Geez, you should've put the line about him trusting his teammates, but trusting himslef more in bold. His ego is sick... there are some people hope somehow someway end up getting a reality check and being brought back down to earth... I'm praying Kobe will be shot down and drilled into the ground at this moment. ------------------ "Don't slap the glass Mobley, slap my ass...yeeeoooow!" -- HeyPartner decides to out himself. Makes you wonder if he's calling ISO's and 2 Shakes for himself... hehe
I just think it's funny how everyone loves Kobe, but hates people like Francis. If Kobe had come from the inner-city, I don't think he'd be able to get away with these outrageously arrogant comments.
It will be quite a power struggle in LA. They arguably have the NBAs 2 best players. Kobe took a back seat to Shaq this year but doesn't want to this year. I think the duo will be broken up eventually, but I'm not sure when. Will be very intersting to see what happens when the playoffs start. Both of the guys can be great players even without the ball (Shaq as a defensive wall and Kobe's defense was very good last year) but it may (will) come down to egos. Will be a good test for the Zen master!
Like I've said before, I love the way Kobe handles himself on the floor. But more and more, I'm beginning to not like the way the man handles himself off the floor. He considers himself the next Jordan. But he's not the next Jordan YET. ------------------ Jazzkiller
I doubt 95% of the people that know of Kobe have a clue where he came from. ------------------ "Don't slap the glass Mobley, slap my ass...yeeeoooow!" -- HeyPartner decides to out himself. Makes you wonder if he's calling ISO's and 2 Shakes for himself... hehe
From a Jellybean? Mango ------------------ Lets get the Mo Go working! Test Your NBA Trade Ideas 1. Put new topics in the proper forum. Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads. 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult. The Serious Police are watching. Donate Blood or be assimilated!
http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol4no02bucher2.html Shaq is well aware of the shift. When the Lakers flew into Portland, an adidas billboard featuring Kobe's face, five stories high, greeted them on their trip from the airport. There's a mural on the hotel nearest to the Staples Center that shows Kobe soaring to the hoop. In the Air Canada Centre before the Lakers faced the Raptors, a man held a simple black-on-white sign that read, "Hey Shaq! 0 for 12?" in reference to a recent record-setting 0-for-11 effort from the free throw line against the Sonics. A few rows up, a family held up an ornately painted banner that read, "We Luv Kobe." Shaq joined the dot-com frenzy by starting Dunk.net, a sporting apparel line that planned to let customers design their own gear online. Innovative but poorly marketed, Dunk.net slashed its staff from 40 to four. Kobe, meanwhile, is in the midst of an enormous advertising push for his self-designed kicks, "The Kobe," with old-economy adidas. His profile, in a rendering like Caesar's on a Roman coin, graces the shoe's inner lining. The entire onslaught has left The Daddy feeling helpless. As a big man, he depends on Kobe to get him the ball. If he expresses his frustration publicly, it becomes a nationwide story and a distraction for the Lakers. Besides, he waged a public-relations war with Penny in Orlando and John Q. sided with the guy closer to his size. He hears the adolescent screams and sees the No.8 jerseys. He knows it would be no different this time. Kobe knows too. An opportunist without a conscience, he cares no more about Shaq's duress than he would about Iverson or VC falling down and giving him the ball for a breakaway slam. No time for sympathy on the fast track to preeminence. It takes a healthy dollop of ruthlessness to become the league's best player at 22. Kobe knew Shaq would need time off after going so deep into the playoffs and wouldn't be physically ready to match last season's performance. So Bryant spent the summer honing and refining his shot. It's hard to fathom his claim of burying 2,000 shots a day until you see last-second threes whipping through the net, pull-up J's floating home no matter how abruptly he stops and baseline fadeaways falling regardless of how many hands are in his face. The degree of difficulty is breathtaking at times, but he's shooting nearly 50% because he's a voracious offensive rebounder; he dunked three putbacks so hard in a game against the Rockets that his shoulder was sore the next night against the Mavs. "Everybody expected me to come back and do the same things I did last year," Kobe says. "But I've improved so much. I have to prove to myself and the league that I'm a better player. Every night. For 48 minutes." Had Shaq worked as diligently on his free throw shooting, maybe this would be a fair fight. But that problem is even worse this season, something he attributes to watching some old high school game tapes with Orlando neighbor Tracy McGrady last summer. Shaq liked how he looked shooting free throws and decided to return to his high school form. "I got cute and switched up," he said. "Never change if something you're doing works." He has since switched back, but though he's slowly improving, the damage has been done. For some reason -- a nagging ankle and Achilles injury, his reluctance to go the free throw line or a belief