But Pippen's effectiveness fell like an anvil. I for one am not ready to say Kobe has the same mental make-up as Micheal Jordan. I'll give him similar physical gifts minus Jordan's upper body strength (not an insignificant factor)--but then Pippen or certainly McGrady isn't far behind either (though personally I think Kobe has more going for him in his head and heart than those dimwits). The difference from all these guys is Jordan's incredible mental and physical prepartion, tenacity and focus. The only current player I can think compares in this regard is the much less physically gifted John Stockton (maybe Larry and Magic had this too).
So true. Took over once again tonight. Next year, *s! LOL! When Kobe is hustling, he's the most dangerous player in the NBA. His maturity as a player at his age is astounding. He knows when to shoot the rock and when to pass it off like he did when he hit Horry for the trey. It's about time he got his props. I'm telling you, even when he plays bad he plays good.
It wasn't until about his 7th season in the league that that incredible upper body strength (for his size) began to develop. He had to because he could no longer fly like he once did. I theorize that Kobe is doing what a young MJ would have done if Krause, uh, a team he could win with had come his way a little earlier in his career. Asked the difference between MJ and Kobe, Phil said a while ago that he had smaller hands and he didn't know if Kobe would ever develop the Alpha-Male personality that MJ had. That was it---those two---and we may be beginning to see the answer to the second.
