Kobe Bryant Myths

[PickernRoller]

Taking shots at an old man while he walks out the league. Gonna do a Pauk impersonation. Hyenas huddle up and take pride in driving out the old lion. It was this lion that once in his heyday they never dare to come across. Writers these days, appealing to LeQueen groupies and jumping on the wagon. But hey, it's what it's.

If there is one thing the writer has done well is reinforce the only fact there is about stats. Stats and INTERPRETATIONS of stats can be Misleading. Shithead wouldn't write an article like this in 2009/2010 - knows he would be murdered for being a fool. Only on ISh, only on Ish.

[RRR3]

Taking shots at an old man while he walks out the league. Gonna do a Pauk impersonation. Hyenas huddle up and take pride in driving out the old lion. It was this lion that once in his heyday they never dare to come across. Writers these days, appealing to LeQueen groupies and jumping on the wagon. But hey, it's what it's.

If there is one thing the writer has done well is reinforce the only fact there is about stats. Stats and INTERPRETATIONS of stats can be Misleading. Shithead wouldn't write an article like this in 2009/2010 - knows he would be murdered for being a fool. Only on ISh, only on Ish.

Shades of Pauk

[PickernRoller]

Shades of Pauk

I tried man....Pauk just too good.

[Sharmer]

For the Kobe Stans who said he is GOAT...

[Flamboyant]

Oh I love it!! What do I love? I love how predictable Kobe haters are. First there is an unwarranted outrage about how Kobe is viewed by basketball fans (link in OP.) Then a bunch of Mr.NowItAll's appear saying they are willing to give Kobe all the credit for a level to which they can drag him down by a couple of biased standards, and everything saying he's better than that is unacceptable, and reason for "the hate." Here's a good example:

I agree with most of this, but a large part of it is due to fans and media. Like 06 for example. Obviously Kobe was great in the regular season and perhaps the best player that year. But many fans were claiming he was on par with MJ...maybe the GOAT...etc. etc. And then the Suns series happened. Not that Kobe didn't play well overall, but he didn't do anything really special.

Still to this day I hear people claim he was clearly the best player that year. And I think that is a total logic fail when you factor that series in. You had guys like Lebron and Iverson put up similar numbers in the regular season...and then you had guys like Wade and Dirk rock it in the playoffs.

So you get the over-correction on a lot of this stuff. Think back to 06 and it would have likely been a joke to say that Kobe might not be the best player. But looking at it objectively and actually evaluating what everyone did. You can certainly make arguments for Dirk, Wade, and Lebron all having as good or beter years overall.

Sure, you can make arguments for all of those guys. It's not that different than making a Kobe > Jordan argument. It's an on opinion after all, and one where you can always pick whatever you want to believe. However no one put up similar stats with Kobe that year. Other players had great years too, especially scoring wise, but Kobe was unconscious. Scoring 81 points, outscoring a whole damn team (the best team of that year no less), 27 40+ point games. Kobe scoring 30 was considered ordinary. I'm not saying it as a hyperbole, you literally couldn't just say to someone who followed NBA "Hey Kobe scored 30 pts last night." The response was a mere "Huh." In a year where Iverson, LeBron, and Arenas had their career highs in ppg, Kobe was head and shoulders above them. He had one of the greatest regular seasons by an individual in NBA history. In fact take his ppg and divided it by league average ppg. It's THE GREATEST by a premiter player. Take the pts/36mins and you're looking at the flat out GREATEST SCORING OUTPUT IN NBA HISTORY. But sure many had similar seasons.

Now after this amazing regular season there came the playoffs. Lets revise history on how was the series projected to pan out: Kobe is teh Goat he gun chit on everrry teem sooooo badd.

Let's get real, and here's some of the things I actually read at that time: The lakers will get swept. If they're lucky some of the games might be close. Kobe can't win without Shaq, and we all now this. He's just a chucker. He may end up averaging 50 ppg, and it still won't mean a thing, cause the Suns will just roll past the Lakers.

