The Debriefing: Kobe vs. LeBron

Everyone agrees that in Game 5 against the Pistons, LeBron James made "the leap." But where exactly was he leaping to? From 'good' to 'great'? From 'great' to 'legendary'? From 'legendary' to 'thank God, someone's better than Kobe'?

It feels like people want LeBron to be the best player in the game, mainly because it would mean that Kobe Bryant is no longer the best player in the game. People dislike Kobe for a lot of reasons. Moodiness, arrogance, selfishness, aloofness, rape. Take your pick, but people are clearly not comfortable with the idea of Kobe sitting atop the league.

You're seeing it right now. There's a rash of articles and TV personalities talking about how Kobe could learn a few things from LeBron. The same exact thing happened during last year's Finals, too, when Dwyane Wade was torching the Mavericks with his unselfishly brilliant and floppy ways. Everyone was quick to say that Kobe could learn from Wade's unselfishness, just as they're doing now with LeBron.

I'm not saying any of these opinions are wrong, in fact, I see some validity there. I do, however, think it's odd that LeBron has the defining game of his career, and the reaction from some people isn't, "Wow, that was a real treat to watch," or "This is going to be fantastic for the NBA." Instead, it's, "WooHoo! He's better than Kobe now!"

Is it true, though? Are either of them the best player in the game?

Now, personally, I am of the opinion that Tim Duncan is the best and most valuable player in the league. At least for the next few years in the NBA landscape, post players are more valuable than perimeter players. And Shaq's in this conversation, too, as long as he's in-shape, motivated, and healthy. But since he'll never play anything close to a full season again, I'm leaving him out of this discussion. I'm going to leave Duncan out, too, because it's so hard to compare post players to perimeter players, and no one sees Duncan as a particularly sexy choice, anyway.

So, here we go ... it's Kobe vs. LeBron, right now, for best (perimeter) player in the game. Let's get it on.

The biggest and most intriguing variable heres are their respective coaches and teams. It makes them difficult to compare, and this conversation would be totally different if Kobe and LeBron were traded for one another tomorrow. I firmly believe that Kobe Bryant would be better off with LeBron's coach, and LeBron would be better off with Kobe's coach.Until the NBA sees a resurgence in player/coaches, Mike Brown would be the perfect coach for Kobe. Here's what Mike Brown did with the Cavaliers, and it was a fantastic idea. He said to himself:
"Okay, I've got LeBron, who can do everything. What I need to take care of is the defensive end of the floor, so I'm going to bring in a cheap, dirty, completely effective flop machine in Anderson Varejao, I need Eric Snow, and I'll take a bunch of other guys and hammer home the idea to them that if you don't dig in defensively with the same enthusiasm with which Zydrunas Ilgauskus dances to Lithuanian hip-hop group Sel, you don't play. Our defense will keep us close, and as long as we have LeBron, we'll have a chance. The better LeBron gets, the better we get, and LeBron is going to get a lot better. Also, we might sometimes run offensive plays."

That would be perfect. Here's the dream scenario for Kobe: His coach says in the timeout, "Alright, we're gonna come out with a straight man defense out of this timeout, funnel guys to the middle, switch every screen, and keep your hands in the passing lanes. Defend like your life depends on it. If your man gets dribble penetration on you, I will kill your entire family. Okay, hands in, defense on three. One, Two, Thr--"

And then Kobe interrupts with, "Hey! Coach, what do you want us to do offensively?"

And the coach replies, "I don't know, score? Just take the damn ball and score, I don't care how. Two, three, whatever you feel like. Just go."

That's pretty much the Mike Brown coaching philosophy, and I think it's a solid one. Phil Jackson, meanwhile, has presided over the last two Lakers teams, both of which have been terrible defensively, which they don't have to be. Defense is, more than anything else, a matter of effort. The Lakers, sans Kobe, have never seemed particularly inclined on this end. Smush Parker and Kwame Brown are to defense what Dikembe Mutombo is to clear and understandable diction.

And offensively, Phil's got this triangle system which gets everyone touches, and relies on guys picking the correct option out of several available to them. LeBron would thrive in the triangle, because he doesn't mind sharing the ball, he'd always have open guys to pass to, and he'd always get his shots. So the coaching variables make the whole thing difficult to assess.

A popular opinion these days seems to be, "Hey, LeBron got the Finals with a bunch of scrubs, Kobe should, too." Easy there ... let's calm down. First, Kobe plays in the Western Conference, which all the members of the Eastern Conference look at, and say to themselves, in awe, "Damn."

Secondly, LeBron's scrubs are hellbent on playing responsible defense, while Kobe's scrubs are hellbent on ... I don't know, trying to figure out what went wrong in Smush Parker's childhood. "LeBron's in the Finals, so Kobe should be in the Finals" is totally unfair.

The differences in their actual games are easy to pinpoint. LeBron's a better distributor, he's stronger, he's more of a ball-sharer. Kobe, though, is a better pure scorer, probably still a better outside shooter, he has a post game, I still trust him more to take a game-winning shot, and he's also miles ahead of LeBron defensively right now.

Another area where Kobe has it over LeBron, and this is something that Michael Jordan discussed the other day, is bringing it consistently every single night. Said Michael:
Making "The Leap" is where you do it every single night. It's expected of you, and you do it. That, to me, is "The Leap." Not one game, not two games. It's consistent. Every defense comes in and they focus on you and you still impact the game. I think he's shown signs of that. I think he's going to continue to grow with that. The test is going to come for him to consistently do that every single night, when everybody expects it.

Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith have been hammering this home constantly in regard to LeBron. He flips on the cruise control and takes too many nights off. Kobe Bryant, meanwhile ... well, you don't have 4 straight 50-point games in the regular season unless you've made that leap Jordan's talking about.

But there's one big gray area that we haven't touched: leadership. One of the things that struck me about the Detroit/Cleveland series was how often LeBron was talking to his teammates, and in a variety of different ways. He knew what each guy needed, and he gave it to them.Boobie Gibson got appreciative hugs, Zydrunas Ilgauskus got talked to in a calm, rational manner. And Drew Gooden was screamed at, which is totally appropriate. In fact, Drew Gooden should probably have someone following him around 24/7, screaming at him constantly about something. "DAMMIT, GOODEN, PICK UP YOUR SOCKS. NO, I DON'T THINK THAT WOMAN WANTS TO SLEEP WITH YOU. NO, IT IS NOT SAFE TO EAT PAPER. STOP SCRATCHING YOURSELF! THAT? IT'S CALLED YOUR BELLY BUTTON, IDIOT! WHAT'S SO DAMN FUNNY ABOUT IT? AND FOR GOD'S SAKE, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD?! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, GOODEN?!"

But I digress.

You don't see a lot of that type of leadership from Kobe. At least, not as much, and when you do see it, it doesn't seem completely natural. With LeBron, it feels like it is. His teammates want to follow him. With Kobe, it feels like his teammates are completely aware of how great he is, and they're still not quite sure how to act around him.

