The Official Playoffs Thread

[L&H_05]

This series really is about Kobe, or what the Lakers have done; it's about what the Magic have utterly failed to do!

True, but some want it to be about Kobe's journey, when that's just garbage and media driven, yet some buy into it..

Kobe shoots 11-32 last night, and his team wins a road game in the finals... Kobe's "journey" will not reference the Fisher shots (just like they won't mention the Horry shot in '02)-- they won't mention the play of Ariza... It will strictly be just about Kobe, which in fact, it shouldn't be because his actual place in it was more of a part of the puzzle as opposed to be the majority of the puzzle..

Kobe is a fantastic player, he really is, but I swear his place in history is just overrated to me...

Kobe gets praised way too much for his championship success whereas a player like Duncan simply doesn't get enough...

[L&H_05]

L&H is my favorite troller of all time.

Nebulate'

Was actually headed down to the Cheesecake factory this afternoon, and as I was cruising down the highway, the "Old Sk00l jam of the day" came on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiOcVWQY2bc

[Newz]

This series really is about Kobe, or what the Lakers have done; it's about what the Magic have utterly failed to do!

True, but some want it to be about Kobe's journey, when that's just garbage and media driven, yet some buy into it..

Kobe shoots 11-32 last night, and his team wins a road game in the finals... Kobe's "journey" will not reference the Fisher shots (just like they won't mention the Horry shot in '02)-- they won't mention the play of Ariza... It will strictly be just about Kobe, which in fact, it shouldn't be because his actual place in it was more of a part of the puzzle as opposed to be the majority of the puzzle..

Kobe is a fantastic player, he really is, but I swear his place in history is just overrated to me...

Kobe gets praised way too much for his championship success whereas a player like Duncan simply doesn't get enough...

Well in the grand scheme of things, Duncan and Shaq are the 'greatest' players that are still playing in the NBA. Though they are both past their primes. They are in the top 10-15 players to ever play the game, in my opinion. Kobe is somewhere in the top 50... The only guy who has a chance to break into the top 15 that is playing right now is LeBron, in my opinion.

Right now LeBron is the top dog. The guys who are competing to be second best are Kobe, Howard, Wade and possibly Paul if he can recover from his disaster of a playoffs this year.

[Newz]

To add to that too... I think everyone here could agree that the heroes last night were Trevor Ariza and Derrick Fisher.

Yet the headline on RotoWorld reads "Kobe leads Lakers to 3-1 lead with OT win", what a joke.

[smauss]

This series really is NOT about Kobe, or what the Lakers have done; it's about what the Magic have utterly failed to do!

Sorry had to fix my original post!

Thanks guys for quoting my post so I could notice my utter typing fail!

[aboveAverage]

Who cares? The same thing would happen with Lebron.

[emunney]

This series really is NOT about Kobe, or what the Lakers have done; it's about what the Magic have utterly failed to do!

Sorry had to fix my original post!

Concise and precise.

[El Duderino]

I almost feel dirty doing this given i've never liked Kobe Bryant, but IMO after reading back through this thread, the bashing of him is way overboard. Yea the Magic absolutely gagged away that game, were a missed bunny from winning game two in LA, and Kobe didn't exactly play his best game yesterday.

That said, to act like the Lakers would have been better off with Kobe not playing or won in spite of him strikes me as silly. It's one thing to point out that Kobe hasn't played as well as his reputation over all his NBA Finals appearances, which i'd agree with, but instead it much more seemed a desire to mock and act like Kobe sucks mainly over the debate with Wise about Kobe/LeBron.

Both sides in this thread have tried so hard to show they're right and pat themselves on the back that numerous comments about Kobe and LeBron look to have been made out of nothing more than spite.

[REDDzone]

Agreed duder, sometimes I think people shape their feelings about a player based more on what someone they disagree with on the forum thinks than what they truly believe.

[Nebula1]

L&H is my favorite troller of all time.

Nebulate'

Was actually headed down to the Cheesecake factory this afternoon, and as I was cruising down the highway, the "Old Sk00l jam of the day" came on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiOcVWQY2bc

This is my throwback jersey right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-IS2js72WI

[BlueJeep]

K. Ariza and Fisher did hit some big shots and should be commended, however.... U have to give Kobe some credit even for those shots he didnt take. See, Ariza and Fisher and the rest of the lakers are getting such great looks due to the fact that Kobe is getting double and sometimes triple teamed. All eyes are on the best player in the league(kobe, for those who dont know). Others can fall through the cracks when 95% of the defense is focused on 24.

