How many field goals will Kobe take in his final game? (Reps for whoever guess right)

He isn't capable of that in a real game where players are actually trying. He can barely jump to the rim anymore.

And he shot the ball 50 times to score 60 points. That is unbelievably bad.

Nothing against his career, he is a great player. And coming back by himself to win that game was a great way to go.

 

is 1.2 points per FGA really "unbelievably bad" ?

 

People just want to hate on the game with the FG%, with the sheer # of FGA, and the fact that Utah was out of it.

But no--44% isn't bad, 1.2 PPFGA isn't bad (esp. at high volume), no one else on the team was shooting the ball and Kobe would've had to eat shot clock violations (which he did sometimes) if he chose not to shoot last night, and Utah was actually playing defense.

The only thing they didn't do that they should have (probably) is double team Kobe in the 4th. But until the final few mins, he was 17-45 (38%)--they didn't assume he'd go 5-5 down the stretch and win the game.

Great performance. Not a Kobe fan, but it was fun and not a gimme.

 

You say "slashing and dunking", I say ball hogging and chucking.

Also, don't compare Kobe to MJ, that's just disrespectful. Kobe at his best might be qualified to carry MJ's shoes but that's about it. You don't compare the greatest player of all time to a guy who wasn't the best player on his own team for most of his career.

No, I am not kidding you. If you like ball hogging and chucking, the kind of basketball Kobe played was for you, if you like good basketball, it wasn't. There was just always better players than him in the league who played better brands of basketball so, like I said, barely a blip on the radar.

You clearly don't know what a "chucker" is. A guy with literally 1000 more missed shots than anyone else to ever play the game with a .483 eFG%, who only broke .500 eFG% 4 times in his entire career is a chucker. Kevin Durant has only been below .500 eFG% once in his career and Curry has never been below .535 eFG%.

Kobe is the definition of "chucker", a guy who takes a ton of shots and not make many, but will keep chucking the ball in the general direction of the rim until he gets the points total he wants.

SMH, Shaq was the best player on the Lakers the entire time he was there and was the ONLY reason the Lakers won championships those seasons. The season after the Lakers got rid of him, they didn't even make the playoffs. Shaq was the difference between being arguably the best team in the NBA and a lottery team. If not for Pau, the Lakers franchise would have died a lot earlier than it did due to Kobe.

After running Shaq out of town, the Lakers were garbage until Pau came to the rescue. They won 2 more championships with Pau as the best player on the team. Without Shaq and Pau, Kobe was nothing. Sure his ball hogging and chucking ways led to him scoring a ton of points on loser teams, but the winning was over.

First of all, I never said the Utah Jazz weren't a good young team, they just had nothing to play for and were all but helping Kobe score. They played all star game caliber defense and that allowed him to score a lot easier than he normally would have....and it still took him 50 shots and 12 FT's to get 60 points.

If the Jazz had played hard and had something to play for, Kobe still might have gotten 60, but it probably would have taken 80 shots and he's just the kind of "I only care about myself" kind of player to chuck that many shots in a single game.

 

Shaq consistently says that Kobe is the greatest Laker who ever played the game. Kevin Durant, DWade, Lebron, Carmelo, and a number of other players have said on many ocassion's that Kobe is the MJ of their generations. Tracy McGrady says Kobe is the best player he's ever played against...and he's played against MJ. Why do you know so much more than all these players?

You're right...I have no idea what your definition of chucking is. I consider chucking to be a guy that throws up a bunch of perimeter shots. Curry and Durant take most of their shots from the perimeter. Kobe was a slasher primarily in his prime. So it appears your definition is not based on how many shots someone takes but the percentage they make them. So if Kobe took 50 shots and made 50% of them, then he would no longer be a "chucker"?

It's funny that everything always has to be so discrete for fans that don't actually watch basketball. Yes, Shaq was a great player...probably the greatest center since Kareem. But does that put Kobe as some sort of role player along for the ride? It's not like, just because Shaq was great, that nobody else on the team can also be great. The Blazers and Kings those years were among the best teams of all time...better than a lot of teams that won championships. The Lakers needed two of the greatest players ever in Shaq and Kobe along with many key role players like Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, Horace Grant, Robert Horry, and Ron Harper to get past these teams.

