The thing is, Kobe's effort on defense was just as bad as that of the rest of his team. Kobe was not running back in transition, allowing dribble penetration, gambling for steals while leaving an open lane to the basket. This is the kind of stuff that left Dwight Howard frustrated in LA. The Kobe defenders in Lakers front office and in LA media/fanbase want to paint Kobe as this "ultimate competitor" and argue that teammates who got turned off by him only did so because "they didn't want to win as much as Kobe." This really isn't the case. Kobe talks a good game and makes "intense" constipated faces on the court, but the way he plays is hardly "win at all cost." He works much harder on the offensive end then on defense and freelance out of the scope of the offense even when his freelancing generates low % contested 2 point jumpers when a better shot may be available. You can say that Kobe's teammates are scrubs, but dude's be doing this for years even when he had Gasol, Dwight, Bynum and even Shaq on the team. This is the point that one Henry Abbott article was making-- players don't want to play with Kobe not because Kobe is such an intense competitor, it's that Kobe puts himself even above competing for a win while pointing fingers at guys like Dwight and Gasol.
I would be pissed too, if I were Lin or Boozer. The Lakers are going to be a bad team no matter what this year, but Boozer and Lin are NBA-caliber players who are capable of putting up 10-20 points a night, with decent efficiency. Kobe just saying "everyone else sucks" is a total cop-out and excuse for him to freelance and chuck. They may still lose the game with the other guys being more involved, but at least the margins may be a bit closer. On the other hand, I am kind of enjoying Kobe doing this Tony Montana-on-the balcony-against-an-army thing. This feels like it was inevitable. "Go ahead! I take your f***ing bullets! You think you kill me with bullets? I take your f***ing bullets! Go ahead!"
This is the boxscore of the Lakers only win: http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/boxscore/NBA_20141109_CHA@LAL Kobe scored 21 points on 20 shots, still very inefficient. But the difference is, 4 other Lakers scored in double figures, 3 of them took more than 10 FGAs. And Jordan freaking Hill had 7 assists.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Included in column today: Quincy Miller <a href="https://twitter.com/qmillertime">@qmillertime</a> set to work out for Lakers this week and possibly replace Xavier Henry on roster.</p>— KEVIN DING (@KevinDing) <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinDing/status/534440788994686976">November 17, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Lol although I personally think Kevin Ding is a sorry excuse for a journalist, you have to respect his tenure. HoChen was our "Kevin Ding"
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Lakers say forward Ryan Kelly has a tear of his right hamstring. He is expected to be out a minimum of six weeks.</p>— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/status/534485882452336640">November 17, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Kevin Ding makes a good point here actually: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...n-kobe-bryant-has-lakers-on-brink-of-fracture Dwight Howard got frustrated with Kobe not being held accountable for his BS as the rest of the team. No doubt many current and past teammates did as well. Hard to take the coach seriously about playing hard on D and running the offense when the most important guy on the team doesn't have to do it. If the Lakers were committed to just let Kobe shoot his way into retirement, they probably should just try to build an Allen Iverson Sixers team, just fill it out with defenders who don't care about touches (Mutombo, Ratliff, Tyrone Hill, Aaron McKie, George Lynch, Eric Snow...) and trade away anyone who doesn't fit that profile.
Good post. I think AI was full of hustle and grit though, and those guys basically made names for themselves on the defensive side of the ball. Mutombo was in the league when defense was cool, and then you had a guy like Larry Brown who had as big if not bigger ego than Iverson so it was kind of a mix that happened right one time. This team, nobody wants to go out there and hustle and defend for an old ball chucker who they know will throw them under the bus as soon as they lose. Unfortunately whether some want to admit it or not he has reputation, and it won't help their paychecks in the coming years to do that to their careers for a guy at the end of his.
Swaggy P to debut tomorrow. Should be fun watching Nick Young & Kobe vie for shots. I wonder if the NBA would allow for a best of 7 series between L.A. and Philly for a few extra ping pong balls?
