The Black Mamba Strikes Again

"That's how you tell 20,000 people to shut up and sit down." - Jeff Van Gundy following Kobe's BIG 3 point shot to give the Lakers the lead for good in Game 3. To get to another point in defense of Bryant, I have already heard many people complaining about how Kobe wouldn't pass the ball to his teammates in a clutch situation. Well even though I have already touched on this in a previous post about how Lebron passed up a game winning shot, still it is an issue. Kobe gets heckled for taking a clutch shot and making it, and Lebron gets praised for passing up on a game winner and loosing. This whole thing is backwards and confusing me. But once again Kobe proves why he is the most clutch player in the game today, why when team USA needed a big shot to seal their final game he was who all those stars turned to. I am not trying to take anything away from Lebron, he is a great player, and has many more great things he will accomplish. All I am saying is that Lebron is not the clutch player to this point in his career that Kobe is. Yes I know Kobe is older, but he is still hitting those shots, like he showed tonight. And the game winner Lebron hit last night was the 2nd game winner he has hit in his playoff career, oh and he still has no rings. Gotta love those delicious chocolate chip cookies!

You went with a Fish Over a Snake?

Last night in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, the great coach Phil Jackson made a decision I will never understand, and of course, Kobe is going to catch the flack for it. With the Lakers down by 3 and 4 sec's left in the game, Phil Jackson used Kobe Bryant, the Black Mamba, as a decoy and called for Derik Fisher to take the game tying shot. I have seen Kobe make 3's from almost half-court to win games, so I just don't understand the logic. But this is not what had me the most upset last night, that would be a 69-year-old man.

That man is Dick Bavetta, one of the most respected referees in the NBA. So respected that ESPN never has a bad thing to say about the guy, until today. J.A. Adanda, a ESPN.com writer, pointed out in the 2nd article of this link, that Mr. Bavetta was making calls to help out the visitors. I am never one to complain about the referees, and that is saying a lot coming from a former player and current coach, but this game was called terrible. There is really only one thing that refs do that gets under my skin, that is when they are inconsistant. And that crew last night was a great example of that. I won't get into all the reasons for that, but I will just touch on one major example that changed the outcome of the game. Early in the 4th quarter, Denver's PG, Chauncey Billups, tried to make a pass which he basically threw right at the shins of LA's Pau Gasol. Bavetta called a kick ball and Denver got the ball out of bounds. Now with about 20 secs left in the game, Kobe was attempting to drive to the basket with the Lakers down 2. He did a crossover dribble to split Melo and Denver's Nene (yes that is his full name), and the dribble went right off of the foot of Nene. The ball bounced away from Kobe and it ended up being a jump ball situation. That was basically the exact same play that was called a kick ball earlier in the game, and it was not called here, on a much more important play. Then they blew a massive violation call on Denver's JR Smith during the jump ball that all but cost the Lakers the game, well besides the whole Fish over Snake thing.

Let the Debate Begin

For the last month all the NBA has done is push this Kobe vs. Lebron thing. They even got Nike to get in on it. Well now each player's team has completed game 1 of their respective conference's finals, and boy was there a smile on my face last night. One of the biggest knocks people always give Kobe when arguing for Lebron is that Kobe never passes and he shoots too much. They always say that his assist numbers are nowhere near Lebron's, and that he has to shoot the ball more to score. Game 1: Lebron scored 49pts on 20-30 shooting, he hit 6-10FTs and has his usual 8 assits. Kobe scored 40pts on 13-28 shooting, he hit 12-13FTs and had only 4 assits. So yes, Lebron had a great game, one of his best shooting percentages of the year. Kobe shot the ball less, scored less, and shot 3 more FTs. Sounds like I'm for Lebron here? Hold on just a second there.....Back to the arguement that Kobe never passes and Lebron makes his team better. 2 points here:

1. When Lebron passes it is a pass to Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who is the best outside shooting center in the NBA, Mo Williams/Delonte West/Wally Szczerbiak, all great shooters who were leading scorers on their an NBA team at some point. When Kobe passes to his center, Pau Gasol, he has to be 8-ft and in to score. When he passes to his perimeter, Derek Fisher/Trever Ariza/Luke Walton/Jordan Farmar, they are streaky shooters at best, you dont know what you are gonna get from game to game.