It always seemed like Michael Jordan's lesser teammates, the guys like Steve Kerr and Luc Longley, would throw themselves in front of a train for MJ. I felt a little bit of that from LeBron and his cast, too (incidentally, I hope a train passes in front of Drew Gooden soon). But with Kobe, I get a feeling like Jordan Farmar would say, "Hey, you're an awesome basketball player and all, but dive in front of that train your damn self."

Kobe's like Chuck Norris. He'll take on everyone himself, and he'll whoop some ass. But LeBron's like William Wallace in Braveheart. People just naturally believe in him and want to follow him. And that, external considerations like teams and coachs not withstanding, is probably the biggest difference between the two right now.I feel like there are too many variables to say that one is clearly better than the other, but here's what I can say:

If I had to pick one of these guys to build an NBA team around for the next 8 years, I'll take LeBron without batting an eyelash.

But if I was playing a game of 2-on-2 tonight, and if I had to do something completely repulsive if I lost, like having to look at Drew Gooden's head for an hour ... I'm going to take Kobe. At the moment, I feel like he's a little bit more lethal of a weapon. I would, however, like to reserve the right to change my mind about this, depending on what happens in the next couple of weeks.

by mjd

Kobe Saved The Lakers

Special thanks to Jeff Lee for writing this take and giving us the privilege to add it to GetGarnett.com. If you have an article that is Lakers related and you know that it will interest our readers, feel free to e-mail us and will add it to the blog. Thanks!

Things just aren’t like they used to be. Gas is at an all time high, Britney Spears has a shaved head, Lindsay Lohan & Jerry Buss can’t find designated drivers, the NHL championship is going through So-Cal, the Lakers haven’t found a way to extend there season into June, and Kobe Bryant is no longer happy being with the Los Angeles Lakers. The only thing positive going for this city is the USC Trojans and they don’t play there first game for another couple of months. What’s next? I am not sure, but I promise the Lakers off-season is going to be an entertaining one.

Memo to: Kobe Bryant
Subject: Thank you for saving the Lakers franchise and this city.

I have questioned the decision making of the Lakers front office for three years myself. They have passed on signing key veterans, they have traded the wrong players, and they gave big contracts to a couple of slugs (Brian Cook & Vladimir Radmanović). When the Lakers selected Andrew Bynum in the 2005 NBA draft I thought they made an excellent decision. Bynum had the complete package. ( Youth, height, and size) That was something the Lakers needed immensely. Following the draft the Lakers immediately began working on his development by paring him up with former Lakers player, one of the NBA’s greatest 50 players, a Hall of Famer’, Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Two years have now passed since we drafted Bynum and his skills have improved slightly (some people will beg to differ). Kobe has noticed it, and so has the Lakers organization. Bynum was supposed to be the next big thing here in Tinsel Town, but as you can see his development is taking longer than expected. Kobe doesn’t have the patience to wait for this kid to come full circle, nor should he have to. None the less, Bynum did have big shoes to fill following Shaquille O’Neal’s departure and many of us set unrealistic expectations, but that’s the way it is when you play for the greatest franchise in sports history. In all fairness to Bynum, he is young, very young, (youngest player in the NBA) and he was taken right out of high school when the Lakers made him there 10 th pick in the draft. However, the timing isn’t right for Andrew Bynum to remain in a Lakers uniform. It’s definitely the right place for him, but unfortunately it comes at the wrong time. A time, when you have the greatest player in history in his prime, who is in search for some teammates that have what it takes to win a championship. Bynum may have that in him, but it won’t be for another few years, and by then Kobe will be too old.

If the Lakers want to build a championship team like they promised Kobe Bryant, they must trade Andrew Bynum, and it must happen now. According to Kobe, Mitch Cupchak has already turned down players such as Carlos Boozer, Ron Artest, and Barron Davis because he labeled Bynum “untouchable” and didn’t want to include him in any package deal.

So you ask; why in the hell would you trade Andrew Bynum? The answer is really simple. Bynum has a lot of potential, he has a big body, he’s young, and teams could develop him into the kind of player that would benefit there select style of play. Outside of Lamar Odom, Bynum has the most interest from other teams mostly due to his size & age and the Lakers could get a big name veteran in return for him.

With the events that have taken place in the last 96hrs; beyond Kobe it now looks as if every player is marketable. Its going to take a Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and possibly a draft pick to land some key veterans on this Lakers team. The Future of this franchise is hanging on by a thread. Within the last week Jerry Buss has become more than just an owner, he’s now a tailor. He must find a way to stitch this team, this franchise, this city and its fans back together. The Lakers front office must act NOW!! They have sat on there hands and done absolutely nothing to improve this team over the last 3 years. Time is critical, every second, every minute, and every hour are going to be scrutinized. Mitch Kupchak should be on the phone right now trying to make something happen, and he shouldn’t dare hang up the phone until something spectacular takes place. Jerry Buss might want to set aside the booze and young women for a while so he can focus on bringing a blockbuster deal to LA. Everyone is watching; every owner, GM, and coach around the NBA have there eyes glued on this franchise just anticipating for the Buss family to fall on its face. “Do something, and do it now”, but do it very carefully.

Don’t point your finger and try to blame Kobe Bryant for this off-season fallout. Not for a single second should anyone place blame on the guy that stood up, voiced his opinion and saved this franchise. It took two days for Kobe to say what Lakers fans have been saying for 3 years- “CHANGES MUST BE MADE”. Mitch Cupchak should have already resigned or been fired. It’s not fair for the best player in the league to go through a rebuilding phase when they promised him they wouldn’t at the time he re-signed as a free agent. It’s not fair to Kobe when he has to watch his team fail miserably in the playoffs because his teammates lack talent. It’s an insult to Kobe Bryant’s greatness, for him to go through a rebuilding process that is centered on a kid who is barely old enough to vote!!! Kobe is not getting any younger. He has many more miles on his odometer than Jordan did at the same time in his career.

And finally,

A lot of you will criticize, belittle, and nit-pick Kobe Bryant. You will call him selfish, childish, unstable or insane but if I’m Kobe Bryant I don’t want to play for a team that wants to save money and rebuild while I’m in my prime years. Kobe Bryant was the voice of the people. Kobe reiterated to management what all of us have been saying for years. Mr. Bryant did the right thing!!!

Kobe saved himself, a city, and an organization from being the next Atlanta Hawks. Someday all of you will thank him for it. And if you’re a true Lakers fan, you’ve already thanked him.

Published by
The Nuggetat June 1, 2007

Lakers' Bryant Simply The Best Scorer — Ever

Only Kobe. Nobody has ever been this good. Nobody. Not Kareem. Not Jordan. Not even Wilt. He's the greatest scorer to ever play the game. There have been better basketball players. There are players with more championship hardware and more All-Star Game appearances, but when you're talking about scoring, then Kobe is at the top of a short list. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was more consistent. Michael Jordan was more clutch. And Wilt Chamberlain was more dominant. But Kobe Bryant is an amalgamation of all of them.

