CP1708 wrote:
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I've said it before but never really gone full on in depth on my belief that Kobe has had essentially 3 careers. Or 3 turning points in his career, however you view it. The Shaq days winning titles. The after Shaq/Colorado days playing 1 on 5, and the Gasol days. 15 years, 3 different "eras" for Kobe.
I'll break this up for DC so that he can read only part of this if he wants too. This part will be the what has happened so far. Later, I'll do a what might have been, or could have been.
Kobe has some rings. You can put whatever number you want next to it, I don't wish to argue about it. He just has some.
1 MVP, 2 Finals MVP's (it could be argued he should only have 1, it has been argued...many, many times.
) As of this moment, he is 4th all time NBA scoring list. After about 30 games whenever the next season is played, he will move into 3rd. If they play a full season, he could reach 30,000 points. Kareem, Karl, MJ, Wilt, and then Kobe will be the only members of that group, until Lebron gets there in about 6 years or so. If he plays 3 more years, he will get to 6,000 assists, as well as 7,000 rebounds. If he plays those 3 more years, and gets to those numbers, he will be lonely, cuz no one else in the NBA will have those numbers on their resume.........until Lebron does in about 6 years. I have heard some say that Kobe's numbers are rather pedestrian, he only gets 25 a game, 5 boards, 4.5 assists, etc etc. for his career. That is true, those are his numbers. However, take away his first 2 seasons, where he came off the bench, and played 18-20 minutes a night, and his career averages adjust to 27.4, 5.7 boards, and 5.1 assists, over 13 years. You could argue that his totals would be lower then, yet he'd still be well over 26K points, and 5K and 5K rebounds and assists. He was only getting 20 minutes a night as an 18 year old, he wasn't doin major work back then, his per game numbers take a dramatic hit, his totals however, do not. Almost shockingly, it works the same for his postseason resume. Take away those 2 years of 17-20 minutes in the playoffs, and his last 13 years would look like 27.2, 5.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists. Freaking identical. 1,100 regular season games, and 200 postseason games, and his numbers are damn near exact. Pressure, road games, game 7's, games in November in Minnesota, all the same to him. Just go out and try to impose his will. And again, this is over the course of his 3 different "eras" of his career.
Overall playoff wise, same thing, currently 3rd all time in points just under 5,700, a 1,000 assists, and over 1,000 boards. As I mentioned in his bio, he needs about 75 more assists to be 4th all time in NBA playoff history. That is crazy. I don't care about how many games played and all that, one of the biggest "ball hogs" in all of the NBA, and he could end up right beneath Magic, Stockton, and Kidd in all time assists. It just sounds absurd. Again, if he plays a couple more years, makes it to the second or 3rd round a time or two, plays like 12-15 games for 2-3 years, he'll break the scoring mark crossing 6,000 points, maybe 1,200 rebounds and assists to go with that. Never been done before.
In terms of just Laker history he holds or will hold damn near every record there is, or be in like 2nd place like assists he'll never pass Magic, or rebounds he'll never pass Kareem, but everthing else, he'll be top 2-3 in every category almost. The Lakers. This ain't the Clippers franchise, this is the LA Lakers. Where elite of the elite play. And he could be ahead of them all. Call me crazy, but that says something about the guy. It's like someone being the leader in a dozen categories for the Yankees. These ain't bums he's passin.
I'll go thru the eras if I can get it right.
