Abbott articles are seminars on how to muddle context and cherry pick stats.
Although Thunder coach Scott Brooks coaches one of the league's top hero-ball scorers in Kevin Durant -- with a 1.07 ppp in clutch-time isolations -- Brooks still disavows it all, telling his players, "If the right play is for you to shoot it, shoot it. If the right play is for you to pass it out of a double-team, I don't care who you pass it to, you just have to pass it."
Passing out of a double team is not anti-iso ball. Kobe passes out of double teams quite often - evident by the fact he averages 6.3 assists per 36 during crunch time, many more than Durant or even Chris Paul - and it has nothing to do with the Philly scenario, a game played over a month ago that he keeps harping on.
A related fact you wouldn't know from an Abbott piece; Durant has a higher usage pct in crunch time than Kobe. So does Melo and Kyrie. Most stars are in the same ballpark, but of course with Henry, Kobe is forever and always the villain.
Who else hates hero ball? Apparently, Bryant's teammates. This season, when shooting out of crunch-time isos, Bryant has averaged roughly 0.5 ppp. If the Lakers offense worked that miserably for 48 minutes, the team would score fewer than 50 points a game. Still, Bryant easily leads the league in crunch-time iso attempts. Why?
"I don't know, man," says Bryant's teammate Andrew Bynum, with a dejected shrug, after this year's All-Star Game. He calls it stating the obvious to say the team's late-game offense is a problem. Bynum, a 54% shooter, is one of the Lakers' most efficient offensive weapons. Gasol, at 50 percent, is another. But the two bigs almost never have late plays run for them. Bynum's guess? "Because some guys get paid big bucks to hit shots, so that's what they've got to do."
What was the actual question posed to Bynum? Abbott makes sure we don't know.
Or consider Jackson, owner of 12 NBA rings, writing in his book The Last Season of the many times Bryant broke plays to call his own number at the end of games.
And now he brings up a book written 8 years ago. Awesome.
We all know Kobe has sucked in crunch time this year. Abbott is relishing in it and trying to superimpose that suckiness over Kobe's whole career. In his pieces written after the 2010 season, when Bryant was ridiculously clutch? He just moved the goal post and claimed dude was having a fortunate stretch.
Kobe's had stretches this season where he's been pitiful, but what's even more pitiful is columnist constantly kicking a man while he's down.