Kobe's past four games

65
March 16: Kobe Bryant scores 65 in a 116-111 win over Portland, including eight three-pointers.

50
March 18: Bryant totals 50 points in a 109-102 win over Minnesota.

60
Thursday: His third straight game with 50 or more points, Bryant leads the Lakers to a 121-119 win over Memphis.

50
Friday: Bryant scores 50 in a 111-105 win over New Orleans. Michael Jordan and Elgin Baylor topped out at three consecutive 50-point games in their careers.

You run out of superlatives trying to describe his greatness and you sometimes make foolish proclamations following his dazzling displays. But this isn't one of those times. What's so foolhardy about bestowing him the title of G.O.A.T? To be sure, he'll probably fall short of Jordan's 10 scoring titles. His 81 points against Toronto last year was 19 fewer than Wilt's historic 100. And at 28, he's not even halfway to Kareem's all-time point total. But go behind the numbers.
As magnificent as Wilt was, he dominated an era in which the NBA was in its infancy. There were only eight to 17 teams in the league during the 14 years when the 7-foot-1 giant literally stood tall over everyone else.
Today's NBA, with 420 players from 38 countries, is much more diverse. Wilt never faced the myriad defenses, the media scrutiny and the off-the-court demands that Kobe endures. Kareem mastered a skyhook that couldn't be stopped, but essentially he was a one-trick pony, while Kobe is a five-tool player. He scores in the paint, outside the three-point arc, off the dribble, over and around double teams and in transition. Jordan is probably the most complete basketball player to play the game — his tenacious defense and six NBA titles put him ahead of everyone else — but MJ never shot the three-pointer like Kobe. Jordan shot less than 30 percent from three-point range in nine out of his 15 seasons. Kobe has failed to break 30 percent just twice in 10 years.
There has never been a scorer as versatile as Kobe. The amazing part of his current four-game streak in which he has scored at least 50 points isn't the points that he has accumulated, but rather the look in his eyes and the expression on his face. It's as if he took no joy in dropping 65 points on Portland or exploding for 50 against Minnesota and New Orleans or burying Memphis with 60. He hasn't smiled during postgame interviews. He doesn't deliver boastful comments or pound his chest like he used to. There is only anger and a look of focus and determination that you see on Sundays from Tiger Woods.
"He just smells blood in the water," coach Phil Jackson said. "He's going to go after them. That's what you see and admire in Kobe is that he's going to attack. He's going to be in that mode and he's going to continue to go at a team until you stop him."
Bryant has taken more than his share of criticism lately. The seven-game losing streak. The two suspensions for elbowing opponents. The whispers he's a dirty player. The refuted reports of contacting Texas freshman Kevin Durant on behalf of Nike. But it seems as if he's using that criticism to feed a fire burning inside him.
You saw it when he canned improbable three-pointer after improbable three-pointer against Portland's double and triple teams, or when he drove into the lane for dunks, twisting layups and jumpers against Minnesota and Memphis. You felt it when he played 47 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back against New Orleans.
And here's the kicker: Everybody knows he's trying to score, yet they can't stop him. "Believe me, nobody is letting him go out there and put up points," Minnesota's Mike James said. 'He's just that good.' Watching Kobe rage against the machine makes me wish other players played with his intensity. What if LeBron James matched his desire? Or Dirk Nowitzki? Or anyone in Sonics green and gold?
Watching Kobe this week reminds me of his remarkable stretch in February 2003, when he scored 40 or more points in nine straight games. I remember talking to him after he hit the Sonics for 41. The Lakers were at the end of their Three-Peat dynasty and the locker room was divided into two camps that either supported Kobe or Shaquille O'Neal. I remember Kobe saying: "I've been holding back because of the team and because we have a pecking order here."
Ever since, I've always wondered just how great he might have been if he hadn't played alongside O'Neal. His trophy case would probably be empty, but this streak might have happened much sooner.
We saw a glimpse of Kobe unshackled last season when he averaged 35.4 points, which is the eighth-highest average ever. And we're seeing glimpses again. 65. 50. 60. 50. "He's in a zone right now," Lakers forward Luke Walton told reporters. "Most people get in a zone for one game. He's been in a zone for about a week straight now. It's been a pretty amazing display that he's put on."
Next up is Golden State. The Warriors have the worst defense in the NBA, allowing an average of 106 points per game. Earlier this season, Kobe scored 42 against Don Nelson's squad. Given all that, I'm guessing he goes for a double nickel tonight. Then there's the rematch against Memphis on Tuesday and Houston on Friday. If Kobe can keep the streak alive this week, the rest of the Lakers' remaining opponents shouldn't pose much of a threat. Considering Wilt set the record at seven, it's ridiculous to think Kobe could stretch this streak to 17 games, but because it's Kobe, you have to consider it.
He's making the impossible seem plausible. He has put the Lakers on his shoulders and carried them to a four-game winning streak and a two-game lead over Denver in the Western Conference standings.
Even more impressive, he's threatening to upstage the NCAA tournament. Now who else could do that?
Kareem? Jordan? Wilt?
Only Kobe.

