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The purpose of posting this vid is because my I having computer trouble when this story broke. So I wanted opinions. Just days before when I noticed Kobe wasn't looking to pass the ball a lot of posters opposed that opinion, but obviously since then its been talked about in the media a lot.

My main point to this is if you watch sports (any sports) and watch with your eyes & not your heart most things are easy to see even if its not always in your favor.

For me, I try to enjoy the games and not scrutinize every little thing our team does or the opposition. (I save that stuff for the post season when every detail of what the teams do becomes crucial). When things out of the ordinary start happening with players or with the offense, such as Kobe facilitating less or another player looking flat out lost, fatigued or whatever, its kind of hard not to notice.

Derek Fisher, I think I appreciate him more than most posters show on here, but my liking to him doesn't blind me in seeing him for what he is today. I would love to see him to retire a Laker, I wouldn't even dare trade him if I even had the chance, but Phil SERIOUSLY needs to lessen his role on the team and let Blake start already.

Its unbearable just to watch him out there getting 30+ minutes through 82 games a year now.

^^^ That, and Blake is playing his lowest minutes since his 2nd year in the league. I wonder what that does for his confidence, particularly when you consider he's playing behind one of, if not the worst starting PG in the league.

As for the topic, the sad part about Phil's statement is that he retracted it, stating that he meant to say something else which wasn't derogatory about Kobe's shot selection/volume.

Kobe still being selfish quite often, even with this team, and we can't hide that.

Let me express myself about Kobe. He's the best player in the team, the most hardworking, the most dedicated to basketball etc. etc. and a true example for me. That allowed him to be the leader of this team.

But what kind of a leader is he ? To me, Kobe looks like a lone leader, like a selfish leader, like a leader that still puts his success in front of the team's success. It's in his blood. With a hand in his face and double-teamed, he'll still take that clutch shot instead of giving up the ball. He's not the mental leader, the vocal leader, he's the scoring leader. He forced himslef into becoming somewhat of a team leader, he forced it, it never has come to him naturally. For me, Lamar Odom is the team in himself, he's the bounced ball out there. He does everything for this team, goes to the bench when he's asked, and it doesn't matter, it's the contract year or not, plays every role you ask him and doesn't demand the ball like Kobe does, he doesn't hog the ball like Kobe does.

Kobe is not going o sacrifice his 25 PPG for the better of the team. He screwed not only one game and he won not only one as well. He'll have an airball that doesn't make sense for a player of his caliber and he'll make an unbelievable shot that no one in this world is able to make. He hurts the team at times in the regular season and then goes nuts in the playoffs and no one can stop him.

That's the beauty of this player. He carries the team, but at the same time he demands all the laurels, and that's the fact. He deserves them, no doubt, but sometimes the way he does it is questionable - like taking stupid shots, cooling down, but still shooting a lot, having senseless turnovers etc. etc.

I love him the most as a player and I criticize him the most. Why ? Because he's name is Kobe Bryant - 5 time NBA Champion and 2 times Finals MVP.

Optms wrote:For me, I try to enjoy the games and not scrutinize every little thing our team does or the opposition. (I save that stuff for the post season when every detail of what the teams do becomes crucial). When things out of the ordinary start happening with players or with the offense, such as Kobe facilitating less or another player looking flat out lost, fatigued or whatever, its kind of hard not to notice.

Derek Fisher, I think I appreciate him more than most posters show on here, but my liking to him doesn't blind me in seeing him for what he is today. I would love to see him to retire a Laker, I wouldn't even dare trade him if I even had the chance, but Phil SERIOUSLY needs to lessen his role on the team and let Blake start already.

Its unbearable just to watch him out there getting 30+ minutes through 82 games a year now.

It's not about scrutinizing its about calling a spade a spade. Yes Fish definitely needs his role to be far less than what it is.

semi-sentient wrote:
As for the topic, the sad part about Phil's statement is that he retracted it, stating that he meant to say something else which wasn't derogatory about Kobe's shot selection/volume.

Exact reason why I didn't over react to the comment anyway. When he said "screwed up" he meant that because of the teams poor lack of energy and play Kobe had to do something to pick up the team.

The minute Phil said that I knew what he meant to say it just came out wrong.

DEEP3CL wrote:

semi-sentient wrote:
As for the topic, the sad part about Phil's statement is that he retracted it, stating that he meant to say something else which wasn't derogatory about Kobe's shot selection/volume.

