith ever actually noted). it's not like he could've won the game at that point (unless he hit about 17 3's in a row, which clearly wasn't going to happen after missing the previous 2). jackson and d'antoni may as well have pulled the starters to avoid injuries at that point. kobe could've taken another 16 or 17 shots, hit 7 or 8 and had 40 or so. some would've said "who cares," others would have said "well i see kobe made sure to get his stats," and a few may have said "well he went down fighting," but it's unlikely. the only reason anyone really made a story of it was b/c it's kobe and he gets criticized or loved for everything. did anyone really care what happened once the lead hit 25? does anyone really think if they're in a game 7 next year, down 2 in the 3rd quarter, that kobe is just going to disappear. does anyone really think kobe isn't as competitive as anyone in the league? does anyone really think they're not reading too much into this (i already knew all these stories would happen by the tail end of the 3rd quater). basically, it's all just another excuse to talk about kobe even though it doesn't mean anything (and i know someone will say yes it does, but it doesn't).
It is not that he scored only 1 point in the 2nd half. Anybody could have a shooting slump in the wrong time. If Kobe went 0-10 in the second half, people would blame him for his bad shooting. But people wouldnt' blame him for his childishness. It is the fact that he took only THREE shots. If Yao took only 3 shots in a half, we could blame the teammates for not giving him the ball, or even blame Yao for not being aggressive enough. But Kobe doesn't need people to pass him the ball. He HAS the ball all the time. And he is an aggressive scorer. If the Suns triple-teamed him and dared him to pass, we could blame his teammates for not being able to score. But Kobe simply CHOSE not to shoot when he could. That is why this is a big deal. Those who continue to defend Kobe, LOOK AT THE FACTS!
In game 1 of second round series against Pistons, Lebron James scored 0pt and took only THREE shots in the second half, while he had 22pts in the first half. I didn't see you single out James for his childishness. Why? Because his name is not Kobe?
I don't care what you want to say about this one game, but Kobe makes big shots. You can't argue it. The guy is clutch. He had an off game, oh well.
May be it's because he's only 21 and it's his first time EVER playing in the playoffs, not to mention that they're playing the far and away best team in the league in the Detroit Pistons. Lebron still has maturity problems, that's for sure, but Kobe ain't that young anymore, he has tons of playoff experience and has three rings to show for it.
People always complained that Kobe was selfish and he shot too much. Now it looks like we have the same people complaining that he didn't shoot enough. Kobe can't win. Its simple, if you don't like someone you will find fault in them any way you can.
You think like Kobe. If people say you are selfish, you'll stop shooting just to show how stupid they are. Its simple, if you like someone you will defend him any way you can.