he's not going to get the ball -- O'Neal is not posting up as aggressively as he did last year. He remains one of the league's top rebounders and his blocked shots are up, but his scoring and field goal percentage have slipped. Even he admits, "I've been a step slow in certain situations." But none of that, he feels, is justification for restructuring the offense. "Don't judge my game on last year because the same things aren't happening," Shaq says. "We had a certain program and it worked. I don't see us doing that same program. "Don't say 'we' have a problem. I'm not a guard, I have to be fed the ball. When the dog is fed, he'll guard the yard. When he's not, anybody can come in. Right now, I feel like a token big man, like Luc Longley or Chris Dudley. And that's not my game." It's a valid, if somewhat exaggerated, complaint. In an OT loss to the Warriors, Shaq and Kobe ran a pick-and-roll on every possession down the stretch. Not once did Kobe lob the ball to Shaq, even after Shaq bluntly told him during a timeout, "Drop it off." Kobe wouldn't because he figured Shaq would get fouled and go to the free throw line, where he's shooting a career-low 38.6%. Better to bet on himself, since he's shooting a career-high 47.7% from the floor and a career-high 87.3% from the line. "If Shaq were a 70% free throw shooter, it would make things so much easier," Kobe says. "We have to know our strengths and weaknesses. I trust the team. I just trust myself more. Yeah, we won last year with the offense going through Shaq. But instead of winning series in five and seven games, this year we'll have sweeps." But the offense hasn't been the problem -- the Lakers led the league in scoring with 101.2 ppg through 33 games. Defensively, though, they've slid from last season's sixth in points allowed to 22nd and from first in field goal percentage to 15th. Jackson and Shaq argue the switch from an interior to a perimeter offense has caused the slide. Phil's take: Kobe's early-clock jumpers mean an aging Lakers' team must spend more time on defense. Longer shots also result in longer rebounds and more fast breaks, exposing L.A.'s weak transition D. Perhaps. But when Shaq had six blocks against the Warriors, not one came in helping Horace Grant, who took the brunt of Jamison's 51 points. When Damon Stoudamire was lighting up Mike Penberthy in a Dec. 13 Portland victory, Penberthy was doing his job by forcing Stoudamire into the middle for help. O'Neal simply wasn't getting there in time. Shaq's take: Don't make me one-dimensional. I'm better than that. You want my D, you've got to use my O. Kobe's take: No, I don't. Man that kid has alot of friggin nerve...talking about sweeping the playoffs and they haven't even played half of the season yet! Sure, he's a good player, but he has a long way to go until he can carry a team by himself. Without Shaq, the Lakers are a bubble team. Kobe needs to realize this. ------------------ "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Gandhi
I thought as soon as I typed that someone would make reference to his mom, but ok... his dad is cool, too. ------------------ "Don't slap the glass Mobley, slap my ass...yeeeoooow!" -- HeyPartner decides to out himself. Makes you wonder if he's calling ISO's and 2 Shakes for himself... hehe
My god he's an ego maniac! Kobe can say all he wants, and the media can say all they want, but how Shaq goes, so go the Lakers. All the Lakers players are siding with Kobe because they don't want to dump it in the post. But if Shaq was gone, the Lakers wouldn't be any better then us, or Phoenix, or Minnesota, and they wouldn't be able to compete with Portland, Sacramento this year, or San Antonio. Kobe needs to shut his mouth and know his role, the only reason he is scoring 29 to 30 points a game is because he's taking Shaq, his own, and several other players shots. Shaq is a class act for not coming out and making it a big deal, he's a team player. Kobe Bryant is a cancer. ------------------ "I have a scale at home and it only goes up so far, I love that scale!" - Charles Barkley TNT Studios
The stuff that Kobe says is pretty damn arrogant, but I wouldn't make such a big deal of it. While I'm sure he probably is arrogant, I don't think his arrogant comments stem so much from the arrogance itself as from a perceived pressure to be arrogant. In other words, he's hamming up his arrogance. I say this because it seems to be a trend that arrogance is encouraged under the guise of "being confident about your game." Some fans, I'm sure, are loving it every time Kobe says he's the best player ever. I can imagine how many testosterone-ridden adolescents in southern California love him all the more when he's says he's so great. You see it in many places. Francis is often guilty of this: "If Rudy wanted wanted me to score, I could score 30 in a quarter." [editor's note: Steve, if you did 30 in a quarter for 4 quarters, that's 120 points. Not only would that break Wilt's record, but you'd win almost every basketball game. If you can really do that, then do it!] You see posters on this BBS say they like Mobley's cockiness because it means he's "fearless", or he won't back down, he's not afraid to take the big shots, he's clutch, etc. Players like to do it, because (1) it's fun to be cocky b*stard and be congratulated for it. It's like being paid a compliment when you say you're great and everyone says you're so cool for saying