Kobe's shoots like 45% for his career, and at the rate he's going it'll probably plummet as he goes into his twilight. He hasn't even broken 47% one time! His shot selection is awful (just like AI's) and if you could breathe on him without getting a foul called it'd show up more in the FG%. If Kobe hadn't been on stacked teams for 90% of his career, he would be an afterthought. But I'm ok with that because he won't win anymore from here on out, the Kobe fanbois will slowly go away, and the media hype will finally die out over the next few years as this next generation of players takes over. About freakin' time.
LOL, then the entire world is your enemy I am afraid. No one else puts Kobe and AI/Nique in the same sentence.
So you really think him and AI are the same caliber shooter/scorer even though they both have terrible shot selection at times and Kobe ended up shooting .3% higher for his career?
I think they are similar players, but Kobe is better because of his height. It's not so much the percentages as the volume shooting approach. AI had more of an excuse because he never had much as far as teammates, but Kobe has always been a volume shooter despite having the best bigmen in the league for most of his career.
Why even bother? Seriously it's one thing to dislike Kobe for various legit reasons but it sounds like Kobe stole his girl or failed to give him an autograph or acknowledge him at some point in time. He just sounds bitter.
Well if we are ignoring percentages and looking at shots taken wouldn't that make MJ a volume shooter too?
Why do you have to go to the personal attacks? I don't like using team accolades as an argument in judging individual players because players don't have much say in their teammates (and when they do, like LeBron, they get crucified!) Kobe's numbers are comparable with the other players I have listed so that is the tier in which I rank him. It's really not that complicated.
Yes, and MJ is overrated as well (in my book that means top-5 behind Kareem, Magic, Bird, and Shaq and not top-1 like everyone else has him). The fact that he did score more efficiently (by attacking, similar to Wade) and contributed heavily defensively as well as by having a solid all-around game makes him elite. Kobe is in the next tier along with a bunch of other swings.
Kobe sprained his ankle in his first finals and he had to miss game 3, that said enough how bad that injury was. Nonetheless he dominated game 4 when Shaq was fouled out in regulation. Scored all Lakers 8 points in OT including the winning shot in final seconds. What's LeBron's excuse? His elbow hurt again?
I guess that just means you have a different outlook on basketball than most other people have and that is respectable. Kobe was a great defender in his prime though so he was far from a one way player and in the triangle offense Jordan and Kobe had very similar reb/ass numbers.
Kobe is an overrated defender, even in his prime. He was good in the 99-00 season but once he became a big scorer he didn't give as much on that end of the floor. Scrubs have routinely had career bests on Kobe his whole career (guys like Bowen, Carroll, Dudley come to mind). What happened was for one half of basketball Kobe "locked down" AI and he built a reputation off of that (I think he also had a good mano-a-mano against McGrady many years ago). His other numbers are decent, not great. If you want great all-around numbers look at Magic & Larry-- those guys really played the game the right way which is why I have them both above MJ even though I can certainly see the other argument. I'd like to see a good argument for why Kobe is really so much better than Drexler or 'Nique, if you don't factor in teammates.
Wade isn't the type to blame others. He would blame himself for missing that crucial free throw, and not catching the errant pass before blaming anyone else.
Better the competition, the harder Kobe tried on the defensive end. During his early years scrubs did have big games against him but he did do a great job on many great players. Is he worthy of all the All-Defensive team selections? Hell no. Was he at one point an elite defender? When he wanted to be, hell yes.
If you get to just dimiss Kobe's defense as being overhyped then you are taking a big part of his claim to fame away from him. I feel like most experts/coaches/players would disagree with you but you are entitled to your own opinion. As far as Clyde goes Kobe is a much better scorer than him. Clyde was never consistently a high 20pt per game scorer and a lot of that comes from him not being all that great and getting to the line. Kobe is also a much better three point shooter than Clyde ever was. As far as rebounding and passing goes Kobe and Clyde were pretty close over their careers. I won't talk about D bc you have no respect for Kobe's. I didn't watch enough Nique basketball growing up to comment on him vs Kobe. I do know that the guy never passed though. My problem with your whole thought on basketball is that you seem to have a problem with shooting guards shooting which I don't really get. It's almost like you won't allow them to be great because their main job on the court is to shoot.
So I missed the press conferences. I'm very curious what LeBron had to say this time. Anyone have any info?
I'll answer this but I'm done with the Kobe discussion for tonight and I don't know how it even got started in this thread. I have a problem with bad shots. Kobe is a bad shot taker, probably the biggest bad shot taker in NBA history (AI is right up there too but you have to consider his secondary options). A large part of Kobe's legacy is the fact that he has made many bad shots, because those look spectacular when they go in. But they are still bad shots. I lost a heck of a lot of respect for Kobe in 2004, because the Lakers had no business losing that series and if Kobe just deferred to Shaq like the gameplan surely said, they would have run away with it. Instead, he took some of the worst shots I've ever seen in a quest for the Finals MVP or whatever, and that was it. Since then, he hasn't really changed but I can give him a pass in '05-07 since, like AI, he didn't have all that much help. He still takes too many bad shots given that he's not nearly the most efficient scorer on his team (in fact he's about the third option on his current team). It's his "eat first" mentality. When you watch a lot of Laker games, you'll see a pattern with Kobe. He'll get into "pass mode" or "shoot mode" (with "shoot mode" almost always taking over in the 4th). That is, he won't decide this based on what the defense gives him-- it's just one or the other for minutes at a time. This leads to predictability and more bad shots down the stretch when he is in "shoot mode". Contrast that with LeBron, who almost always plays the game the right way**, looking at what the defense gives him and rolling with that. I was pleased to see him get some teammates because I think this kind of basketball needs to be in the spotlight. **Of course he is ruining that with performances like tonight's.
And the lebron fans arnt bad either? I dunno I just dnt know how u compare Kobe to iverson or nique..... If kobes stopped playing today he would only have played the same amount of seasons as pretty much every other all time great and his avhievments r on par with the Mjs magics and birds. Dnt get me wrong if I was a clippers fan I would hate Kobe too tho just like I hate Karl Malone and Stockton but that still doesn't take away that they were both great players who r considered all time greats
Me being a Clippers fan has nothing to do with hating Kobe, except here in LA there are a lot more clueless Laker bandwagoners with their #24 jerseys and flags (still on the cars!) I legitimately don't think he's that great. I'm sorry if that's so hard to fathom.
I've seen them pan to him at the ends of games but, you're right, he's suspiciously absent. He hasn't been causing any trouble either. Seems fishy.
