i never knew that. crazy stuff. not only could people not beat him, but they couldnt even get him to a 7th game.
Seems some folks take their Kobe awfully seriously. He's on the other side of his peak. When you get older, all of a sudden you don't rebound from the injuries like you used to, and that's when you stop being able to do what you used to. He's clearly at that point. Still a top 5 player at the moment, but the drop is usually steep. Dream went from the best player in the NBA to a shell of himself in just 2 years.
Kobe will be very good for very long because of his strength, ball-handling, and jump shot. Everyone gets old and he has tons of mileage because he came straight from high school and played all those playoff games. The notion, however, that he can be a top 5 player until he's 40 is ridiculous.
I'm not a Kobe lover either, but the guy is not a slacker. Of course he's in decline, but like any good player, he's working on adding new tools, like working with Hakeem on post moves a year ago. The only reason the guy played was because the Barca fans paid to see Kobe Bryant. Five pages in and no one seems to mention that former Rocket Terence Morris started against the Lakers front court and contributed significantly to the win. Not bad for a guy who was once waived by the Clippers. Good to see the man is having a good run of a career in Europe. Edit: Sorry...TheRealist137 commented on TMo in the other thread.
You do realize that Kobe had one of his postseasons with that "finger" just a couple of months ago. 29 points, 6 rbds and 6 assists....with that finger.
He might fool you during the season, but come and face him during the playoffs and see what he is capable of.
Yes. I don't deny that there are some grown adult fans here (who prevent it from sinking completely into the muck), but this site has a pretty high level of that reactionary teen/idiot disease which infests RealGM.
Yeah, Kobe looks HORRIBLE. REALLY BAD. JUST TERRIBLE. Seriously you guys? Have you not been watching Kobe Bryant over the years? He has a couple nagging injuries, but when it's time to play dude steps up. He's got 5 rings and a team centered around him for a reason! Calm down.
I guess game 7 of the NBA finals wasn't "time to play" then. Or game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals with his team facing elimination. Or any game in the 2004 NBA Finals. Seriously, though, I do agree that this talk of Kobe's demise is a bit premature. He was still one of the top 5 players in the league last year. Still, you shouldn't just dismiss these as nagging injuries. Once a guy hits this age, nagging injuries don't really ever heal. KG is a good example of what happens to a guy with that kind of mileage when he has one of these nagging injuries.
I'll take a player that can pull down 15 rebounds in a bad game any day of the week. MJ had a game no better than Kobe on 1996 finals game 6, or the whole final series. Was it "time to play"? Didn't he win two more titles later on? It's funny how one game can be used to bash Kobe and downplay his achievement.
MJ wasn't facing elimination in Game 6. If you go back and read my post, you'll notice that I was actually using seven games to downplay his achievement.
Then checked MJ's number for that 6 games series for comparison. MJ shot 1% better, dished .3 more assists, but had 2.7 less rebounds, 1.3 less points, .4 less steals and .5 less blocks. Kobe's also slightly better in 3pt% and much better in FT%. I am sure if you want to compute PER, Kobe's was gonna be better. And Elimination game or not, they won the series and that game, that's all it mattered. Never heard anyone bashed MJ for 1996 finals, why Kobe? http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_1996_finals.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_2010_finals.html
