Dude Bynum wasnt a dominant big till this yr. hell half the ppl just wanted to see if he could stay healthy. I'm not gonna say Kobe hasn't played on some really great teams with some hof talent. But ur an idiot if u think magic bird mj and all the greats didn't have some hof sitting right by there side. Dnt penalize Kobe cause he has played with great players when so has mj magic and bird and I think those guys besides maybe mj played with way better talent than Kobe. Lebron plays with wade and bosh what is the difference?
Also Pau gasol had made the Allstar team one time and was never an all NBA team member till he came and played with Kobe in LA. Just for a little comparison sake Chris bosh was coming off 5 straight Allstar apparences and a 2nd team all NBA honor, all this before he came to the heat. My point is that every great has played with other greats. Kobe has five rings because 5 out of his 15 yrs completed his team ended the season as the best. I'm a fan of basketball period and it's borderline disgusting some of the stuff that's being said about this guy like he's some glorified chucker who's been the luckiest player in the history of the league. That's just wrong and disrespectfull to the game.
Because All-Star games are a stupid way to measure a player. Pau Gasol > Chris Bosh (in prior seasons at least). Absolutely right though about every other star having another great player. Jordan had Pippen. Magic had KAJ, along with others. Bird had McHale along with others. Kobe is obviously a great player, but he is a chucker as well. The luckiest thing for him was winning that game 7 against Boston when he played like absolute crap, but they still won.
LOL, Pippen and Rodman are HOF. Gasol is a weak HOF candidate at best and no other Lakers are even close. Bynum produced Perkins offense number in championships run and couldn't match Perkins' intensity in defense.
With Gasol, Bynum, and Odom, the Lakers consistently had the best front court in a league full of weak front courts. When determining the strength of supporting casts, you can't just look at whether or not a player is HOF caliber. You have to gauge that player in the context of his contemporaries. Sure, Pippen/Rodman/Longley was a great front court. But so was Olajuwon/Barkley/Elie. And Ewing/Oakley/LJ. And Shaq/Campbell were pretty good. So was Mourning/Brown.
They also have one of the weakest backcourt in championship team. With old Fisher, young Ariza/old Artest starting and bench nonexistent. Even a Chalmers/Battier combo is better than that. Gasol/Bynum/Odom were three solid big but none of them creates mismatch against good team. And Pippen did. MJ never had to guard out of position. Harper and Pippen were more than enough to take care of the business. Pippen often took care of tough 2 as well (see 98 Pacers series). Kobe had to guard Westbrook/Rondo for the whole game. And Melo in 4th quarter.
Who would you say was a good team in the first place? Plus, why does everyone keep saying for the Lakers to win they have feed Bynum and Gasol, not have Kobe taking over 25 shots per game. Gasol, in his time with the Lakers, arguably a top 5 power forward. Could you name five power forward were better than Gasol from 2007-2010. Bynum, a top 8 center in the same time span. Lamar Odom, one of the best sixth men in the league, also one of the most versatile players in the league. Good passer, good scorer, I'm going to pretend Ariza and Artest were merely statues on defense and did not contribute one bit. Compare that supporting cast to what Lebron had Cleveland, the player who you cannot keep stop talking or dreaming about at night. LeBron would've been just fine with LA's supporting cast.
The like of Thunders (before they got Perkins), Nuggets (Martin, Nene), Rox, Magic, Celtics. Basically any team that have decent defending big men. Suns, Jazz without Okur, Rox without YM are the kind of the team Gasol et al. can dominate. And LeBron plays in the east and he has a supporting cast that has good defense and sharp shooting. A center that can space the floor. All for his stats padding. Their team should dominate in east but he choked in playoff. AI led 76ers to finals, Kidd led Nets to finals twice with sorry cast. Can we say Kidd is twice as better?
"We are just trying to keep the penetration out" - George Karl at tonight's press conference. F.E.A.R.