that. You can feel good about yourself. And (2) because the players act like fans in regards to other good players and encourage them to be arrogant, and then try to fit the mold themselves when the tables are reversed. They want to play the part for the fans. The fans like to encourage this behavior because they are getting off on the dream that the same treatment will be given to them. [That's why old cranks like me who know they'll never have any game make a big stink and athletic 13 year olds all have Kobe as their idol.] When players are lauded for their arrogance, then fans can likewise be arroagant and defend themselves with the I'm-just-confident-in-my-game. After all, all the great players like Kobe Bryant were confident in their games. ------------------ RealGM Rockets Draft Obligations Summary Gafford Art Artisan
We'll see how far Kobe's arrogance gets the Lakers. Being confident in your game is one thing, but being a total A$$ is another. Like I said before, Kobe is good, but is he good enough to carry the Lakers on his shoulders and get the team motivated? Not with that attitude he isn't. MJ had the skills and the attutude. He knew it, everyone knew it, but he didn't act like a complete A$$. True, he made it perfectly clear that when he was on the court, he would hold nothing back, but even he knew when to draw the line. Kobe refuses to acknowledge that line and that will be what gets him shipped out of LA(if it ever happens) because it won't be Shaq. ------------------ "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Gandhi
Let's all say a prayer of thanks for human nature, which destroys old dynasties from within so new ones can rise. Except now the world moves so fast that dynasties get old in months instead of years.
Currently Kobe and Iverson are Partial BYC players which impairs trading them. If I have it right on the timeframes, their Partial BYC status changes to normal at the end of this month. Once that changes, their salaries match well for trading. Since Kobe has roots in Philly, speculate on Kobe for Iverson. Would the Lakers do it? Would Philly do it? What would make for a fair deal? Mango ------------------ Lets get the Mo Go working! Test Your NBA Trade Ideas 1. Put new topics in the proper forum. Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads. 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult. The Serious Police are watching. Donate Blood or be assimilated!
Originally posted by Mango: Since Kobe has roots in Philly, speculate on Kobe for Iverson. Wouldn't that be like trading lung cancer for prostate cancer? ------------------ "Cuttino is all heart, and no brain. It just occurs to me that he is the Scare Crow from the Wizard of Oz."- a wise observation from Dadakota
I would agree with you JuanValdez, because you're right about players doing that, but when Kobe is saying that the Lakers would win playoff games better with he be the featured offensive player, and when he freezes Shaq out of the offense, especially in clutch situations, then it's about more then just wanting a "perceived" arrogance like guys like Garnett and Shaq and Francis tend to do, it's a serious problem. It's putting your ego and "image" in front of the team, and that is selfish and dangerous. ------------------ "I have a scale at home and it only goes up so far, I love that scale!" - Charles Barkley TNT Studios
maybe wink3... but prostate exams are fun. Kobe might be an ass... I know I'm totally shocked when I read his comments... but Kobe is unstoppable. If that team had a spot shooting three and a Dikembe or a Ratliff, they'd still go deep into the playoffs. Besides, Shaq can't shoot free throws. Kobe is totally right. If you can't trust your teammates or coworkers, don't you guys end up doing all of the work yourselves? Shaq doesn't have s@#$ to complain about. ------------------ We're going to stay together until something happens, if something happens. - Sidney Lowe on Shareef's career in Vancouver.
Achebe, Shaq isn't complaining, it's Kobe thats doing all the whining because he isn't the center of attention!! Shaq has taken the high road on this one for months and is just now being forced to retort. I really admire Shaq for handling this punk's attitude. If I were Shaq I'd squash the little bug! BTW, Kobe is only unstoppable because it's harder to double him when you have a 7'2" 320 center roaming the paint!! I guarantee you throw him on a team without a dominanat center like Shaq and his output drops. ------------------ Go vote for Steve Francis for the All-Star game!! You only have until Sunday!! Vote for Francis!
How can David Aldridge say Kobe is hands down the best player in the league. I agree RocketsPimp, w/out Shaq it will get much tougher for him to get good looks. I disliked Kobe the first time I saw him play as a rookie, and now after all this words cannot explain how little respect I have for the guy as a person. I do respect his game however. It doesn't surprise me at all that he wanted to get traded so he could lead the team in scoring and win MVP(which he wouldnt). BTW...Who do you think this anonomous player that ESPN got comments from is? They say he's won multiple titles in the last decade...so I'm guessing either Mario Elie or Robert Horry. Wait...just remembered someone...Scottie. Sounds like something he would do...comment on the team he really wanted to be on. who else could it be? ------------------