And I gotta come clean a Suns sweep was my prediction too. They were simply the better team, and for an individual based offense a great offensive team should be much harder to upset than a defensive one. Regular season meeting were pointing this too. What happened: Kobe played amazingly unselfish. He didn't force anything that much. Odom (who was SF in RS) moved to PF, and started causing a lot of problems. Lakers actually showed that this series will be harder than expected from game 1, and managed to win games 2 and 3. After that we had game 4, where Kobe unexpectedly QUIT on his team. What the hell was he thinking. Suns were up by eight with less than 6 minutes to go, and Kobe doesn't attempt a single FG up til there's less than 30 secs left. And as if that wasn't enough, he does it again in the overtime. MY GOD. He had only 3 field goals in 4th quarter and overtime COMBINED. [COLOR="Blue"]Just look at this![/COLOR] 3:25, 5:40, and 6:20 are his only field goals. He had a total of 14 FGA in a close game that went to overtime. QuitBe. After they lost game five, in game six Kobe scores 9 points in the 4th, including a 5-0 run by himself when his team was down by 2 in the last 2 minutes. It comes down to final possession, and the lakers 1. fail to get a defensive rebound, and 2. Give a wide open look to Thomas, when all they had to do was defend 3 pointers. In the OT Kobe goes for 5-7 FGs, 2-3 3pt, 12 pts. His teammates add 0-3 FGs, 1-3 FTs, 1 point. more rolleyes

And then comes the infamous game 7. In the first half almost Kobe matches his game 4. He shoots 8-13 FG, 4-6 3pt, 3-4 FT, for 23 points in first half alone. But the Lakers are getting blown out. Kobe comes to second half, but isn't trying. The commentator here says something along the lines "Phil Jackson is doing something really smart now. He'll play Kobe the whole second half, but will only use him as a decoy, and if the others will manage to get the score closer he'll have enough energy to carry them in the end." Nevertheless the Suns kept growing their lead, and the Lakers/Kobe eventually had to give up. Still in the 3rd when Phoenix noticed this strategy, and started to give him space, the guy that was quitting immediately was raising his hands, and shot a couple of three's just so the defense won't play him off, (but missed em both.)

The Aftermath: Kobe is remembered as a choker for blowing a 3-1 series lead against the team that owned them in the regular season, and was supposed to sweep them easily. He supposedly quit on his team, even though in the last 3 games he scored 34 ppg on 56%FG, and 65%eFG. x100

I make a similar post like this almost every year, and then leave this whole Kobe vs Rest of The World debates to infinite trolling power of this forum. My point is I wasn't always a Kobe fan. I am a big T-Mac, and especially AI fan, and used to claim both of them were better than Kobe. But there are two series in Kobe's career that made me a huge fan of him. First one is the 03 Spurs series, when the 24 year old guy, who had won the title in the last 3 years, covered his head with his towel to hide his frustration (maybe even tears) after he was being eliminated. The second one is the 06 Suns series, where Kobe could have gone for the playoff single game scoring record, or the highest ppg in a series, but put the team success in front of everything else. In both of the series the penultimate games were true heartbreakers. To me these series showed greatness. To the basketball illiterate it's just Kobe getting blown out in the final game.

If you can't appreciate him, shame on you. Not you as DMAVS41, but you as all you Kobe haters, insecure Jordan stans, and all who try to spin facts to fit their agendas, and even dumb Laker fans who actually believe any of this. Kobe's 06 Suns series is one of the best efforts I've seen from the losing side. But the article in the OP had a nice explanation for all of this:

[DMAVS41]

[QUOTE=Flamboyant]Oh I love it!! What do I love? I love how predictable Kobe haters are. First there is an unwarranted outrage about how Kobe is viewed by basketball fans (link in OP.) Then a bunch of Mr.NowItAll's appear saying they are willing to give Kobe all the credit for a level to which they can drag him down by a couple of biased standards, and everything saying he's better than that is unacceptable, and reason for "the hate." Here's a good example:



Sure, you can make arguments for all of those guys. It's not that different than making a Kobe > Jordan argument. It's an on opinion after all, and one where you can always pick whatever you want to believe. However no one put up similar stats with Kobe that year. Other players had great years too, especially scoring wise, but Kobe was unconscious. Scoring 81 points, outscoring a whole damn team (the best team of that year no less), 27 40+ point games. Kobe scoring 30 was considered ordinary. I'm not saying it as a hyperbole, you literally couldn't just say to someone who followed NBA "Hey Kobe scored 30 pts last night." The response was a mere "Huh." In a year where Iverson, LeBron, and Arenas had their career highs in ppg, Kobe was head and shoulders above them. He had one of the greatest regular seasons by an individual in NBA history. In fact take his ppg and divided it by league average ppg. It's THE GREATEST by a premiter player. Take the pts/36mins and you're looking at the flat out GREATEST SCORING OUTPUT IN NBA HISTORY. But sure many had similar seasons.

Now after this amazing regular season there came the playoffs. Lets revise history on how was the series projected to pan out: Kobe is teh Goat he gun chit on everrry teem sooooo badd.

Let's get real, and here's some of the things I actually read at that time: The lakers will get swept. If they're lucky some of the games might be close. Kobe can't win without Shaq, and we all now this. He's just a chucker. He may end up averaging 50 ppg, and it still won't mean a thing, cause the Suns will just roll past the Lakers.

