You know who's secretly lowkey happy right now?

mind watching round 1 v. the thunder?
mind watching several games of the finals?

and mind you, kobe struggled mightily the past 2 months of the reg. season due to his injuries and there were talks of him being on a decline before he woke up in round 2 v. the jazz.

and the lakers still managed to move through.

the lakers can make the playoffs without kobe EASILY. it's not even a question.

 

Because Kobe didn't have the luxury of having handcheck called, before and after the rule was invented?

Kobe beat Mavs so many times and Cuban didn't have a quote "enjoy watching Kobe shooting FT".

 

Kobe didn't need an excuse as long as he had stacked teams (best player in the NBA in his prime helps). Then when things changed he couldn't even take it for a whole two years before he started crying and throwing his organization and owner (the best in the NBA by far, BTW) under the bus(s). Did you forget he DEMANDED a trade? And in fact he vetoed the trade that would have brought Deng to the Lakers because he wanted to stay on a good team (and had a no-trade clause). That's much worse than what Lebron did. Lebron was a free-agent-- he had the right to leave. He basically did what Shaq did when he came to the Lakers. The only misstep was making a big media fiasco over it, which was dumb as **** but is something people will forget about when he is a 5x champion.

And the difference between you and me is that one of us knows basketball and one of us is you.

 

A younger, less skilled Gasol won 50 games with a team worse than what the Lakers (sans Kobe) have now. Not only would they make the playoffs without Kobe, they'd be in the upper bracket.

 

That's very true. Just like how we predicted NBA finals 2010.

 

Wake up, 50 wins doesn't guarantee a playoff spot in west, we are talking about west for god's sake.

And how many playoff wins Gasol had before he joined Lakers?

Jamison had more playoff wins and better stats in Wizards than Gasol in Grizzles. Guess what happened? One was made better one was not, that's the main difference.

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200512200LAL.html

25 FTs in 3 quarters. Yeah, I'm sure Cuban loved that.

 

Good point, way to go out on a limb picking the Lakers. We have a saying here in the USA (hopefully it comes across right in your Google Translate): Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

 

Coz they actually fouled and Kobe still got 62 points? And Kobe took 31 shots to get those, not 15-20 like Wade did in finals.

 

But you have picked against Lakers in every round, that's like a blind couldn't find a nut once in 4 while.

 

Yeah, because Lebron bailing on Cleveland suddenly pushes Kobe past Magic, Bird, Kareem, Wilt, Russell, Hakeem, Shaq, and Duncan on the all-time list. Those guys aren't even worth mentioning anymore.

 

No, actually the only round I thought the Lakers would lose was the Finals, and that was a tough call. I rooted against them every round, obviously.

 

KG was still playing in Minnesota the year Cleveland went to the Finals (2007).

 

if Kobe can come back from the vast majority of ppl (according to polls) thinking he raped a white girl

Lebron can come back from hosting an hour long special on ESPN.

if Lebron wins no one is going to care. your kids or your younger brothers really aren't going to give a **** once Lebron wins 5 rings in Miami any more than anyone cares that Kobe imploded a championship and feuded with Karl Malone or that a couple years ago he couldn't carry a playoff team and was demanding and DREAMING of a trade like the move Lebron just made

 

I wont' argue that the Lakers wouldn't be a playoff without Kobe because I think they would have still made it in without him last year. However, you said that they would be a top 4 team and I disagree with that. I think Kobe is worth at least 7 or 8 games to this team and without those games in a competitive West i don't see them finishing in the top 4. Pau has proven that he can lead a team with a good cast to the playoffs but I don't see him getting a top 4 seed and history tends to agree with me.

 

With this decision it is clearly James is officially less selfish than Bryant.
He is not comparable to him because they have different desires. Bryant wants to win by himself mostly and James wants to be more of a passer in regards of Robertson and Magic.
Whole different legacy. different story IMHO.

 

Selfish is the wrong word. Kobe won with Shaq and after a while he got tired of being a sidekick and wanted to see if he could lead a team to a title being the hands down best player. There are tons of athletes that want to test their skills to see how great they are and that doesn't make them selfish it just means they are competitive. If Lebron isn't concerned with testing his abilities and being one of the greatest of all time he made the right decision by going to the Heat and there is nothing wrong with that.

 

Obviously yes. Whereas Lebron seems to be ego-driven off the court as a business man trying to build his legacy as a billionaire, Kobe is more egoistical on the court with accolades plus championships. I do think he is selfish. Just my 2 cents.

 

Would the Lakers win an NBA Championship without Kobe? Exactly no....even with Kobe being on the decline he makes tough tough shots and draws so much attention from defenders which opens up shots for teammates

 

BTW I don't think being competitive and becoming the best of the best is on the same level of accomplishments.