18 year old Kobe was as raw as it gets. Knees and elbows, skinny as a rail, hell he made Eddie Jones look fat. But he could run, he could shoot, he could certainly jump. At the time, my favorite Laker was Nick Van Exel. Nick was not the most talented player of all time, but he had stones as big as boulders. The kid had no fear and told the world to go @#$% themselves when they said he couldn't do something. He had no fear, and I loved that about the guy. Kobe came in and their first year they faced Utah in the playoffs. End of a close game came, and in these situations, you couldn't go to the "franchise" guy Shaq, because he couldn't shoot free throws. So the Lakers had to have a plan B. Del Harris looked around for who to take the shots, and Kobe said he would do it. He got the ball and he shot it like a Sacramento King in a big game. All air. Somehow, the Lakers got the ball, swung it around, no one took it and went for their own shot, eventually it got kicked back to Kobe, he shot it again, this time he looked like a different Sac King, same result though, all air. Another O rebound, swing it around, STILL no Laker will take the shot, it goes to Kobe again, no hesitation, rises up, and Peja's it again. 3-3, airballs. Game over, Lakers are out of the playoffs. People blamed the hell out of the kid for it, I smiled. Somebody, is a player. Hell, I knew he wasn't ready at 18, Jesus Christ people, come on. No 18 year old gonna drain that @#$%. But the fact that he stepped up and said gimme the ball, well now that counts for somethin. (course, maybe it counted for the kid just liked to shoot no matter what, I dunno. )
Couple years go by, the kid gets better and better by the game. You can see it in him. He works hard at his craft, he sponges everything from people, he's always tryin to learn stuff. At 20, he cracks the starting lineup finally during the lockout season. He starts at SF for a while, before the Eddie Jones trade. While at SF, he gets 10-11 boards a night for the first 10-11 games or so, showing he could do what his position on the floor required of him. Once Eddie is traded, he moves to where he will finish his career, as a shooter, uh, playing guard.
Turning 21, Phil Jackson joins LA. Shaq is now in his prime and Phil immediately goes to work on Shaq to get more minutes, and better defense out of him. During the all star break in 2000, Kobe goes up to Gary Payton and asks for tips on playing defense. Kobe watches every single thing Gary does, and then tries to apply it. Seemingly overnight, Kobe becomes a much better defender. In a nationally televised Sunday game, Kobe guards Allen Iverson and gives Allen more trouble than just about anybody I ever seen guard Allen. After escaping the WCF vs Portland in which Kobe played a fantastic series, and one you could argue better than anyone else in that series, the Lakers make it back to the finals. But in game 2, in the opening minutes of the game, Kobe lands on Jalen Rose's foot, and tweaks the @#$% out of it. He' done for the game. And he misses the next game. Shaq and Rice finish out game 2 at home, and get the win to go up 2-0, but in Indy in game 3, they get murdered. Kobe and the trainers work around the clock to get him to play game 4, he does. Close game throughout, it gets sent into OT, and early in OT, Shaq fouls out. 21 year old Kobe steps up, and drains 3 straight 20 footers like they were layups. No more airballs. Later Brian Shaw takes a shot, he misses, Kobe rebounds it and puts it back in. 4 straight shots, 8 points, on the road, in OT, in the Finals, with an injured ankle. Series 3-1, effectively it's over. And Kobe has arrived.
01 leads to a little boredom from some guys, Shaq now has his ring, he's content, the Lakers sort of pace themselves thru the season. Kobe gets a little banged up, misses some time, then comes back in later April, LA wins their final 8 of the season, then goes thru the playoffs like they were playing college teams, 15-1. Now they are repeat champs, not just one timers.
02 is much the same, Shaq gets lazier, Kobe keeps working like a mad man, getting better and better and making All NBA teams, getting MVP votes, leading the team when Shaq takes a month off or so. It's apparent that the plans are for Shaq to dominate during his prime, and once he starts to fade, Kobe will take over and handle the heavy lifting. We all saw that, Kobe did not. He felt like he was ready immediately, and that he worked hard enough, he deserved to run the team. Maybe he was right, maybe he was wrong, either way, the two handled it poorly and it festered and festered for 2-3 years. But before every playoffs, they would put it all aside, and go out and win the title, 2002 being no different.
During the 3 peat years, Kobe had gone for 22, 28, and 25 a game, with 6 boards and 5 assists a game. In the playoffs, he was 21 4 and 4 in 2000, 29, 7 and 6 in 01, and 26, 6 and 5 in 02. Even as a second fiddle, he was the best of the best among guards during that time. And only 23.