Love, Hate and The Black Mamba

I am going to preface what I am about to say by stating that I am in no means a Kobe Bryant fan.
From the day he announced he would be skipping college and “taking his talents” straight to the NBA, I did not like the guy. I detested Bryant’s meteoric rise to the top of the NBA as he, along with Shaquille O’Neal, catapulted the L.A. Lakers’ mini-dynasty to three consecutive NBA Championships from 2000-2002. I abhorred everything about The Mamba; from the goofy way he grew his hair his first couple of years in the league to his borderline-creepy Adidas commercials.I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the arrogant manner in which he carried himself; the way he openly compared himself to His Airness. Maybe it was the ’98 All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden, Michael Jordan’s final All-Star Game (’02 and ’03 with the Wizards never happened), where Kobe bent over backwards to steal the show on a night Jordan’s greatness was supposed to be celebrated, not challenged by a punk kid who couldn’t crack the starting lineup of his own team. On the other hand, maybe it is merely as simple as me having to wear #8 during that basketball season, because they did not have the numbers I wanted in my size. Either way, Kobe was front and center in Dan Love’s Burn Book.
Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the rapid fall of Kobe Bryant after the 2003 season. After the Lakers disintegrated in the ’03 playoffs, the wheels fell off shortly after Bryant underwent knee surgery in Colorado. We all know what happened there. On top of the rape charges against him, Kobe’s feud with Shaq O’Neal reached new levels as the two exchanged verbal blows in the media. Despite troubles off the court, Bryant’s Lakers loaded up, reached the NBA Finals and were heavily favored to win their fourth title in five years. The Lakers imploded during the Finals against the Pistons that year, however. Kobe and his ego, somehow, managed to make the most dominant force in the league, The Big Bitterstotle, a non-factor leading to a four games to one embarrassment at the hands of Detroit.
Kobe Bryant’s career and reputation continued to take a Tony Montana-like turn for the worse that off-season, as he strong-armed the Lakers organization into sending both Shaq and Coach Phil Jackson packing. Kobe had officially claimed his place as “The Man” in Los Angeles. Yet, with Phil Jackson in temporary retirement and Shaq in Miami leading the Heat to the Eastern Conference Finals, “The Man” failed to take the Lakers to the playoffs for the first time in his career. On top of that, the more likable and more popular LeBron James was challenging Kobe’s status as “The Next Jordan.” Some even wondered if Kobe was nothing more than just another Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady without Shaq at his side. Kobe Bryant’s career had hit a low point, and, you wanna know something? I loved every single millisecond of it.
That began to change January 22, 2006.
What Kobe did that night, scoring 81 (EIGHTY-FREAKING-ONE!) points against the Toronto Raptors, was, without a doubt, the sickest thing I have ever seen.
Seriously, the guy scored 81 points. That is not a typo; he really scored 81, including 55 in the second half. Does that even make sense? Kobe does realize that he was playing in the NBA against professional athletes, not 5’5” pimple-faced-high-school-sophomores, right? Kobe’s 81 points is the second highest single-game scoring output in NBA history— trailing only Wilt Chamberlain’s almost mythical 100-point game in 1962. Of course, the 7’1” Chamberlain, while immensely talented, played in an era in which Damon Stoudamire would be considered a legitimate NBA center. Meanwhile, Kobe is a perimeter player relying on 100% raw talent and skill to score his points.
The truly sick thing about the 81-point game is that I am not 100% convinced he can’t score 81 (or more) again. We will completely forget this now, but Kobe’s first 60-point game came a few weeks prior to 81 when he dropped 62 through three quarters against Dallas. Had he decided to play the fourth quarter of that night’s blowout win, does anyone doubt he would have scored 80 or more that night?
That’s the thing about The Black Mamba; you never quite know what to expect, but you are never quite shocked. Am I impressed that he has averaged over 58 per game in the past three? Darn skippy. Am I in the least bit surprised? Not at all.
It has become obvious that the Lakers can’t win a game unless Kobe chucks it up close to 40 times a game, so is there any reason 60, 70 or even 80 doesn’t happen again this season; especially down the stretch when the Lakers (and by “the Lakers”, I really just mean Kobe) will have to do everything in their power to stay in the playoff race? Am I the only one genuinely thrilled with the possibilities?
Ironically, Kobe’s 81-point outburst came just hours before my homeboy, Steve, and I argued over which player we would most want on our basketball team. Steve chose LeBron, and I think I went with Tony Parker, simply for the Eva Longoria Factor. I am kidding, of course (well… kind of). Anyway, Kobe was quickly dismissed as a headache who shoots too much, and someone who couldn’t lead a team from one side of a street to the other.
After that night’s epic performance, and performances that followed, however, my mind is made up. I would not take any player in the league over Kobe Bean Bryant. I don’t care if he is a ball hog, if he is egotistical, arrogant, somewhat insecure or more obsessed with his place in history than with winning another ring— and he is all of those things, by the way— if the Chicago Bulls somehow acquired him today, I would drive to Chicago and roll out the red carpet myself. Love him or hate him— and I still somewhat hate him— Kobe Bryant is the best player in basketball right now. Period. How do I know this? Just prior to last year’s Suns series, when it became evident that Steve Nash was probably going to beat out Kobe for league MVP, the aforementioned Steve (who’s claim to fame prior to this post was that he allegedly dunked on LeBron James during an AAU game only to have LeBron return the favor… three times… I digress…) dropped this text message beauty on me:
“If Kobe does not win MVP this year there is an 80% chance he goes for 90 in a game next year. Like if they vote Nash over Kobe I think he may just grows horns and snake fangs, and go off for 350 points in a 4-game series sweep of the Suns every year for the next three years. I don’t know about you, but I want to see 90. Steve Nash for MVP!”
The sad part is that I kinda’ sorta’ almost agreed. I knew that 90, while extremely unlikely, was not entirely out of the question. Now what player, other than 2011 Kevin Durant, can ignite legitimate thoughts of 9-0. As a basketball fan and appreciator of true greatness, I feel like Wes Mantooth at the end of “Anchorman”; I even considered giving Kobe a kiss on the forehead (OK, not really).
I did not realize this at the time, well, maybe I did, and simply chose not to acknowledge it, but maybe that All-Star Game in NYC was not a going away party; it was a passing of the torch.
And maybe, just maybe, in an All-Star Game a few years from now, we will look on as some other young punk attempts to rip the torch from the greatest player to ever lace up a pair of Nikes.
At this point, I am willing to believe anything.
By Dan Love

KOBE FOR MVP!