2. This is my favorite. In the Lakers game 1, in the last minute of the game, Kobe did not pass the ball. He took his team, put them on his shoulders, and won that game. Got himself to the FT line, and actually hit freethrows. In the Cav's game 1, in the last minute of the game, Lebron passed the ball on 2 out of 3 possessions. Once to Delonte West who hit a big 3 in the corner, and once on the final play of the game, with his team down by 1, he PASSES the ball to Mo Williams for a corner 3....which he misses game over. Why in the world would a guy who is the MVP, which I think stands for Most VALUABLE Player, let someone else try to win the game.

Oh and I almost forgot the most important stat of this whole thing:

Lakers 1 - Nuggets 0 Magic 1 - Cavs 0

Introducing Bill Simmons, the Arch Enemy

Thanks to Mr. Peckinpaugh, I was pointed to yet more anger towards the media that rides Kobe's back. This article was written by a Bill Simmons, a writer for ESPN the Magazine, and a Celtics fan, which automatically makes him hate anything that is associated with the LA Lakers, especially their best player, thus making him in a word a Kobe-hater, anti-Kobe, or more simply, Kurtis. One of his biggest arguments, and quite frankly the biggest complaint most everyone has against Kobe, is that he shoots too much. They all say that yea Kobe can score a bunch, cuz he never passes, and he has to shoot it 30 times to get a bunch of points. Mr. Simmons makes the exact same statement in this article, pointing the Kobe's Madison Square Garden record breaking performance of 61 pts on Feb 2, 2009. In this game Kobe break the record of Knicks great Bernard King, and Simmons says this about Kobe's performance.

"Kobe's 61-point game represented the best and worst of basketball to me.....his teammates stood around and watched him like movie extras. In 37 minutes, Kobe took 31 shots and another 20 free throws. He finished with three assists and no boards......New York buddy was so distraught that Bernard's 60-point Garden record fell so ignominiously"

So he is saying that Kobe broke Bernard's record in a bad way, that Kobe shot it 31 times and didnt pass the ball. So lets look at facts Mr. Simmons: Kobe: 19-31FGs, 3-6threes, 20-20FTs Bernard King: 19-30FGs, 0-1threes, 22-26FTs. Well I guess the numbers speak for themselves. Basically the same shots and FTs, but there is one difference in those 2 performances, the Lakers won 126-117, King's Knicks lost 114-120. As far as I'm concerned, winning the game trumps everything else. Prevett 1 - Simmons 0

Lastly, back to last nights Game 1. Simmons twitter read: "I enjoyed Kobe Bryant's prime." And when was his prime? Was it back when he won 3 championships? oh no he had Shaq....was it back when he scored 55pts on MJ? oh no MJ was old......oh i know when it was, last year winning the MVP? no he is too old then....then I guess we agree on something Mr. Simmons, his prime is June 2009 when he advances to the NBA finals after beating a very good Melo. Thanks for coming out.

Leave Kobe Alone

Today has prompted a lot of anger out of me due to the way that the greatest basketball player in the entire world has been recently treated. It all started with this yesterday when "The Logo," Jerry West (called that cuz the NBA logo is actually his silhouette) said that Lebron James had surpassed Kobe as the best player in the NBA. I took it as a way for Mr. West (a former Laker himself) to motivate Kobe into having a great rest of the playoffs. Then came game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets, who just so happen to have one of those young players from the "Lebron Draft," Carmelo Anthony (from here on just Melo, much cooler). I won't go into the actual game, cuz you can look that up yourself. But in a nutshell, both Kobe and Melo went off. Stat line: Kobe, 40pts-6reb-4ast.....Melo, 39pts-6reb-4ast. As I watched this game I did not even notice that Kobe was on pace for 40, because all the announcers talked about was Melo dominating the game. That is until Sportscenter notified me (what would I do without you SC :))

Now that we got the background out of the way, here is what angered me. Even in a time when Kobe carried his team, outscored the other teams best player, and D'd up a guy much stronger and physical than he, he gets negative talk (even the picture is negative). This should be a time that Kobe is praised for taking his team through a rough game where everyone else struggled, but instead they begin to talk about how Kobe showed "slight signs of fatigue, such as the ball hitting the front of the rim even on some shots that went in." I mean....they went in right? He hit numerous FT's down the stretch to close the game. And I know from my playing days that it is tougher to make FT's when you are fatigued. So get off his back, he has enough people that he carries there anyways. Game 1 was won by the LA Kobes over the Denver Melos, and that's the way the NBA goes.