Kobe has been at the top of my list of suspects for the last couple of years. It can't natural, can it? I despise Kobe but he is truly amazing.
Well Shaq did immediately take his new team to contention, winning the title in year two after the trade. Kobe missed the playoffs and had two first round exits before being gift-wrapped another all-star big. So in terms of impact, clearly Shaq was much more important than Kobe. Of course the trade was the right move when you consider their ages at the time though. Nonetheless, prime Shaq >>> prime Kobe and it's really not even close.
Wait. Were you one of the ones who said they should trade Kobe instead of Shaq? It was never about winning immediately, it was a long term decision and Kobe is still ballin while Shaq is clowning around on Inside the NBA. The Lakers did the right thing. Period.
I don't think I ever stated my opinion here on that but obviously you have to take Kobe in that case since Shaq was already out of his prime at the time of the trade. But if you were looking at who would be the bigger impact over the next few years, obviously Shaq was the guy and it showed in the results. Kobe does have tremendous longevity; my opinion is simply that players of his type (basically ball-dominant chuckers) can be replaced much more easily in an offense and often the offense improves just by their absence. Look at Memphis since unloading Rudy Gay, who is another player of that type. Look at how the Lakers play when Kobe sits out. You can't just look at a player's production and assume the team would suck without him.
I disagree. Kobe was still ballin without Shaq but he had guys like Smush Parker and Kwame Brown and they still made the playoffs and he almost single-handily beat Phoenix in the playoffs. Shaq played well in Miami but if you remember they were down big to the Mavs and the Refs and Wade ended up winning that series so Shaq wasn't even the best guy on his team in the finals, it was Wade. Then the very next year Shaq didn't do too much in Phoenix. He actually made them worse. When they traded away Marion for Shaq they didn't get much better. People in Phoenix still hate Steve Kerr for doing that. Then Shaq went to Cleveland and Boston and did absolutely nothing, the guy was old and out of shape at that point. He never kept himself in shape which is one reason why Kobe was frustrated with him...
it might be a knee jerk but tonights 4th quarter performance from Kobe might be the best I've seen this year from anyone. Curious he heated up as Lebron hit the game winning lay up for the heat. It would fantastic if he heard that and got motivated by it, haha.
Not to take away from what Kobe did tonight, but it was against the Hornets. Did you see the last 7 minutes of the game? I've never seen a team totally fold like that. I mean, 20-0 run to end the game? It was unreal.
You should have seen the Bobcats game. It was pretty bad too. This one was worse. Hard to top giving up a 20-0 run to end the game. And still can't believe the out of bounds play where the Honey Bees defended the wrong basket.
