Bryant, Howard "beyond icy" with each other at All-Star locker room

No matter who you are talking about the "rings" argument just says who is on the better team. Team accomplishments are not individual accomplishments, no matter who you are.

 

Whatever you need to tell yourself, Dwight lover.

Yeah, winning rings did nothing for Lebron and Dwade's perceived status as all time greats

 

LOL, in what way am I a "Dwight lover"? I have been outspoken in saying that I don't want Howard on the Rockets because of his injury concerns....So. yeah, try again.

 

And T-Mac was Mrs. Glass.

 

Kobe's record when not playing with one or more all-star big men.

34 wins, 45 wins, and 42 wins. That's worse than the rockets's teams from the last 3 years.

Memphis dropped from 49 wins to 22 wins without Gasol. The Lakers when from 56 to 34 wins when they lost Shaq. Miami went from 42 wins to 59 wins with the addition of Shaq.

Gasol and Shaq have more of an impact on winning than Kobe ever will.

 

Kobe is great no doubt but facts are facts ^^^^^^

 

Might still be. They're only three games out of the playoffs, and I do see Stern orchestrating an eighth seed to the championship, Cinderella story for the Lakers in his last full season. That would be a story that they could market big-time.

 

Colin Cowherd, a noted big Bron fan and on the fence about MJ as the greatest ever, calls players like MJ and Kobe the amazing icing on the top. He points to the Bulls the year after Michael retired the first time. They went from a 57 win team to a 55 win team and we're a game 7 which they were very close in the 4th away from making it back to the Finals. I think it is a tad hyperbole, but I see the point and agree in many respects.

 

Where is the vomit emocation when you need it

 

Bring all he has fight hard every night, that's all he has to do.

 

You mean they were 1 game away from the eastern conference finals no? Anyway. Those Bulls just won 3 in a row. Championship mentality and everyone thinking they had huge balls, Pippen still being a top 10 player and PJAX coaching got them as far as they could. If anything, adding Jordan and 34 yo Rodman made them a record 72 win team puts all that talk to ****.

Saying Jordan, a guy who avg'd insane #'s on a **** Bulls team for his first 3 years before leading them to 50 wins with even better #'s as he went on with Pippen avg'ing a whopping 8pts 3rbs and 2apg is just blind hate. From then on, they never looked back. Pip became the Pip we know bc of MJ and PJAX and a winning culture. Not like he was a superstar from the get go. His development was the Icing on the cake.

Take a look at that 55 win team without MJ.
Pip-22,8.7,5.6
Grant-15,11
BJ-14.8,3.9
Kukoc-11,4,3

They were a damn good rebounding team and PIP did phenomenal. But, it's more of a testament to PJAX coaching. It shows more when they could only win 47 games the next season with MJ only returning for 17 games in which he had been away from bball for nearly 2 full seasons. What happened? Full offseason for MJ and they go from a 47 win team to a 72 win team.

 

Deandre Jordan going to show the world he is on Howard's level

 

I like it, except it would probably look worse with a real jersey on covering his awesome shoulders. He's gonna have to roll up the sleeve like PPAT. One of the reasons getting Dwight excites me is getting new jerseys and logo! We need a new brand so bad and having a new superstar tandem helps us get closer to getting that wish. Although I've lost faith in Les Alexanders fashion taste. So he will probably market it toward Taiwanese fans.

 

With all due respect, so?!

Just because your acclaimed one of the best ever doesn't give you the right to be a complete b**** made douche.

LeBron is becoming one of those guys on that level and he hasn't slapped, punched, spit, or cussed out anyone just because he's becoming one of the best.

Just because you win rings doesn't mean you can be a total a-hole to anyone and everyone.

Also for the record yes Kobe did request a trade from LA.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=32...9119&action=devloc&q=kobe+requests+trade+2007

Hilarious how Jerry West decided not to undermine his good friend Mitch Kupchak yet single handedly propelled that team to championship contender with one fell swoop. Nice job Jerry, too bad you can't fly to the Lakers rescue now. Jerk face.

 

Lakers gonna trade either Kobe or Howard by the trade deadline. Book it.

 

They can't trade Kobe, not just because he has a no trade clause in his contract, but also because there isn't a team in the league that would take him and his laughably ridiculous contract.

 

Yeah they would.. to sell tickets.. yeah they would.

 

No, they wouldn't. Who is going to completely gut their roster for a 4000 year old Kobe?

 

Here's my theory on the dynamic that happened pre-trade up until now:

Kobe didn't want to be eclipsed. He wants to make sure in everyone's minds that the Lakers are his team. He's proven that before with the Shaq drama. Don't forget all the rumblings in the media about who's team this would be if Dwight moved in. That's why Kobe loves Pau. Pau was the necessary piece to get the Lakers over the hump, and yet Kobe can punk him on the court to show everyone he's the alpha dog because Pau will take it. Perfect scenario.

Dwight has always been 'the man'. He doesn't like too much instruction or pressure. He had friction with his coach, he'll be even less receptive to an overbearing teammate which we've all seen, again - Kobe/Pau.

And now in LA, Kobe has repeatedly said Dwight needs to just play defense and rebound. Rightly so, DH has been one of the best if not the best in both departments in the league over the past few seasons. And that's what you want, especially out of your center. Every player should be giving that effort anyways. At the same time Kobe has been criticized for playing sub-par defense earlier in the season. Both are guilty to an extent.

But here's the real conflict. Scoring. Dwight comes to LA and thinks 'what am I, chopped liver? I've put up 18 pts over my career as the most dominating center, and now you tell me to just do the dirty work while you go off playing scoring hero? I'm just gonna chill instead...' Basically relegated to our version of Asik while Kobe is Harden. Kobe has been criticized for jacking up too many shots earlier in the season on his quest to maintain top scorer/Laker leader status. Again, both guilty to an extent. But Kobe has come around, although for different reasons altogether but I digress.

If they both put their egos aside and trust in each other there would be no problems. They'd both get their points way more efficiently. 1A/1B. But they don't, and it was obvious before the trade went down.

Check Phil Jackson's recent comments BTW. He actually agrees DH is under utilized. http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakersnow/la-sp-ln-phil-jackson-dwight-howard-20130219,0,636959.story

I've never been a DH fan. But I think he can still be that game changer he's been all these years. Plus he really did come back to early. He should be the Rockets prime target if possible.