I just love it how having a great team knocks Kobe down a notch, when guys like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson who are considered top 5 material during their championship years had super talent around them and are praised endlessly. Yes teams win championship, but it almost always requires a superstar to guide them to the promise land, a superstar with the drive and hunger to win. This is precisely why the talented Sacramento and Portland teams of the early 2000s couldn't win championships. Kobe keeps on winning. Not only does he win, he amasses individual accolades that are only topped by a a handful of basketball players. And what's this Gasol business? Before the two combined, Kobe was considered at worst a top 20 player of all time. Gasol? He was an irrelevancy, was considered a soft bigman who Dirk Nowitzki shat on. Now Gasol is a near-guarenteed HOF. That's massive jump fortunes. Hypothetically speaking, even if Kobe didn't win another championship post shaq, he was heading from a top 10-15 all time. Yeah he was sidekick during the 3 peat.. but for 2 of those runs, Kobe was putting up FRANCHISE numbers. Couple that with all the individual accolades and scoring binges, you are still looking at an NBA legend.
i think steve nash is the best one that makes team mates better. he turns bunch of scrubs into good role players or starters
It still seems suspiciously like he's saying me being "hands-off" still positively improves the team, because my lessened play and impact on the court isnt, though I still need to get SOME individual credit for players "growing". My non-presence is still a presense. Turning 0 into a 1. This is "intangibles" in a nutshell. Its maturation, yes. Its awareness and recognition of situations. Its truth. It still also might be reaching But at least its in a framework of working toward championship contention yet again. So the bottom line is its working
I think having a superstar come to a realization like that only helps the rest of the players, many of whom -- especially 20 something teammates -- will use as the basis for how to behave and perceive the game. However, I'm a Laker fan, and I'll admit it probably has more to do w/ the org itself that Kobe is also a part of. If a player is willing to chance his way of thinking into that of a championship / money player, the Lakers org (or any other annual contender such as SA/BOS) can guide him towards that goal. The 3 peat team didn't strike me the same way the 80s Lakers did (who, almost to a man, accepted their roles wholeheartedly). They had some savvy vets like Harper and Fox, who knew what it was about, but the commitment to complete selflessness wasn't even there all the time from their two superstars. The year they went 15-1 was the most perfect team ball that team ever played for a long stretch (they went 39-2 from the end of that season into the next one). The current team now has guys coming off the bench that have seemed to have bought into the notion that fire tempers steel. This isn't a meek group of boys. Of all those guys you listed, Odom is even harder to fathom than Artest, who was seen as nothing more than batshht a couple yrs ago. Odom was an EFFIN Clipper. It took him -years- to look like he rightfully belonged on a title contender. Before that, he couldn't even get into UCLA because someone probably cheated for him on an ACT exam. Harrick brought him to Rhode Island of all places. Then the pot bust and years of lazy, boneheaded play w/ the Lakers before success came. Getting THAT guy to appear like he has a vested interest in winning basketball is a miracle.
I don't think his teammates' improvements can solely be credited to Kobe. It should be credited to the Lakers' organization and how their team is coached and developed. All the players that go thru the Lakers organization, more or less, become overvalued, much like Nash's Suns. It's the Lakers organization and environment that makes players better. See: Caron Butler, Trevor Ariza, Brian Cook, etc... All considered up and coming players under the Lakers org, now just average or mediocre players again.
Yeah, but there's also a difference between having a talented team and winning a title (much less 2). Steve Nash says, hiya.
Yeah, and there's also a difference between having a talented team and having the most talented team in the teague together with one of the league's best coaches.
Lebron should take notes from Kobe on how to make teammates better. Lebron hasn't elevated his teammates play, they've either gotten worse or stayed the same during his tenure in Cleveland and now in Miami
This is another reason why Kobe makes his teammates better. You either play hard or you GTFO. It's no coincidence that Michael Jordan was a d**k to his teammates too. KG made Big Baby cry but also won him a ring. Holding guys accountable, praising them for good stuff, slapping them around for the bad stuff. You gotta be fair but firm to be a great leader.
I'm pretty sure you don't have to be physically abusive to be a great leader. How many times did Hakeem assault his teammates during their championship runs?
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