Others falling through the cracks = Fisher, Ariza, Odom, yada yada yada

[Newz]

No doubt that the defense tends to focus on Kobe and Gasol more than the other players... That is part of their value, without a doubt. Kobe did a good job the last game of passing out of the double teams.

But Fisher's shot to take it into overtime wasn't set up by Kobe, Ariza stealing the ball and breaking down to dunk it had nothing to do with Kobe... As well as several other plays.

You cannot take away from the fact that they made the big plays, that they made the big shots to win the last game. People trying to say it was Kobe, when in fact he played a terrible game, just makes him look even worse because people will defend him no matter what.

I don't think the Lakers would have won the last game if you just took Kobe off of the team completely... But the game would have never even come close to going into overtime if he would have distributed more and shot less... Which is clearly what he should have been doing considering he was shooting poorly throughout most of the game.

[Nebula1]

Almost there

[aboveAverage]

No doubt that the defense tends to focus on Kobe and Gasol more than the other players... That is part of their value, without a doubt. Kobe did a good job the last game of passing out of the double teams.

But Fisher's shot to take it into overtime wasn't set up by Kobe, Ariza stealing the ball and breaking down to dunk it had nothing to do with Kobe... As well as several other plays.

You cannot take away from the fact that they made the big plays, that they made the big shots to win the last game. People trying to say it was Kobe, when in fact he played a terrible game, just makes him look even worse because people will defend him no matter what.

I don't think the Lakers would have won the last game if you just took Kobe off of the team completely... But the game would have never even come close to going into overtime if he would have distributed more and shot less... Which is clearly what he should have been doing considering he was shooting poorly throughout most of the game.

Actually, Fisher's shot to take it into overtime was completely set up by Kobe. Kobe got double teamed in the backcourt, and instead of dribbling through it he passed it out to Ariza who passed it to Fisher for an open shot.

[Newz]

No doubt that the defense tends to focus on Kobe and Gasol more than the other players... That is part of their value, without a doubt. Kobe did a good job the last game of passing out of the double teams.

But Fisher's shot to take it into overtime wasn't set up by Kobe, Ariza stealing the ball and breaking down to dunk it had nothing to do with Kobe... As well as several other plays.

You cannot take away from the fact that they made the big plays, that they made the big shots to win the last game. People trying to say it was Kobe, when in fact he played a terrible game, just makes him look even worse because people will defend him no matter what.

I don't think the Lakers would have won the last game if you just took Kobe off of the team completely... But the game would have never even come close to going into overtime if he would have distributed more and shot less... Which is clearly what he should have been doing considering he was shooting poorly throughout most of the game.

Actually, Fisher's shot to take it into overtime was completely set up by Kobe. Kobe got double teamed in the backcourt, and instead of dribbling through it he passed it out to Ariza who passed it to Fisher for an open shot.

Fisher dribbled the ball down the court and Nelson stupidly fell behind the three point line... Then he made the shot.

Some people are so infatuated with the idea of Kobe being 'the best' that they will even credit him for stuff like this? Sickening. To say the least.

[midranger]

Kobe touched the ball for 1 instant ~70 feet from the rim. Fisher took about 7 dribbles then hit a pull up 3 pointer from a dead run.

How did Kobe set him up completely?

[REDDzone]

Fisher dribbled the ball down the court and Nelson stupidly fell behind the three point line... Then he made the shot.

Some people are so infatuated with the idea of Kobe being 'the best' that they will even credit him for stuff like this? Sickening. To say the least.

I agree with this. I don't care enough to call those who disagree "sickening". But I don't think Kobe completely set up that play.

[jerrod]

maybe kobe paid off nelson to get him to back off

[Ayt]

The inbounder is the one that should be getting the credit here (I think it was Odom).

[lawrybeard]

Nice piece on Jerry West's thoughts on Kobe and the possibility of him winning another championship:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=westtake-090613

"If people think that's what he needs to validate his career, so be it, but I don't think that's the case at all," West said of Bryant lacking a ring without O'Neal as a sidekick. "This is a unique player.

"Any time you start talking about who the best is, you're always going to have controversy. But Kobe is upper, upper echelon. I'm not talking about the top 10 [of all time]. This franchise has had a lot of good players. Absolutely the greatest leader I've ever seen would be Magic Johnson, and he was also the greatest teammate, but as far as skill Kobe is No. 1 on the list.

"When you're that great, sometimes people don't want to give you the credit. But when Kobe walks away from this game, he's going to leave huge footprints, just as Michael Jordan did.

"This is a once-every-25-years player. Appreciate him while he's here."