Exact reason why I didn't over react to the comment anyway. When he said "screwed up" he meant that because of the teams poor lack of energy and play Kobe had to do something to pick up the team.

The minute Phil said that I knew what he meant to say it just came out wrong.

It's pretty obvious what he said if people had a half decent reading comprehension. Not to mention the context. But eh.. Let's blow up quotes cus it make things fun.

haha I was searching for something about phil (don't remember anymore) and look what I found:

http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblo ... k-of-.html

I had to check the date twice to confirm this was really from last year, lol.

Take a look at the similarity of what was the discussion one year ago to what we are debating today:

Well, that nostalgic feeling regarding Kobe Bryant surpassing Jerry West as the Lakers' all-time leading scorer certainly didn't last long. Most of the questions surrounding Tuesday's practice focused on Bryant's high percentage of shots versus the lacking inside game the Lakers presented in a 95-93 loss Monday to the Memphis Grizzlies. The issue first reared its ugly head when Lakers forward Pau Gasol lamented to several reporters immediately after the game about he and Andrew Bynum combining for only 15 points on five of 10 shots.

"Obviously, we were not making a conscious effort to pound the ball inside," Gasol told the Daily News' Elliott Teaford. "So, we settled a little bit too much. It's not like they were double-teaming us a lot. It happens."

"I’m proud of him; I congratulate him," Gasol told the Orange County Register's Kevin Ding about Bryant becoming the franchise's all-time scoring leader. "Now we can focus on winning games again."

Given Gasol's nature, this isn't going to turn into Kobe-Shaq. But it at least got the conversation out in the open, something the media was only happy to facilitate, but without Bryant, who wasn't present during post-practice interviews.

Of course, Bryant's high volume of shots is nothing new. Heck, I've only been here for four weeks and I devoted at least five different posts here, here, here here and here on topics involving Bryant's shot selection. It's become a never-ending point of conversation as Bryant has shot below .500 in 10 of the 14 games since Jan. 5 when he aggravated his right-index finger.

A firmer splint has appeared to correct the issue involving his finger, and Bryant's 44 points on 57.1% shooting (16 of 28) against Memphis is something most teams would take any day. But as Bryant closed out with the team's final 13 points in the second quarter, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson could tell he was seeking to surpass West's record that night, and nothing would get in his way.

Said Jackson: "At halftime, we said, 'Get Kobe the ball quickly so we can get over that record and we can move ahead.' "

Kobe Bryant surpassing legends and setting individual records; Kobe not running the triangle; not using the bigs inside; Loss against memphis (I guess gasol don't like to lose against his brother, lol); finger injuries; shot selection, etc.

That's Kobe. a guard going to the nba directly from high school and taking 3 shots in a row in 4th quarter of a playoff game, air-balling all 3 shots and a ~decade later he became arguably the most complete scorer in the history of the NBA. Top10 of all time in the scoring list.

If Kobe didn't had this mentality, which can be interpreted as confidence or arrogance/selfishness depending of the observer he wouldn't be what he's today.

Don't expect him to change, especially in the regular season... In fact you shouldn't even demand him to change because when he accepts that he's not THE kobe bryant anymore that means he's near retirement and then we'll miss him for a long long time. I don't see any other Kobe emerging, ever. So enjoy while you can.

Let me 'illustrate' what I said... You peepz know the fable about the Scorpion and the Frog?

The Scorpion and the Frog

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.

The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.

"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

"Its my Nature", said the Scorpion...

Kobe can't help himself, its his nature. Or what he would say: "I know what I'm fu.cki.ng doing."

Speedlot wrote:

DEEP3CL wrote:

semi-sentient wrote:
As for the topic, the sad part about Phil's statement is that he retracted it, stating that he meant to say something else which wasn't derogatory about Kobe's shot selection/volume.

Exact reason why I didn't over react to the comment anyway. When he said "screwed up" he meant that because of the teams poor lack of energy and play Kobe had to do something to pick up the team.

The minute Phil said that I knew what he meant to say it just came out wrong.

It's pretty obvious what he said if people had a half decent reading comprehension. Not to mention the context. But eh.. Let's blow up quotes cus it make things fun.

That's the exact problem, people can't utilize reading comprehension......way too damn difficult a task. They just take the first thing they hear and run with it. The way it came out people swore it was him diss'in Kobe again.

Truthfully the statement was meant both ways, but if guys want to have on horse blinders, so be it.

Phil needs to tell Kobe to stop going to Lakers forums and screwing up game topics.

good read