It's no contest — Kobe should be MVPUnlike other candidates, take Bryant away and Lakers would fall apart
The most common criterion offered to evaluate a most valuable player involves the kidnap scenario. In other words, if you kidnapped a candidate for the award, how would his team fare without him?
Of course, if no one on his team offered to pay the ransom, then he must not be all that valuable. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that everybody in the organization passed the hat around and raised the cash necessary — but not until after a lengthy period of time had elapsed whereby the public could evaluate the missing player’s impact on his team.No one is suggesting a real kidnapping, of course. That would be wrong. But let’s imagine, say, six scantily clad supermodels pull up in a limo, lure the player into it with the promise of some good clean fun, and then make good on that promise over the course of several days or even weeks.
The team would never be the same. Neither would the player.
The NBA season is winding down, and it’s time to apply the kidnap scenario to determine which candidate deserves the league’s MVP award. If you snatched all the top players away from their respective situations, it would result in one fairly obvious conclusion:
Kobe Bryant is the MVP.
If Kobe were kidnapped by a half-dozen smoking hot supermodels, it would not only require the Los Angeles Lakers to pony up the ransom, it would probably cost Kobe dearly as well. His last indiscretion forced him to fork over more than $4 million for a diamond ring to calm wife Vanessa. Multiply that by six and we’re starting to talk real money here, even for an NBA player.
But that wouldn’t be nearly as costly as losing Kobe would be for the Lakers.
A similar argument can be made for the other hopefuls as well. If you kidnapped Steve Nash away from the Phoenix Suns, LeBron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dirk Nowitzki from the Dallas Mavericks, Elton Brand from the Los Angeles Clippers, Chauncey Billups from the Detroit Pistons, Dwyane Wade from the Miami Heat, Jason Kidd from the New Jersey Nets and Tim Duncan from the San Antonio Spurs, there would be a noticeable drop-off in success in each case.
But it’s a matter of degree.
In Kobe’s case, the drop-off would be reminiscent of what happened to Enron stock.
Much is often made of Kobe’s ability to drill last-second shots to win ballgames. And it’s true, the man’s arteries are like refrigerator coils. He craves the basketball at crucial junctures, and he often delivers.
But dwelling much on his late-game heroics obscures the fact that the Lakers are in ballgames they would never be in if they didn’t have Kobe on the floor. The back-breaking jumper would not be sailing through the net in the final seconds if Bryant had not submitted a Herculean effort to keep his ragtag band of misfits and outcasts in the game in the first place. The Lakers certainly have lost some games this season they should have won — Feb. 15 at home vs. Atlanta, Feb. 26 at home vs. Boston are two of the most notorious — but because of Bryant they’ve beaten teams like Detroit, Miami and San Antonio and others.
And I never thought I’d say this, but the kid finally seems to be getting it. Perhaps it was the massive reaction, pro and con, to his record-setting 81-point effort Jan. 22 at home against Toronto. After that, he could have gone either way. He could have interpreted it as a green light to challenge Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time single-game mark of 100 points. Or he could have said, “Enough,” and concentrated on becoming more of a team player. Fortunately for the Lakers, he chose the latter.
I never thought I’d say this either, but he’s starting to make the other players around him better. Usually that requires the passing of the basketball, which he has been doing more of, especially as teammates such as Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown and Luke Walton have become more comfortable and emerged as offensive options. Yet his improved decision-making — like not trying to break down three guys off the dribble, for instance — keeps defenses on edge because they’re not sure if he’s going to be the old Kobe and jack up shots, or the new one who will get the ball to the more sensible option at the right time.
He still has an annoying habit of trying to split two defenders for a drive to the basket, but there’s less of that these days.
But more important in regard to the kidnap scenario is the wreckage that would be the Lakers if Kobe weren’t there. Lately, he’s been getting more help. But the light bulb has only turned on in the heads of Odom and Brown since around the trade deadline of Feb. 23. Before that, it was Gladys Knight and a bunch of guys auditioning to be Pips.
Until recently, the other Lakers showed no inclination toward consistency. Chris Mihm, who has been out with a sprained ankle since March 12, was maddeningly up and down. So was Odom, Brown, Smush Parker, Sasha Vujacic, Brian Cook and Devean George. First-round draft pick Andrew Bynum, all of 18, has been no help. Neither has veteran point guard Aaron McKie, signed as a free agent last summer, who has played only a handful games because of injury.
If you took Kobe Bryant off this team, it would qualify for a FEMA loan.
Naturally, if you removed any of the other candidates from their teams, the results might be ugly as well. But they would at least survive. In the case of each of them, their teams would have enough left over to make a run at a playoff berth, at the very least. Without Bryant, the Lakers would not be a playoff team. Not even close.
He’s averaging 35.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 41 minutes per contest.
If you kidnapped him, all the other teams would chip in to make sure he never came back.
by Michael Ventre NBCSports.com

BE AFRAID - BE VERY AFRAID - OF KOBE

The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t a great basketball team; they’re hardly a team at all. There’s Kobe Bryant and some other guys whose names he may or may not remember. But if there’s one group of players that all dresses in the same uniform that has to scare everyone else in the playoffs, it’s got to be the Lakers.

Remember back before the season began, when we were all laughing at coach Phil Jackson for pretending that he never meant those things he said in his latest book about Kobe? Remember how we said the Lakers might be better with Jackson on the sideline, but they were going to run their streak of not making the playoffs to two straight Shaq-free seasons?

Well, here it is playoff time and there are the Lakers. And this isn’t an NBA East kind of playoff team that can get in without playing .500 ball. Although the Lakers are one of the last two teams to get in the Western Conference tournament, they will finish either six or eight games above the break-even point. In the East, that would get them the fifth seed.

In the West, it’s no better than seventh and a first-round match against Pacific Division winner Phoenix, the West’s second seed.Normally, any NBA match between a team seeded eighth or seventh and another seeded first or second is as likely to produce an upset as Theo Epstein is to go to bed wearing pinstripe pajamas. And Phoenix beat the Lakers three out of four this season, with the loss coming in their last meeting April 16.

But the Lakers, as already stated, aren’t a normal team, and, no matter who they face, including the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, they’ve got as much as a chance to pull the big upset as any NBA team ever has.

Give Jackson a little credit for that. Last season, without him, the Lakers finished in the lottery. This season, with him, they’ve defied the skeptics who said that if Jackson didn’t have a great team to coach, he couldn’t win.

But most of the credit has to go to Kobe, the game’s most spectacular — and dangerous — player. He doesn’t have a lot around him, the team’s other mainstays being Kwame Brown, who spent a lot of time disappointing everyone in Washington, Lamar Odom and Luke Walton. All-stars they’re not.

That’s what Kobe wanted, to be the main man on a team of one. With him running the show, Jackson’s vaunted triangle doesn’t have any angles or points or sides, just one brilliant focal point. The offense is to give Kobe the ball and get out of his way.

It shouldn’t work, and with anyone less talented than Bryant, it wouldn’t. It’s doubtful even Michael Jordan could have done what No. 8 is doing for the Lakers, which is winning games all by himself.He scored 81 points in a game, the second-highest total ever. He can do 40 in his sleep. And unlike LeBron James, who has remarkably few game-winning shots to his credit, Kobe can do it time and again when he’s the only guy on the court the other team has to bother defending.

I don’t care who you are, a non-team like that with a player like that is one that has to scare the shoes off of you.

Teams talk about how you can’t control a great player; all you can do is hope to contain him. With Kobe, they don’t even bother saying it. You don’t control him and you don’t contain him. You just hope that the rest of the Lakers — whoever they are — don’t clean up enough slop around him to beat you.

And in defense of the rest of the team, you have to give the players credit for not whining about Kobe never sharing the ball with them, or even saying hello in the locker room. They know what their job is, which is to give him the ball and then say “Nice shot,” and they do it without complaint. It’s not necessarily a system Larry Brown would draw up on the board, but look where Brown is languishing these days.

The Lakers enter the playoffs having won 11 of 14, mostly against second-tier teams. But they beat the Los Angeles Clippers, who have a better record, and they beat the Suns.

That’s a pretty good roll to be on going into the games that really count. It’s the kind of roll that teams get on when everybody knows his job and there’s someone on board who can do the heavy lifting.And nobody carries a bigger load in the game than Kobe. When he held the door open for Shaq to get out of town, he said he wanted to win, to get back to the title game, and we laughed. But here it is just two years later, and he’s back in the playoffs without a single teammate anywhere near O’Neal’s talent level.

