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i ran a search for any topics pertaining to kobe's unreal performance, and i couldnt find one, so i decided to start it! what do you all think about him scoring 81 points? ive discussed it a lot with my homies here at school, and many of them think kobe bryant is just a ballhog. being a loyal kobe bryant fan ever since he came into the league, i defend his performance whenever i get the chance. although he has received mixed criticism about the feat, heres my belief:

kobe bryant scores 81, and everyone starts bashing on him for hogging the ball; but if michael jordan were to have scored 81, everyone would be praising the ground walks on.

now, im by no means hating on MJ. he was the greatest. all im saying is that kobe's performance will prolly go down as one of the best in history cuz he was a guard. i honestly believe he has the chance to become the best player ever, but for now, MJ holds that title. what do you all think about kobe's 81?

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Kobe is just Kobe just like You are like you are and I like I am, no matter how much you hate Kobe you have to accept the fact that he is the Top 50 to ever play the game. He has been a star since very early in the league and he has been a force in the league putting up numbers some can just dream of. If the time has come for the world to now witness Kobe Bryant at the HIGHEST level of his career then we are in for a ride. We have seen some amazing and unreal plays from Kobe through the seasons, and if the time has come for Kobe to play at a new higher level above the rest then we might just be not far away from witnessing some of the greatest performances ever, and who knows, Kobe Bryant might end up entering the exclusive 30k PTS ELITE CLUB!

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

First of all, MJ was a guard, too. I'm not a Kobe-hater per se, but I don't think he makes his teammates better the way some of the NBA players I'd rank above him. The 81 points were phenomenal, but I'd rather have a D Wade or a Chauncey Billups when all is said and done. I can't see the Lakers getting higher than a 6 seed and a first round playoff loss.

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Hip-Hop QOTW:

"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
The Roots

Kobe will never surpass MJ. The highest Jordan got was 69 but remember his 63 against the Celtics in 86 ofcourse the Celtics were Champions in that year as well as being the best team in the regular season.

The difference between them is MJ's performance inspired teammates to do better and I've seen it happen and I've MJ praise team mates from the bench(during the scarce few mintues he's been on it).

Every Great player of any sport who has never won a championship always has said they'd trade every personal honor for one championship.

If Kobe doesn't think like that he won't improve because he's not improving all the aspects of his game. Give him time I believe he will change his attitude and if not I hope they don't ever hoist his number alongside Magic and Abdul-Jabbar.

I don't really follow NBA this year, save for one game a week on cable, which is chosen by the network as the most plausible source of spectacle. Sadly, this game was not chosen, so I didn't see it.

Despite me not liking Bryant, I believe I would have enjoyed such a performance. It may be selfish, but it's still a performance/career high/whatever you want to call it.

French networks mostly emphasize on the french players in the league, so naturally we hear a lot about the Spurs and the Suns. On that note, I saw this morning the game where Boris Daw made the first french triple-double, which is really a cause to celebrate back here (and a good note for the next world series...)

Well, I don't want to say Kobe isn't a selfish player, because he is, but that night his shooting was so hot that it actually made sense for him to demand the ball the way he did. Kobe had an incredible night, and he deserves to be proud of it. However, if the Lakers are going to contend at all this year, Kobe will need to score in droves, but also think of some things besides his scoring column. In that historic game, Kobe only had six rebounds and more turnovers (3) than assists (2). Also, despite Kobe's 81, the Lakers only won by eighteen points, and against one of the worst teams in the league - where's the defense?

If the Lakers want to make it out of the first round of the playoffs, Kobe has to actually buy into the triangle (not that his teammates are helping - Lamar Odom is laughably bad in Jackson's scheme) and not take fifty shots a game - it unreasonable to think that he'll actually make a habit of shooting 55% all the time now, especially now that the target on his back is that much bigger.

I read a Bill Simmons article linked in another forum, and while I usually despise Simmons, I think he's probably written the best account of the game I've read thus far.

Oh, and the best player in the league is still Tim Duncan. His stat line against the Nets in the final game of the Spurs' 2003 championship run is one of my favorites ever - 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, and nine blocks. Let's see Kobe do that.

Edit

I made the paragraphs smaller, so as to prevent this post from being an unreadable wall of text.

Edit

Thou - so is all of the coverage the NBA gets in France games involving Parker, Diaw, or Pietrus? Sort of too bad, but I guess it's the same over hear regarding soccer players overseas. Those three Frenchmen in the NBA are all rather excellent, though. Parker has proven to be an elite player, and I still think Pietrus will be an All-Star in four years if he keeps improving the way he has been, but a ton of Diaw's success is probably because of Steve Nash.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 24th February 2006 15:39

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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I can't believe I've overlooked this topic for so long!

Michael Jordan will go down in history as the best player of all time, period.

Kobe is a superb player in his own right, but he's no MJ. MJ elevated his team to a whole new level with his play and leadership. Kobe is an island. An amazing island, to be sure... but nevertheless he stands alone. He is not a leader on or off the court. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a "cancer" to the team he plays for (a title I would freely give to an ass like T.O. in the NFL), but I can honestly say that I would not want him on my team.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Quote (laszlow @ 1st February 2006 16:33)

Thou - so is all of the coverage the NBA gets in France games involving Parker, Diaw, or Pietrus? Sort of too bad, but I guess it's the same over hear regarding soccer players overseas. Those three Frenchmen in the NBA are all rather excellent, though. Parker has proven to be an elite player, and I still think Pietrus will be an All-Star in four years if he keeps improving the way he has been, but a ton of Diaw's success is probably because of Steve Nash.

The coverage I get (and luckily I have access to the channel broadcasting it; I could probably have more with a more expensive cable or satelite...) is limited to one game a week wednesday morning, usually a tuesday night game. Georges Eddy, the french guy doing most of the american sports news in France, choose the game deemed to be the more interesting/heated/important, and french players being in the games doesn't factor: the rest of the show is the french players week recap, so there's always a coverage of french players (we also get the Top Ten, woohoo).

Parker is definitely above the other french players as it is now, even more so now that he was selected for the All Star Game (to be honest, I expected him to suck major ass in the game, he ended up being not that bad. The shooting contest with Steve Kerr was fun too). Diaw has an incredible progression this year, being an all-around player with the Suns, all of that peaking with the first Triple-Double in the history of french players ont that long ago. I think he'l get his ticket for an All-Star before Pietrus, imo, if he ever get one.

Parker's a beast. We can agree on that. He's a creative, well-rounded point guard that leads the league in points in the paint. A point guard. Duncan, Robinson (back in the day), Ginobili, and Parker are the main reasons I have so much respect for the Spurs.

I still think that Pietrus has an enormous upside and that you're overestimating Boris Diaw. Sure, he had the first triple-double ever in the NBA for a French player, but you have to remember that he's playing alongside Steve Nash, who is second to none in making his teammates more effective (the only people around nowadays that can possibly contend with him on that count are Shaq and Duncan). Boris Diaw may have had a breakout season, but would it still have been a breakout season if Amare Stoudamire, by far the Suns' most athletic and skillful frontliner, was around to score 25 points a game?

Mickael Pietrus, however, was the European Jordan for two or three seasons. He was possibly his draft's second-most highly regarded player other than Darko, and unquestionably possess an NBA body and athletic ability. More noticeably than Diaw, Pietrus has notably improved each season, is still growing accustomed to the NBA's game, is on a rebuilding team that counts him among their long-range plans, and is only 23 years old. If Pietrus gets better (and he will), and the Warriors improve over the next two or three seasons (and they will), then I think that he will be the next French NBA sensation not named Parker.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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