RealGM

When we sat down with longtime Lakers trainer Gary Vitti last week, the subject of Kobe Bryant's chances to stay healthy in 2014-15 sparked Vitti's mind about the five things he thinks make Bryant the player he is:
•Extreme athleticism
•Extreme talent
•Outworks everybody
•Incredible toughness
•Intellectual brilliance

Those five things come with "stuff" that Vitti said Bryant would be the "first to admit."

Stuff like … being over-the-top competitive? Going after teammates who aren't bringing full effort? Being disgusted with any and every loss? Focusing 100 percent on being the best at basketball at the expense of everything else?

Depends who you ask. But the point is simple for Vitti. Whatever that "stuff" may be, it's worth it.

Here's the full quote:



Kobe Bryant is a brilliant basketball player. Kobe Bryant is a great athlete, but there were actually players that were more athletic than Kobe. So why him? It's in his mind and his heart and soul. He just has something about him that most people don't. No matter what you think of Kobe Bryant, he's extremely athletic, extremely talented, works harder than anyone else, is tough as nails and intellectually brilliant. You can't take those five things away from him. When you put them all together, you end up with a very, very successful person. Now, it comes with ‘stuff,’ and he'll be the first one to admit it, but wouldn't you rather have a guy that has those five things and deal with the ‘stuff’ than have a guy that doesn't have any ‘stuff’ but you’re trying to instill one of those five things in him. I'll take the dude with the five things.

As for the answer to that first question about Kobe's chances of staying healthy?

"I have 100 percent confidence that he'll be healthy because of the way he handles his body and the style of play that we'll compete at," said Vitti.

In two-and-a-half more months, we'll find out.

Mirjalovic wrote:I cant understand why smartass on PC board project Kobe as top 15 player NBA, and barely beat player like Dirk.

When all said and done, i believe public perception about Kobe will improve.. I dont find any reason why guy like Duncan is top 5 and Kobe only top 15. If anything both of them are equal. Its really what you have done lately


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

EArl wrote:The PC board is an interesting board to say the least. There are some good informative posters, but there are also a lot of guys that just don't like Kobe for whatever reason. A lot of them are also advance stats guys. I personally find it hard to quantify players to just arbitrary numbers created by others. At the end of the day you cant quantify real life situations no matter how hard you try. Take it from someone that has taken too many statistics classes in college.

D Nice wrote:

Mirjalovic wrote:I cant understand why smartass on PC board project Kobe as top 15 player NBA, and barely beat player like Dirk.

When all said and done, i believe public perception about Kobe will improve.. I dont find any reason why guy like Duncan is top 5 and Kobe only top 15. If anything both of them are equal. Its really what you have done lately


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Contrary to popular perception most of them are actually not that intelligent or particularly good at analysis (basketball or otherwise but especially with hoops).

The reason Kobe dropped so precipitously can be traced back to his regular season D-RAPM scores and personal dislike. Not much more to it than that.

Duncan finishing 5th was a little ridiculous. Should have been in the 7-9 range.

And the Kobe/Dirk thread was comically bad, and of course locked right after I made my last post.

spree8 wrote:

D Nice wrote:

Mirjalovic wrote:I cant understand why smartass on PC board project Kobe as top 15 player NBA, and barely beat player like Dirk.

When all said and done, i believe public perception about Kobe will improve.. I dont find any reason why guy like Duncan is top 5 and Kobe only top 15. If anything both of them are equal. Its really what you have done lately


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Contrary to popular perception most of them are actually not that intelligent or particularly good at analysis (basketball or otherwise but especially with hoops).

The reason Kobe dropped so precipitously can be traced back to his regular season D-RAPM scores and personal dislike. Not much more to it than that.

Duncan finishing 5th was a little ridiculous. Should have been in the 7-9 range.

And the Kobe/Dirk thread was comically bad, and of course locked right after I made my last post.

It really pisses me off how they get so much praise lol. They really aren't as smart as they think. There are a couple, but for people to practically make them out to be professionals (to the point where they put down actual pros opinions in favor of these posters) is asinine. They are entirely stat driven as well. Seems to me that most of them have never picked up a basketball themselves.

Also, there are sooo many Kobe haters on these boards and they blatantly rank him as low as they can get away with. The best always get the most hate. Plus he's a Laker, which many team's fans hate because of their recent greatness and rich history.