2003 was the end of the run, and easily Kobe's finest season. Shaq again took a ton of time off, so Phil asked Kobe to do something for them, carry the offensive load. Kobe responded by averaging 30 points, 7 boards, and 6 assists for the season, along with 2 steals, All league Defense, 13 straight games over 35+ points, including 9 straight 40 point games. He was plain stupid at that time. During that year he dropped 55 on an older Mike, 5 triple doubles, a couple other 50 point games, dunked on Yao, set an NBA record for 12 3's in a game vs Ray Allen he just went nuts. Flat out nuts. In the playoffs he was just as good, getting 30 + in 9 out of the 12 games, and averaging 32, 5 and 5. As I have said though, LA was gassed from playing 60 something playoff games the past 3 years, they ran out of gas. Horry's missed 3 took the wind out of their sails, they couldn't get it back.
04 was big however. Malone and Payton were signed to help bring relief to Shaq and Kobe who carried too much of the burden. Things were going to be epic in LA once again. And then Kobe started a new era, the stupid one. He touched a white girl. Not just any chick though, a pass around chick, a girl that had more DNA samples than Dexter. And it cost us a TON. Kobe handled it poorly, spoke ill of Shaq, came into Phil's office with attitude, he messed up, got caught, and then got defiant about it all. He could have just said I screwed up, I'll fix it, instead he tried to prove how untouchable he was. It was the straw, camel, etc etc. All that said, we made the finals. Then Kobe really got stupid. He tried to prevent Shaq from getting the credit for title #4. They played fractured because of him, and when Malone tweaked his knee, we had no one to handle Rasheed, and we were done. Kobe should have shut the @#$% up, gotten the title, and then moved on with life afterwards, but he didn't want to settle for that.
The era was over, Shaq was moved, and Kobe was re-signed to a huge contract. The Lakers were now his.
The first year started out fine, he ran the team well, they played ok, they were in the mix for the playoffs, but injuries mounted everywhere. Kobe missed games, Butler missed games, Divac was done, Grant was a shell, just never any full time team. One guy would come back, another would get hurt. Just no rythym to the team. Even the coach got "hurt" so to speak and left.
When it was done, LA missed the playoffs for only the 5th time ever. Kobe was now right in the cross hairs. People were ready for his throat. He and Phil made peace, worked it out, Kobe was now entering his prime, he matured slightly maybe, they were ready to try again.
The next year will be talked about for a long time. Kobe went insane. Having the longest offseason of his career, good health, and no good teammates outside of Lamar, Kobe went 1 on 5 almost all year. It meant great numbers for him, but not for the team per say. He willed them into the playoffs, and they almost game planned an upset over the Suns, and were 1 rebound away from doing so, but the bounce didn't go their way.
After another stellar year from Kobe, and another first round loss, Kobe was now getting vocal about how frustrated he was. He was not pissed about being the man, or even losing, he was pissed the front office had been on vacation for 3 years. Many mistakes had been made after the Shaq deal. They did alright for Shaq, Lamar, Butler, Grant, and a #1 isn't bad for a 32 year old. But afterwards, they went stupid. They did nothing, unless you count trading Caron Butler for Kwame Brown. And Kobe was getting tired of it. They had drafted ok, taking Bynum, getting Jordan Farmar to play C and PG, but nothing else was done to help Kobe in his prime. After Kobe vented infamously to get something done, even asking for a trade, that lasted about 6 hours and was great theatre on NT that day, Mitch woke up and actually started to work. He brought back Derek Fisher, he moved Evans and Cook for Trevor Ariza so Kobe didn't have to defend the best wing anymore, and then he made a great move getting Gasol. Suddenly, LA was deep, and talented and good. Kobe got what he wanted all along, talent around him.
