Kobe Scores Almost as Much as Chamberlain
On the basketball court….geez, people………
To cap off a weekend of brutal blowouts in the NHL and NFL, Kobe Bryant decided to become the highest single game scorer in NBA history not named Wilt Chamberlain.
Kobe poured in 81 points against the woeful Raptors, who actually at one point had a 17-some-odd point lead over the Lakers, but then Kobe took over scoring 55 of his points in the second half, outscoring the entire Raptor team on his own.
It’s worth noting that none of the NBA legends like Michael, Magic, Larry or Kareem ever really came close to this number. It’s also worth noting that Kobe scored 62 in only THREE QUARTERS earlier this season, leaving with the game well in hand, and thus giving up what many thought would be a great shot at scoring 80 in a game.
This brings up an interesting argument that many people thought had been put to rest with the arrival of LeBron James. Now, ‘Bron-‘Bron was supposed to be the new heir to the “Jordan Throne”, and while he’s still doing insanely fucking well for only being 20 years old, Kobe has re-entered discussions with his ridiculous scoring binges this season. Now, my humble opinion is that Kobe will never truly live up to this hype. There is no doubt that he is talented (any doubts of this nature should have been taken out behind the shed and shot in the back of the head last night), but he is ultimately still a jerk. MJ was able to dominate with superior skills much like Kobe, and they both have an otherworldly competitiveness to them, but it is the fact that he’s a giant jerk and a general asshole that will hold Kobe back. It always seemed to me that Michael’s teammates wanted to succeed in order to please them, as they knew that if His Airness liked them, they’d stay on the team and keep playing for championships (the list of stiffs that Mike liked and now have multiple NBA rings is astonishing). In fact Steve Kerr, token Canadian Bill Wennington and John Paxon have all hit shots (on passes from Michael) to win games in the NBA Finals. The difference is that Kobe would have never made those passes. He’d have jacked up ill-advised shots because he doesn’t trust anyone to make a shot except him…and his teammates know this, so they know they’ll only get chewed out if they miss a shot in the unlikely event that they do get a pass.
In short, I don’t think Kobe has what it takes with his current level of maturity (read: lack of) to win another ring in this post-Shaq era in L.A. Perhaps he’ll grow up and get some teammates around him he can trust, or maybe he’ll go down in history as a gunner who could score at will, but never really got it done on his own in the playoffs.
It’s on you, Kobe Bean….let’s see whatcha got…
To cap off a weekend of brutal blowouts in the NHL and NFL, Kobe Bryant decided to become the highest single game scorer in NBA history not named Wilt Chamberlain.
Kobe poured in 81 points against the woeful Raptors, who actually at one point had a 17-some-odd point lead over the Lakers, but then Kobe took over scoring 55 of his points in the second half, outscoring the entire Raptor team on his own.
It’s worth noting that none of the NBA legends like Michael, Magic, Larry or Kareem ever really came close to this number. It’s also worth noting that Kobe scored 62 in only THREE QUARTERS earlier this season, leaving with the game well in hand, and thus giving up what many thought would be a great shot at scoring 80 in a game.
This brings up an interesting argument that many people thought had been put to rest with the arrival of LeBron James. Now, ‘Bron-‘Bron was supposed to be the new heir to the “Jordan Throne”, and while he’s still doing insanely fucking well for only being 20 years old, Kobe has re-entered discussions with his ridiculous scoring binges this season. Now, my humble opinion is that Kobe will never truly live up to this hype. There is no doubt that he is talented (any doubts of this nature should have been taken out behind the shed and shot in the back of the head last night), but he is ultimately still a jerk. MJ was able to dominate with superior skills much like Kobe, and they both have an otherworldly competitiveness to them, but it is the fact that he’s a giant jerk and a general asshole that will hold Kobe back. It always seemed to me that Michael’s teammates wanted to succeed in order to please them, as they knew that if His Airness liked them, they’d stay on the team and keep playing for championships (the list of stiffs that Mike liked and now have multiple NBA rings is astonishing). In fact Steve Kerr, token Canadian Bill Wennington and John Paxon have all hit shots (on passes from Michael) to win games in the NBA Finals. The difference is that Kobe would have never made those passes. He’d have jacked up ill-advised shots because he doesn’t trust anyone to make a shot except him…and his teammates know this, so they know they’ll only get chewed out if they miss a shot in the unlikely event that they do get a pass.
In short, I don’t think Kobe has what it takes with his current level of maturity (read: lack of) to win another ring in this post-Shaq era in L.A. Perhaps he’ll grow up and get some teammates around him he can trust, or maybe he’ll go down in history as a gunner who could score at will, but never really got it done on his own in the playoffs.
It’s on you, Kobe Bean….let’s see whatcha got…
posted by Iain @ 9:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home