Put that right up there with the Mike Krumrie ankle injury...........Somebody should tell him that white guys don't dunk no matter how big they are.
The Bigger they are,,,, Last Night. The Thunder got jobbed by the refs on a non call at the end of regulation. How long do you have to be "good" till you get calls like that? Also, El Tee - Who out of the bottom 4 do you want to see in the playoffs? You matched up well with the Thunder this year, 3-1.
I just had the Kobe vs LeBron debate last night. Let me set up my basketball ethos here before talking starting. I grew up in Chicago, I've seen Jordon play as a kid growing up, before and after the retirement. I watch as many NBA games as I can, I'm fans of multiple players, and the on players I do not like are Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. I believe they play boring baskeball, having boring interviews, and I'll never forgive that French bastard for soiling Eva Longoria....ever. Not saying anything about their skills, that's just my views. On to the debate. I love Michael Jordon, I love him so much, I was first in line to see Space Jam and screamed at my parents until they took me to see him play baseball. Not so much love that I bought any of his overpriced shoes, but damn near fanatical. We know the stats, they are all there. Anyone that has never watched anyone can look at the stats. I make the following statements on intangibles, which aren't intangible once I outline them. I love watching LeBron James play, I love watching Kobe play. I'm well aware of their personalities. I'm well aware of what each teammate thinks of Kobe and LeBron respectively. But: Kobe is more like Michael Jordan personality wise, than LeBron is and that is why he is and in the long run, will be better. What does LeBron James do every fucking game? He does that powder thing that makes the crowd go nuts. LeBron loves the crowd, he feeds off it. He dunks for the crowd (and yes to score points.) When he dunks on someone, you don't see him look at that person, he looks at the crowd, he looks at his team adoring him and he soaks it all in for 1 second before preparing for the next play. Bill or Rick wrote this love letter awhile back talking about the feeling when LeBron James enters a room and how great it was blah blah blah.. Kobe on the other hand, is like Michael Jordan. When he dunks, he looks at that player to remind them, "I am better than you." Or as I like to think he's thinking "I can fuck your wife right now if I wanted to." Kobe plays with what I will loosely call "hate." Pure and unadultered. I connect this to MJ, because in previously mentioned love letter on LeBron, Jordan's teammates were scared of him. As are Kobe's. Kobe doesn't care about the crowd, he doesn't care about pumping up his teammates, and dancing around with them before games. He wants to win, for the sake of winning to prove that he is better than you. He is not the King, he does not need everyone to love/like/respect/give two shits/ or anything else about him to be successful. That's why he is better, we can jerk off on stats all day, but it's not about stats. And whoever compared a guard to a bunch of centers up-top is pretty silly. I'm sorry you can't compare opposite positions like that.
I haven't checked out this thread again until just now, but this echoes the way I feel about Kobe Bryant for the most part. Though I think that drive and determination at the level that Kobe conveys it is an innate intangible that someone either has or doesn't, and he simply has it. Although if McGrady was the one who was draft/traded to the Lakers rather than Kobe, I'm fairly positive he would have been able to feign it under the wings of Shaq long enough to get those rings himself. Parker, I get your argument, but there's two things you're not accounting for. 1) Kobe is simply not the player MJ was, and as much as he does have that killer instinct and IS a great talent, he can't compare to 2) The overall dominance that is Lebron James. Showmanship aside, this guy can take mediocre teams to the finals, can you imagine what he would do with a truly dominant big? For the record, I think the Cavs take it this year with the slightly above average cast that he currently has. He's simply a much better player than Kobe is/was. Add that to the fact that Kobe's performance is already starting to struggle from nagging injuries, while Lebron is a sprite 25 with no end in sight and there's not a doubt in my mind that he goes down as the better player. The rings will come, and they will all be as the best player on the team... Another thought: The Jazz/Thunder game last night was a true playoff atmosphere, and Kevin Durant was robbed of some game winning free throws that would have put them in position for HCA in the playoffs. That single non-call shook up the entire makeup of the western conference playoffs.
TW, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Kobe is as good as MJ, I'm saying he's more like MJ than LeBron is personality wise and hence why he is better. LeBron is dominant. I think that killer instinct, makes up for the less athleticism. Let me switch sides for a second, I didn't read all 8 pages, I'm sorry but fuck everything else about LeBron's supporting cast, LeBron's problem is that his coach is a fucking moron. He calls 5 different plays here are their names in the order he calls them: The #23 play, the King James play, the LeBron Play, the James Play, and get the fucking ball in LeBron's hands play. And I get what you mean on 2) yes he gets the lame horse to the water time and time again, but Kobe gets that horse to drink said water. And since I just brought up coaching, running the triangle offense is hard as fuck, Kobe should get points for that. Anyone else force their whole office to watch the Bogut video raise their hand *raises hand*.
Yahoo! Sports reporting that the Spurs are close to extending Manu Ginobili for 3 years and $40 million (no word yet on a 4th year option). In my opinion, they overpaid, largely the result of his Superman play the past few months. However, for only a 3-year commitment (to coincide with the conclusion of the Duncan era), that's pretty easy to swallow. I'm still kind of on the fence about this, but at least he won't end up on someone else's team. Spurs' 2010 off-season acquisition is about to sign on the dotted line.
From what I've heard and read, a lot of people see Jordan's personality as his worst quality, and the main reason he has sucked as an executive. I'd take Magic, Bird, or Shaq any day personality-wise.
Thank God Kobe isn't an executive then. [/quote] Shaq steals TV shows from his teammates. Bird refuses to see his daughter from his first marriage. Not exactly the best examples.
Oh, you're right. Like I said up there, his teammates were scared of him. Just like Kobe's, but it all those fuckers have 3-4 rings for dealing with his shitty personality. Magic, good example, Bird, bad example. Shaq...well...uhm....he's really fucking quotable. And does anyone really know who the fuck Larry Bird really is? I'll fucking dare you to describe him. He's a weird fucking guy, and getting more specific than that is hard.