2008 was sort of a blur, getting Gasol was great, but it would have been even better had Bynum been there. Bynum had developed nicely until he blew out his knee, and then Trevor also got injured. Kobe made it back to the finals in a classic matchup with Boston, but having Vlad Radmonovic and Luke Walton defend Paul Pierce sort of popped the ballon. Bynum and Ariza would have helped that team out immensly. Do they win? I don't know. It don't matter, but it would have helped a lot.
2009 came, and LA was pissed about losing in 08. They played solid ball for the entire 9 months and earned their 15th overall title, Kobe's (whatever number you wish to give him) He had what he wanted. People had forgotten Colorado (most of them had, some will never let it go no matter how much penis that girl went thru that summer) But Kobe wasn't done, he wanted to repeat, to lay claim that he was every bit the leader any other franchise hall of famer was. They played sloppy for a while, Kobe started to break down a little with nagging injuries, but all year he made game winner after game winner to save their @#$. They played well enough to reach the finals again, against an old foe, Boston yet again. Kobe was BRILLIANT for 6 games, hell before game 7 people asked before the game if he would be MVP of the series win OR lose. He played way to out of control, way too in the moment, and struggled all game long. Though he didn't shoot well at all, he played good D and rebounded all day until the 4th when he scored 10 of his 23 and got the assist to Ron Artest of all people to seal game 7, he had won title number (whatever) He was a champion again.
So this year, he came in hoping to get another 3 peat. LA started out on fire, 13-2 and then played like girls the rest of the year, but then turned it on right after the all star break as a sort of we're back type reminder. Yet again, got full of themselves, went back to sleep and finished out the season as a 2 seed, but had to struggle just to get to that. Media wondered all year what the hell they were doing, but assumed they would turn it on when the playoffs started........then they lost game 1. Chris Paul was epic, the Hornets rattled LA's cage, there was something wrong with the entire team. They got by, then matched up with Dallas and Dirk, for the first time in their careers. LA started off fine, in game 1, went back to sleep and Dirk showed what he was all about, Kobe had a chance to win the game with the last shot, but he came up short. In game 3, they had a chance again to get back in the series, once again Dirk showed them who he was. Game 4 was played by actors in Laker unis. The 3 peat was over, Kobe is now being asked if he is done.
I don't know what happened this year. I know a few things, several theories, probably a lil of all of it. They were gassed like in 03 from all the games the previous 3 years. Something happened within the locker room. Kobe was worn down from age/games/time. Barnes was worn down and never fully healthy. Ron and Fish lost steps. Lamar wasn't as focused as he was before. Phil wasn't fully involved as usual being his final games. And finally, Dallas just outplayed us, and were on the verge of something special. ALL of this added up to a sweep. Not any one thing more than another, ALL of it.
Over Kobe's career, he's had some amazing wins in the playoffs, and some horrible defeats. Final game of 03 was a blowout, final series in 04 was a disaster, final game of 06 was a blowout, final game of 08 was a blowout, and the final game of 11 was a blowout. Common theme I found in most of these. First half in 06, Kobe came out firing, and nobody else did. Game 6 in 08, Kobe hit like 3 3's early in the first quarter, Boston started leaning his way, nobody else showed up. Last game of 2011, Kobe came out gunning in the first half, nobody else did, and they were done. Is he shooting them out of games, I dunno. He's shot like that in many first quarters, and the team plays fine, not sure what goes on during those blowouts. I will never know, just recognize the theme.
