I’ve already mentioned this in passing, but I will tell the whole story. On Saturday morning I was made aware of the Kobe Bryant 65 point outburst against Portland and my immediate thought was to make him Player of the D.A.Y. in this spot no matter what happened on Sunday (yesterday). Then he scored 50 more yesterday to erase any competition.
The two biggest flukes of the Player of the D.A.Y. this season have been how many times Baron Davis has won and how many Kobe missed out on. It seems like Baron saved his best games for nights when there wasn’t much action or other standout perfromances. Kobe kept playing his best on Friday and Saturday nights. If you look at his splits, it says Kobe has his best scoring nights on Thursday, but he shoots threes best on Friday. I don’t have any counter evidence other than to say I remember things differently or maybe he had one bad game on a Friday night that threw everything off. 65 points to end a 7 game losing streak in double OT deserves an exception.
But he wins today based on yesterday. That would mean the 65 point game had no bearing on today’s Player of the D.A.Y. I have a solution for this. Tonight there are two games on the NBA schedule, and neither one is anything to write home about. Kobe is going to win Player of the D.A.Y. tomorrow for a game that happened 4 days before the award is announced. I think that begins to make up for the flukiness of his weekend warriorness.
If you are looking for deeper meaning in this Kobe eruption, that he is overshooting to avenge the “witch hunt”, or that the return of Odom and Walton has boosted him, feel free. There are always underlying psychological issues with Kobe. Or over analyzation. Or something in between. He’s always fun to talk about. On Friday night after scoring 65, he talked about how his daughter didn’t care, and she was more interested in Care Bears. If that’s true, I’ve got to get back into Care Bears – although I saw those Baby Einstein videos for the first time at a recent hang out session with my 2 year-old nephew, and they are crack in every sense of the word.
Kobe Bryant, obvious Player of the D.A.Y.