He’s not supposed to be able to get beyond the first round. But he also wasn’t supposed to be here at all. If that’s not scary, nothing is.

by Mike Celizic NBCSports.com

THE BLACK MAMBA FOR MVP

Say what you want about the NBA, but the league offers seven superior features to every other professional sport: a wildly entertaining draft, a new dress code that caused "Big and Tall Store" stock to jump eight points, the wit and wisdom of Mr. Jalen Rose, cheerleaders who dress like hookers, a ridiculously surreal All-Star Weekend and, of course, the only "Most Valuable Player" award that truly matters.
Can you name the last 10 NFL MVPs? Of course not. Can you remember the last 10 MVPs in each baseball league, and definitively say which guy was better every year? Nope. Do you even know the name of the NHL trophy? Unless you're Canadian, probably not. The MVP concept works best in the NBA: Every player is eligible, everyone plays against one another, it's relatively simple to compare statistics and, if you watch the games, you can always figure out which players stand out over everyone else.
Of course, the experts seem just as confused as they were last season, when Steve Nash stumbled into the award because some people thought it would be fun to vote for a white Canadian dude with bad hair who didn't play defense. As it turned out, Nash raised his game in the playoffs and vindicated everyone who picked him. (Note: I thought Shaq should have won the award and still do.) But that raises a bigger question: What makes for an NBA MVP?I concentrate on three questions:
1. Ten years from now, who will be the first player from this season that pops into my head?
2. In a giant pickup game with every NBA player waiting to play, and two fans forced to pick sides with their lives depending on the outcome of the game (I think this is how the annual Rucker League tournament works), who would be the first player picked based on the way everyone played that season?
3. If you replaced every MVP candidate with a decent player at their position for the entire season, what would be the effect on their teams' records?
The first two questions are subjective. You might think the 2004-05 season belonged to Nash, whereas I thought it belonged to Shaq. And until this season, I would have picked Shaq first in any pickup game, you may have picked Kobe or LeBron. But the third question isn't nearly as subjective, it's also crucial to this year's dilemma. We're dealing with the deepest pool of potential MVP candidates ever (eight by my count). And I think the choice is pretty clear. But before we get to that, check out some of the names who didn't make the cut:
Shawn Marion, Elton Brand, Pau Gasol, Rasheed Wallace: All of them were indispensable to winning teams. Marion was the most explosive, Brand was the most consistent, Gasol carried the biggest burden and Rasheed is the one you would pick for one big game. You can't say one was more valuable than the others. (Although Gasol's straggly, Survivor-like beard had a Plummer-like impact on him and the Grizzlies, insuring its place in the NBA Beard Hall of Fame with Mike Newlin, Mike Gminski, Coby Dietrich, Bill Walton, Phil Jackson and Aaron McKie.)
The important thing to remember is that all of them were better than ...
Kevin Garnett: Can you name another alleged "superstar in his prime" who missed the playoffs for two straight seasons? How was his supporting cast worse than Gasol's crew in Memphis, or even Chris Paul's team in New Orleans? Did you know that we haven't had a former MVP miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons in his prime since Bob McAdoo (who never should have won the MVP in the first place because Rick Barry got robbed)? Isn't it his job to carry a crappy team? What do you think Barkley was doing in the late-'80s and early-'90s in Philly? Nobody in the league gets more of a free ride than KG. Nobody.
(Note: There's a difference between being "competitive" and being "no fun whatsover to play with," and KG crossed that line about five years ago. You can't carry yourself that way for eight months each season without eventually committing a homicide. You just can't. He's wound too tight. So if you're reading this 50 years from now and wondering why KG only made it past Round 1 once in his career -- as well as why he murdered everyone in Minnesota's locker room after a 20-point blowout loss during the 2007-08 season -- please consider everything in this parentheses. Thank you.)
Gilbert Arenas, Paul Pierce: Two splendid individual seasons; two guys who were probably worth 12-15 wins for their respective teams. And I could barely make room for them in the top 15.
Jason Kidd: Firmly entrenched in the "Heather Locklear on 'Spin City' " phase of his career -- he doesn't look good as he once did, but he's still Jason Kidd. And he gets credit for two things: First, he's the only player who could have salvaged Vince Carter's career (like Tarantino taking a chance on Travolta in "Pulp Fiction," only if nobody was hiring Travolta because he didn't try in his last five movies. And second, this current Nets team could win 50 games without rebounders, shot-blockers, and any semblance of a low-post game, as well as a rotation that includes Cliff Robinson, Zoran Planinic, Jacques Vaughn, Lamond Murray and Scott Padgett. Only Kidd could have salvaged this mess. And this is why I hate stats sometimes, because someone like KG will always come off better than someone like Kidd. But the overall objective is to win games, and no matter where he is, Kidd's teams always seem to win more than they lose.Allen Iverson: Mortal lock to be playing somewhere else next season.
Ben Wallace: In theory, he should be a top-10 pick for starting the Artest melee. Just think, if Wallace had calmed down after the initial shove, Artest never would have lounged on the scorer's table, John Green never would have tossed that drink, the ensuing melee never would have happened, and Detroit's most dangerous rival (an excellent Pacers team) wouldn't have completely self-combusted. Instead, Wallace kept carrying on and trying to reach Artest, and eventually, one of his fans turned into the NBA version of Lee Harvey Oswald. Eighteen months later, the Pacers are floundering and Larry Legend is making noises about blowing everything up.
(By the way, this seems like a good time to mention that Wallace was only suspended for six games. Although David Stern admits privately that, had Wallace handed Lee Harvey Green the cup of soda and screamed, "Throw it at him! Throw it!" ... they probably would have raised it to eight.)
Tim Duncan: In many ways, this isn't his greatest season -- thanks to his Phil Plantieritis or whatever it's called, he couldn't move laterally, couldn't get any lift, wasn't getting as many putbacks, had trouble filling the lane on fast breaks, never looked even remotely comfortable -- and yet, his team kept winning and his numbers didn't look much different than normal. You can't judge a great athlete until he's playing hurt, and in Duncan's case, his consistency was almost heroic. But he wasn't nearly as dominant, and I watched too many Spurs games in which he wasn't even the fifth-best player on the court. So I can't call him an MVP candidate. With many regrets.
Shaquille O'Neal: The best center alive by default (although Yao made a nice run in February and March). He still commands a double-team in every fourth quarter. The referees still call the game differently when he's out there. He's developed into an exceptionally smart passer from the low post. And he remains the league's most entertaining personality, maybe its most popular ambassador since Doctor J.
And with all of that said ... old Shaq is starting to look a little long in the tooth. You knew it was coming; all the stats from every great center forecasted it. Now, it's happening. Justin from Pasadena sums everything up: "With $100 million and 5 [years] left on his contract, and knees that bend no more than 5 degrees, how long do you think it will be before the Knicks make a run at getting Shaq? I'm already getting ready to pre-order my soon-to-be classic Knicks/O'Neal jersey."