And I gotta come clean a Suns sweep was my prediction too. They were simply the better team, and for an individual based offense a great offensive team should be much harder to upset than a defensive one. Regular season meeting were pointing this too. What happened: Kobe played amazingly unselfish. He didn't force anything that much. Odom (who was SF in RS) moved to PF, and started causing a lot of problems. Lakers actually showed that this series will be harder than expected from game 1, and managed to win games 2 and 3. After that we had game 4, where Kobe unexpectedly QUIT on his team. What the hell was he thinking. Suns were up by eight with less than 6 minutes to go, and Kobe doesn't attempt a single FG up til there's less than 30 secs left. And as if that wasn't enough, he does it again in the overtime. MY GOD. He had only 3 field goals in 4th quarter and overtime COMBINED. [COLOR="Blue"]Just look at this![/COLOR] 3:25, 5:40, and 6:20 are his only field goals. He had a total of 14 FGA in a close game that went to overtime. QuitBe. After they lost game five, in game six Kobe scores 9 points in the 4th, including a 5-0 run by himself when his team was down by 2 in the last 2 minutes. It comes down to final possession, and the lakers 1. fail to get a defensive rebound, and 2. Give a wide open look to Thomas, when all they had to do was defend 3 pointers. In the OT Kobe goes for 5-7 FGs, 2-3 3pt, 12 pts. His teammates add 0-3 FGs, 1-3 FTs, 1 point. more rolleyes

And then comes the infamous game 7. In the first half almost Kobe matches his game 4. He shoots 8-13 FG, 4-6 3pt, 3-4 FT, for 23 points in first half alone. But the Lakers are getting blown out. Kobe comes to second half, but isn't trying. The commentator here says something along the lines "Phil Jackson is doing something really smart now. He'll play Kobe the whole second half, but will only use him as a decoy, and if the others will manage to get the score closer he'll have enough energy to carry them in the end." Nevertheless the Suns kept growing their lead, and the Lakers/Kobe eventually had to give up. Still in the 3rd when Phoenix noticed this strategy, and started to give him space, the guy that was quitting immediately was raising his hands, and shot a couple of three's just so the defense won't play him off, (but missed em both.)

The Aftermath: Kobe is remembered as a choker for blowing a 3-1 series lead against the team that owned them in the regular season, and was supposed to sweep them easily. He supposedly quit on his team, even though in the last 3 games he scored 34 ppg on 56%FG, and 65%eFG. x100

I make a similar post like this almost every year, and then leave this whole Kobe vs Rest of The World debates to infinite trolling power of this forum. My point is I wasn't always a Kobe fan. I am a big T-Mac, and especially AI fan, and used to claim both of them were better than Kobe. But there are two series in Kobe's career that made me a huge fan of him. First one is the 03 Spurs series, when the 24 year old guy, who had won the title in the last 3 years, covered his head with his towel to hide his frustration (maybe even tears) after he was being eliminated. The second one is the 06 Suns series, where Kobe could have gone for the playoff single game scoring record, or the highest ppg in a series, but put the team success in front of everything else. In both of the series the penultimate games were true heartbreakers. To me these series showed greatness. To the basketball illiterate it's just Kobe getting blown out in the final game.

If you can't appreciate him, shame on you. Not you as DMAVS41, but you as all you Kobe haters, insecure Jordan stans, and all who try to spin facts to fit their agendas, and even dumb Laker fans who actually believe any of this. Kobe's 06 Suns series is one of the best efforts I've seen from the losing side. But the article in the OP had a nice explanation for all of this:

[DMAVS41]

He didn't play much D in 07 but he did in 06. Lost weight from the previous year and was more active. I don't think he made an all d team the previous year so it wasn't just reputation. And Lebron wasn't really considered a good defender until 08

So how big of a gap defensively do you think there was impact wise between kobe and iverson / wade / lebron /dirk?

As big as the current gap between a guy like Westbrook and Kobe? And do you think Westbrook should be considered better than Kobe because of his great defense?

[TheBigVeto]

Taking shots at an old man while he walks out the league. Gonna do a Pauk impersonation. Hyenas huddle up and take pride in driving out the old lion. It was this lion that once in his heyday they never dare to come across. Writers these days, appealing to LeQueen groupies and jumping on the wagon. But hey, it's what it's.

If there is one thing the writer has done well is reinforce the only fact there is about stats. Stats and INTERPRETATIONS of stats can be Misleading. Shithead wouldn't write an article like this in 2009/2010 - knows he would be murdered for being a fool. Only on ISh, only on Ish.

[Doctor Rivers]

Negging you is awesome