For various reasons, Kobe is disliked by many. Laker fans piss people off, his attitude, cockiness, selfishness, arrogance, the fact he tried to play and even act like Mike, the fact he won early on turned people off, and then Colorado sealed his fate. Afterwards, he went bunker and just worked on his game. Stayed quiet, tried to just get back to ball. What happened was pretty much the most beautiful of individual performances on history, but it appalled those that held old fashion values of peach basket type basketball in their hearts. But to just look at what one guy could do, during a game, every night for 6 months, it was unbelievable. No one will ever be Mike, but that was as close as we might ever see to it. He was stupid great those years, but LA managment wasted it. They didn't do anything to help him out. I always wished that they would not have overreacted. Trade Shaq, sign Kobe, and go with Kobe, Payton, Butler, Malone, and Grant, with Lamar, Fox and Divac off the bench as well as Rush and Sasha as kids and Walton and George. Add 1 more big man to that team, they could have at least made the playoffs in 05 and given it a shot. But they let Malone walk, traded Payton and Fox, Rush got moved, Walton and George didn't and they tore it all down. Why? Why do that? Kobe had re-signed, he couldn't dangle them, he was there, why rebuild from scratch, when you really just needed to infuse a little youth, and another big? No need to gut the whole damn roster. Payton, Kobe, Butler, Lamar, Malone as a crunch time 5. How fun could that have been? That team couldn't have has some fun in the 05 playoffs? It was like Buss's whole plan was to just keep Kobe and do nothing else for 3 years. How the hell did that happen?
Now the non DC version, Kobe could have had several different careers another way. Stay with the Hornets and be built around, maybe he wins a title or two, maybe he bolts via free agency, I dunno. Joins LA the way he did, plays with Shaq, wins the title in 04 giving Shaq 4 Finals MVP's, but they smooth it all out, re-sign both of them, give Malone and Payton a ring each, and then they try to maintain and rebuild around Kobe as Shaq ages. Shaq made it to 2008 in good shape (sort of) By then they could have added a title or two, Kobe would get the majority of credit for those by then, he's not up to 6-7 rings with Shaq, just like Magic and Kareem. Any way you slice it, his career could have gone so many different ways. It's hard to imagine, but they won 3 titles together, and yet their legacy isn't what it should have been. They could have done so much more together. People blame Kobe alot for it, and in a way it is him, but not all him. The guy wanted nothing but to be great at what he did, and win. Shaq wanted to take a month off extra every year, and make it harder on themselves to repeat not getting HC and all that. Kobe worked like a dog, and credit was given to Shaq who sat on his @#$. I work my everyday job, and I work hard (when I'm not on NT that is) and if someone else gets credit for what I do while they have their feet up and eat twinkies all day, I'd be pissed too. I don't know how anyone could see the lazy guys side on that.
Bottom line DC, Kobe has more titles than anyone since Jordan/Pippen/Horry. Whatever credit that needs to be assigned, don't matter, bottom line is, 5 for him, 5 for Fisher, 4 for Duncan, 4 for Shaq, etc etc etc. If he plays up to 18 years all with the LA Lakers, reaches a ton of numbers, still has 5 (or maybe gets to a 6th) reaches the finals 7- (maybe 8 times, gonna get to 33-34,000 points or so and all his other numbers, he will go down as thee greatest LA Laker to ever lace them up. His resume in terms of sheer numbers, all star games, all NBA stuff, stats, longevity, etc etc, he could have a career second only to Kareem in terms of just filling the stat sheet for almost TWO DECADES. People try to discredit the guy, and at times everyone from Grant Hill, to Penny, to Vince, to TMac, to AI, to Lebron to Melo, Wade, Durant whoever were or are all better than Kobe, and after 15 years, he's still getting 25, 5 and 5 a game, and most of them were done after a nice 5-6 years of playing. It's incredible. If he played these 15 years for the Pacers, people would adore this guy, his fans wouldn't be so bad, but because he is a Laker, and Laker fans are insane typically, his hate factor rises to unknown levels. Mark my words. I didn't like Bird, I didn't like Mike. But when they were gone, I missed them terribly. I didn't realize at the time. I got a second chance when Mike stopped whiffing at curveballs, I made sure to enjoy those 3 years. I don't like Lebron much, but I make sure to enjoy his career, I learned my lesson. You that hate Kobe, you will miss him when he is gone. I promise you you will. He might be a douche bag, but on the court, he was memorable as any.
It would be a shame if this got Yuku'd, wouldn't it?
If anybody actually read every word of this, @#$% is wrong with you?