(Two notes about that e-mail: First, it's funny because it's true. There's no doubt in hell that Isiah is trading Curry, Crawford and 25 future first-rounders for Shaq in the summer of 2007, followed by Knicks fans rejoicing for the first few months, then eventually turning on the trade and claiming they never liked it in the first place. And second, until last month, I had never received a "Shaq is starting to look washed up" e-mail. Not once.)
All right, enough foreplay. My top eight choices for MVP, in reverse order from eighth to first:
8. Chauncey BillupsThe best player on the best team this season. But can you really call anyone "the best player" on a team that works solely because they play so well together?
For instance, "24" wouldn't work without Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer; nobody else could play that part. But "Lost" relies on a number of quality actors, all of whom play a role in the show's success to varying degrees: Jack, Sawyer, Locke, Kate and Hurley (that's their starting five). Personally, I think Sawyer is the best character, not just from an acting standpoint, but from an entertaining/interesting/dramatic standpoint). He's the Rasheed Wallace of the group, someone who doesn't need to carry every episode, brings a ton of stuff to the table and takes nothing off (and they're both funny as hell). As for the rest, Locke is probably Ben Wallace (does all the little stuff); Kate is Tayshaun Prince (the token chick/fifth man); Hurley is Rip Hamilton (totally underrated, always rises to the occasion); and Billups is Jack (the leader of the group).So here's the question: Does the show work because of Jack, or does it work because of the group as a whole? Obviously, it's because of the group. Well, the same goes for the Pistons; calling Billups a bonafide MVP candidate demeans the contributions of everyone else involved. Would they slip that much with Jason Terry in Billups' spot? Probably not.
(Of course, if Jack ends up taking down The Others, and Billups takes down every contender this spring, maybe we have to re-evaluate.)
7. Chris PaulThe great John Hollinger covered Paul's case in his "third greatest season by a rookie guard ever" column yesterday, even if he didn't give Magic's rookie year nearly enough credit. Remember, Magic was playing out of position that season because of Norm Nixon, and he and Bird DID save the league and all, and he DID average nearly a triple-double in the playoffs and play one of the 10 greatest games in the history of the NBA Finals. (Whatever, we'll have to settle this over fisticuffs at the company barbecue in July.) For the purposes of this column, Paul had the lamest supporting cast of any candidate, played his position about as well as it can be played, and his team overachieved mainly because of him.
Let's say the Hornets finish with 40 wins ... how many would they have won with Deron Williams or Raymond Felton instead of Paul? Twenty? Fifteen? What about the baggage the Hornets had coming into the season, what with the hurricane in New Orleans, new digs in Oklahoma City and everything else? What about how much this team depended on Paul from night to night, even though he was a rookie? I just don't see how anyone can list him lower than seventh. And yes, that screaming is the sound of everyone from Atlanta. Just give them a few seconds.
6. Carmelo AnthonyThe best clutch scorer alive -- seven game-winners and a game-tying shot just since Jan. 1, as well as the best clutch numbers of anyone in basketball over the past three seasons (according to 82games.com) -- to the point that we should be using his full name like we do with every other famous assassin. If your life depended on somebody making a game-winning shot in the last 10 seconds, would you pick anyone BUT Melo? I sure wouldn't.
So there's that. He also carried a division-winning Nuggets team that dealt with numerous injuries and numbers problems, a significant trade in mid-February, a glaring lack of outside shooters, and Kenyon Martin gimping around like Ken Reeves on the Bulls. And it's not like he's in his prime; actually, he's only seven months older than LeBron. Maybe there have been some minor flaws here and there -- he takes some quarters off, doesn't rebound enough, acts out sometimes -- but nothing that can't be fixed down the road.
Here's the thing: I'm starting to wonder if LeBron-Wade-Carmelo could become the most important sports rivalry of this generation. Each is great in his own way, each brings something different and unique to the table, and each seems to feed off what's happening with the other two guys. For instance, the Wade-LeBron duel two Saturdays ago (LeBron finished with 47-12-10, Wade with a 44-8-9) wasn't just the most thrilling game of the season, it was a significant experience for anyone who truly gives a crap about this league. Here were two fantastic young players absolutely KILLING it, doing everything they could to win the game, bringing out the absolute best of one another, raising everyone to a higher place.
This was like Pacino and De Niro sharing a scene in "Heat," only if they made the movie together in 1974. This was like Pearl Jam and Nirvana saying in 1992, "Screw it, let's go play at the same tiny club in Seattle and see who the crowd enjoys more." This was like nothing that's ever happened before. I haven't stopped thinking about it for three straight weeks. Could this be where we're headed -- magical game after magical game, like those Celtics-Lakers games in the mid-'80s, only for 12-15 years? What's the ceiling here? Do we even have a ceiling? Ali had Frazier, Bird had Magic, Russell had Chamberlain. Is it possible that LeBron, Wade and Carmelo all have each other? And do you realize that these guys are a combined 66 years old?
Maybe I'm biased as an unabashed NBA junkie, but I truly believe that the collective emergence of LeBron, Wade and Melo could eventually become the most significant thing that ever happened to this league -- bigger than MJ, bigger than Bird and Magic, bigger than everything. I guess we'll see.
5. Steve NashKudos to him for increasing his scoring and seamlessly integrating seven new teammates into Phoenix's offense; in many ways, he was better than last season. He's the only current player whose unselfishness seems to transfer (almost by osmosis) to everyone else on his team. On the flip side, he's even worse defensively than last season; just in the past two months, I watched Shaun Livingston, Delonte West and Kidd completely outplay him in separate games, capped off by Billups simply CREMATING him in Detroit two Sundays ago. Would an MVP ever get decimated like that by someone who plays the same position? Please.
Put it this way: Nash was a cute choice last season, mainly because none of the other candidates stood out, and I could see why someone would have been swayed. (It was like ordering one of those fancy foreign beers at a bar, the ones in the heavy green bottles with the 13-letter name that you can't pronounce, only someone else is drinking it, so you say to yourself, "Ah, screw it, I'm tired of the beer I always drink, lemme try one of those.") But this year? I'm not saying he should be ignored, but if you actually end up picking him, either you're not watching enough basketball or you just want to see a white guy win back-to-back MVP's.
4. Dwyane WadeEven as recently as four weeks ago, he was my MVP pick ... and then he started struggling, and so did Miami, and now he's hurt. The next three guys just passed him. It's that simple.
3. Dirk NowitzkiAveraging an astonishing 29-and-10 since the All-Star Break (the only two forwards to average 29-and-10 since the ABA/NBA merger were Bird and the Mailman). He's the only All-Star on a 60-win Dallas team. He shows up for every game. He's an underrated rebounder and superior free-throw shooter in crunch time. He solved the whole "Let's stick a smaller, more athletic guy on him!" strategy by punishing defenders with a variety of herky-jerk moves on the high post. He's German, which makes him fun to dislike whenever he starts sneering at his teammates or arrogantly celebrating after a big bucket. Out of any over-25 player, he made the biggest leap this season; it's hard to imagine anyone meaning more to his team.
