ONE OF THE GREATEST COMEBACKS IN FINALS HISTORY!
An hour and a half earlier you were calling Garnett a phony and wanted Rivers fired. You might hurt yourself getting off and on the bandwagon so fast.
when they lose, they lose because of kobe. when they win, it's because of someone else.
Completely ridiculous. They lose for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes it's because Kobe is jacking up bad shots. Sometimes it's because the rest of the Lakers forget how to score. Or they just stop playing defense. And sometimes, like in Game 4, all of those things happen at once. I can't believe they choked that game away.
No, because no matter the situation, Kobe makes it into a terrible one. He sneers as his teammates, he drives out the most dominant player in NBA history (who he could have won 3 more championships with) by saying he doesn't want to be a sidekick anymore, and for all of his new image, he really hasn't changed. He's the same selfish brat he started becoming in 2001, and I, for one, am sick of it.
Actually he's the same selfish brat that he was as a rookie in 1996. The pundits this season have cracked me up. All the talk about Kobe becoming unselfish is a joke. Kobe is the same guy he always was: he's willing to pass the ball if he thinks his teammate has a better chance of scoring than he does. But when he decides that he has the best chance (and sometimes he's right) then he'll take it himself. The difference is that this season he has a more complete team around him and he has more moments when he thinks they can score too. That's it. Otherwise he's the same guy.
Let's get something straight. Kobe is not the only reason Shaq left. Kobe isn't the one who demanded another $30 million per contract extension as soon as his latest contract started. Kobe isn't the one who showed up out of shape for the preseason three years in a row. Kobe isn't the one who publicly demanded the trade that got the Lakers 40 cents on the dollar. Shaq did all those things. Buss traded him because he was tired of Shaq's complaining and decided he wasn't a good investment anymore. Shaq and Kobe both have huge egos, both want to be the man on their team, both expect others to cater to them, and both share the blame for their breakup.
Take a player like Dwyane Wade. Sure, he's injured, but he is one of (if not the most) talented players in the NBA. He is a true superstar, and guess what? He's humble, he's a nice guy, he's a great teammate, and he doesn't hold grudges. That's a player. Someone so good that he should have an ego, but doesn't.
I wouldn't trade Wade straight up for Kobe. Not now anyway. As great as Wade is, he won one title with the help of Shaq and a ridiculous number of foul calls against the Mavs. The calls that Wade got in the 2006 finals make this postseason's bad officiating look stellar. Wade also has a problem staying healthy these days, whereas Kobe has played through a lot of injuries and stays on the floor. There are many, many reasons not to like Kobe, but he's the most dedicated player in the league.
Wade seems like he's at a crossroad right now. He doesn't have Shaq to help him anymore, the Heat are terrible, and he's getting hurt a lot. He could end up going down the LeBron or Kobe career path. Then again, he could end up being the next Grant Hill, and we'll always wonder "what if?"
Trade Kobe 1:1 for Dwyane Wade. Pull the trigger Jerry.
Forget it. Oh, and Jerry West isn't the GM anymore.
For the record, Kobe had 10 assists last night, the most of anyone in the game, not "2 or 3".
Assuming some miracle doesn't happen, right now it looks like the Lakers will finish second this year. As much as I hate the idea of losing to the Celtics, I'm consoling myself a little knowing that they weren't supposed to get this far this season, that they're a young team on the rise, that with Bynum back next season they'd have the best front court in the league, and that they really weren't playoff-tested yet this time. The truth is that the Lakers are hitched to the Kobe train, for better or worse. He's going to be a major part of how far they go each season. He's both the most talented, dedicated, and ruthless player in the league, and also the most irritating. (I'm not sure he's the most selfish. Vince Carter, anyone?) We'll continue to have him to kick around and by awed by for quite a while.
Personally, I would rather have him giving my team a chance to win each game than see him play somewhere else. No team should make rash decisions based on one playoff series.