Plus, in their first championship run, Shaq fouled out of a very key game vs Portland and another game vs Indiana and Kobe took those games to victory. I remember the years before they won that first title and people were saying that Shaq will never win a championship. He doesn't have it in him. People were also calling Kobe a total bust, including myself. But something clicked in the 2000/2001 season and Kobe either got his confidence or just got enough repetition, but after that point, that is when the Lakers rolled the rest of the league like road kill for those 3 years. Shaq even admits today that he needed Kobe to win those championships because a center can only do so much without a top wing that can spread the defense and give him space.

Another thing is that Shaq is not the most serious of guys. He wanted to win a title, but I don't think to the point where he's going to sacrifice anything. He used to come into training camp overweight and said he'll use the regular season to get himself into shape. They probably should have won a championship that year when he was in Orlando but, as I just saw in the new 30 for 30 about the Orlando Magic, Shaq and Dennis Scott were recording victory rap songs instead of getting prepared for the Rockets. Kobe took basketball very seriously and didn't let his team relax. I think he really bought into Phil Jackson and with Phil around, he was able to help keep Shaq focused. Of course the Lakers could not have won those rings without Shaq...he was a beast. But I'm just saying that Shaq would not have won those with any other SG either. Like he didn't with Eddie Jones. If Ray Allen was on those teams instead of Kobe, I think they lose to Portland in 2000 and Sacramento for sure in 2002. The Kings deserved to win a championship those years but they were unlucky to be playing the same time as the 2000-2002 Lakers who I consider among the top 3 teams of all time. Well, maybe top 4 if the Warriors sweep their way through the playoffs.

And it wasn't like when Shaq left, the same team was there and they fell apart. The Lakers traded everyone away to get Karl Malone and Gary Payton the previous year. Then when Malone and Horace Grant got hurt in the conference finals, they lost in the finals to Detroit and everyone left. Kobe was left with the following starting alongside him...Chucky Atkins, Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, and Chris Mimh with Sasha Vujacic as the best player off the bench for them.

Yes, the Lakers were garbage, but Kobe was not the GM so why is that his fault? I'm sure if you asked Pau, he would honestly think you are crazy for thinking that he was better than Kobe on those teams. In fact, Pau got a lot of criticism the first year for being too soft. Phil and Kobe worked him a lot to become tougher and more of a killer. It was unfair criticism in my opinion because the Lakers made it all the way to the Finals and lost to the Celtics. As far as the LA Times are concerned, if the Lakers don't win it all, it's the same as not making the playoffs.

Anyway, you should seriously watch some of those series' where the Lakers played the Kings and Blazers between 2000 and 2002. I don't know how you can watch those games and think that Kobe had no impact to helping them win it all. Yes, Shaq got the Finals MVP, but that's only because they used to just give that award to the player that scores the most points. Kobe scored almost as much in 2001 and 2002 runs but his contributions on defense and setting Shaq up are discounted if you just watch the game in the box scores.

Kobe must be the luckiest guy in the world to you. He just rode on Shaq and Pau's coat tails to 5 championship rings and gets all these NBA all stars and future hall of famers saying he's the best player they ever played against and the MJ of their generation. Also, he got to make 15 consecutive All NBA teams including 11 consecutive All NBA first teams and 9 time NBA all defensive team. Also, even though he's a "chucker", the Lakers still let him take so many shots en route to these 5 championship teams rather than run the offense through Shaq and Pau. On top of which, every NBA team upon his last visit honored him leading to a finale game at Staples Center where the Utah Jazz decided, after a humiliating meltdown to fall out of playoffs, they weren't going to try to win their last game but help Kobe get 60 points instead. I'm sure every player is going to get such a send off when they retire...or maybe everyone should just be a "chucker" instead and they can have the same fortune as Kobe.

 

Kobe's best individual playoff series was when he took the Lakers with Smush Parker to a 3-1 lead against an elite Nash led Suns team without Shaq and Gasol.

They still lost the series but that was incredible

 

Brehs be showcasing their essay writing skills in this thread.

 

Want to hear something nuts?

If you take steph's pps from the Warriors 73rd win and extrapolate that out to 50 fg attempts he scores 95.833!!! More of a testament to his greatness than the sucktitude of Kobe's performance, but still some sobering perspective.