Quick Nowitzki story: Clips-Mavs, Monday night, tie game, 18 seconds left. Nowitzki is 5-for-18, but we all know he's getting the final shot -- right at the top of the key, where he's been thriving all season. Naturally, we assume that Dunleavy will send a second guy at him, since you never want to get beat by a franchise guy. So Dallas brings the ball up and feeds Nowitzki on the high post, only Chris Kaman (a gawd-awful defender) switches onto him. And we're waiting for the second guy. And we're waiting. Hell, even Dirk is waiting. Never comes. Finally, with the clock winding down, he puts a quick move on Kaman, upfakes him and drains a 16-footer to win the game, followed by a goofy gesture in which he coldly pulled his jersey out with both forefingers, almost like dueling shotguns. And then his teammates practically chest-bumped him to death.
Here's the point: I wasn't even remotely surprised. Not by any of it. (Well, except for Dunleavy being dumb enough to single-team Dirk with Kaman.) There are franchise guys, and then there are FRANCHISE GUYS. This season, Nowitzki added the caps.
2. LeBron JamesTwenty-five months. That's how long it took before one of the Cleveland coaches (and there have been three since LeBron joined the team) made the astounding realization, "Hey, instead of sticking LeBron in the corner or the wing and having entire possessions where he never touches the ball, maybe we should run the offense through him!"
In the words of Colonel James, "Oh, you think so, Doctor?" Really? You want to stick him at the top of the key and run the offense through your best playmaker, as well as someone who's completely unstoppable whenever he decides to drive to the basket? You think that might work?
Now he's putting up 33-8-7 every night, which makes me wonder what would have happened had he handled the ball that much from Day 1. And it's not a very good Cavs team -- nobody plays defense, nobody rebounds, Ilguaskas doesn't fit in at all (terrible signing), even the alleged "shooters" (Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall, etc.) rarely make open shots. Replace LeBron with Mike Miller, throw in the Hughes injury and this was probably a 27-win team. Instead, they'll win 50.
The intriguing subplot: LeBron is figuring out how to take over down the stretch, personified by what happened on Saturday in New Jersey (17 in the final quarter). At least once a game, he does something so explosive, so athletic, so incredible, you can't even believe it happened. The last time I remember feeling this way about a professional athlete was Bo Jackson, who wasn't just great ... he stood out. I attended a spring training game once when Bo scored from third base on a 180-foot pop fly -- standing up. It was awesome to watch.
Well, LeBron reminds me of Bo. On those plays when he says, "Screw it, I'm scoring" and heads toward the basket like a runaway freight train. He's like a young Barkley crossed with a young Shawn Kemp crossed with young Magic, but with a little Bo thrown in. Out of anyone in the league, he's the only player who can cripple the other team with one monster play.
There's a perfect example that Hollinger wrote about on Sunday, but screw it, I'm retelling the story. On Saturday afternoon, I TiVo'ed the Nets-Cavs game because the Nets had won 14 straight and officially reached "record all our games" territory. LeBron completely took over the game in the fourth, capped off by one of the most startling plays I have ever seen: Trailing in the final two minutes, LeBron seized some open space in transition and pulled the Runaway Freight Train move, careening toward the basket as one Net reached in and hacked him, followed by another Net on the other side reaching in and fouling him, and then a third guy just to make sure he wouldn't score. LeBron was cradling the ball, taking two giant steps toward the basket and absorbing those karate chops. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. Any normal human being would have either lost the ball or lost their balance and tumbled to the ground.
Well, LeBron kept going -- almost like a tight end bouncing off three safeties in the open field. As the last guy walloped him, LeBron jumped in the air (where did he get the strength?!?!?), regained control of the ball, hung in the air, hung in the air for another split-second, gathered the ball (at this point, he was drifting under the right side of the rim), and finally unleashed a righty layup that banked in. The shot was so BLEEPING INCREDIBLE, the referee practically jumped in delight as he called the continuation foul. The Nets were done after that. He ripped their hearts out, MJ-style. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it.
And he's 21. Even more unbelievable.
So why isn't LeBron James the 2006 MVP? Two reasons. First, he hasn't committed himself on the defensive end yet. It's not even an effort thing, I think he's just been poorly coached. Bird and Magic couldn't guard anyone either, but they were always great help defenders, and Bird actually controlled games on that end like a free safety (just watch Game 6 of the 1986 Finals, you'll see what I mean). Defensively, LeBron is a complete non-factor.
More importantly, the next guy has just been a little bit better ...
1. Kobe BryantYou don't know how much this kills me. Actually, you probably do. But Mamba passes all three MVP questions ...
Question No. 1: When remembering this season 10 years from now, which player will pop into your head first?
Answer: Kobe. The dude scored 62 in three quarters against Dallas, then 81 against Toronto a few weeks later. He's about to become the fifth player in NBA history to average 35 points a game (along with Wilt, MJ, Elgin and Rick Barry). He made up with Shaq. He made up with Phil. He made up with Nike. He appeared on the cover of Slam Magazine with a Mamba snake wrapped around him. He did everything but make the obligatory cameo on "Will and Grace." No player took more abuse from writers, broadcasters and radio hosts this season, but Kobe seemed to feed off that negative energy. It was almost Bondsian. And just when it kept seeming like he might wear down, he'd toss up another 50 just to keep you on your toes. Kobe was relentless. That's the best way to describe him this season.
Question No. 2: In the proverbial giant pickup game with every NBA player waiting to play, who would be the first player picked this season?
Answer: Kobe. He's the best all-around player in the league, the best scorer, the best competitor, and the one guy who terrifies everyone else. Plus, if you DIDN'T pick him, he would make it his mission to haunt you on the other team.
Question No. 3: If you replaced every MVP candidate with a decent player at their position for the entire season, what would be the effect on their teams' records?
Answer: If you replaced Kobe with a decent 2-guard (someone like Jamal Crawford) for the entire 2005-06 Lakers season, they would have won between 15 and 20 games. I can say that in complete confidence. Terrible team. When Smush Parker and Kwame Brown are your third- and fourth-best players, you shouldn't even be allowed to watch the playoffs on TV. Throw Kobe in the mix and they're headed for 45 wins. So he's been worth 25 victories for them.
Minimum.
In a weird way, Kobe ended up getting what he always wanted: The Lakers completely revolve around him. He gets to shoot 25-30 times per game. He gets to take every big shot at crunch-time. He gets all the credit. Nobody else on the team dares to challenge him. And even better, because he lucked out with the only possible coach who could make this cockamamie situation work, his supporting cast kills itself to make him look good.
Basically, he's Elvis and everyone else is Joe Esposito. And it's working! That's the crazy thing.Now they're a sleeper in the West -- seriously, do you think Phoenix wants any part of them in Round 1? -- and have the only player in the league who can win a playoff series by himself. He's the Black Mamba, he's Kobe Bryant, he's the 2006 MVP, and since we finally have that settled, I will now light myself on fire.
By Bill Simmons ESPN