Sicker than your average.
I know it’s Monday and we should probably talk about the games from last night, but really, did you think I would be able to start this without talking about Friday night. Kobe. Wade. Wade draped over Kobe, arm outscretched, Kobe falling to the left, heaving up a shot that I didn’t think he’d even be able to attempt before time expired, let alone bank in for the win…. Yeah.
That is why he is the best.
Best what? Simply the best. I don’t care about stats, numbers, who would or wouldn’t want him taking the last shot, first shot, game-winning shot, whatever shot, to me, he is just the best player in the league. Still. LeBron, Melo, Dwyane, fill-in-blank-here, you’re all really close, amazing, fantastic and I’m so thankful to get the privilege of watching you play, but there is only one and his name is Kobe.
I can’t even explain it except to say, if I was Kobe’s teammate and he looked over at me in a huddle and told me we were going to win the basketball game, independent of the situation, probability or even possibility of that happening, I’d trust him. I would believe in him. The reaction from Shannon Brown showed he believes something similar.
That shot had no business being close. It was perfect. One of the most exciting I’ve ever seen. Twitter makes these moments even better.
Hope most of you were able to catch it live. It was wild. Random Lakers note: my goodness, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are really, really good. The game was also a great one and props go out to a Heat team that bounced back on the second night of a back to back after getting smoked by the Nuggets in Denver to come thisclose to stealing one from the Lakers. They bounced back from the loss in LA to grab the victory against the Kings last night, thanks to Dwyane’s pretty little line of 34 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and four blocked shots.
In the loss, Tyreke Evans was (again), pretty awesome. 30 points, on 10-for-19 shooting, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. The rookie is balling. In the Eastern Conference, Brandon Jennings and the Bucks are slumping and had an awful game against the Cavaliers (and by awful, I mean, it took them something crazy like 11 minutes of bball time to get from 17 points to 19. Yes, it was bad), but I’m hoping they get it back and we get a head-to-head battle between these two young stars, that’ll be one for the ages.
Speaking of the Cavs, someone needs to tell LeBron to save his moves for the dancefloor. Our guys Myles and Vince were discussing it over Twitter, and Myles had a great point: Can you picture Bron busting out those moves against the Celtics or Lakers? I’m sure Ron, Kobe, Sheed and KG would appreciate them much more than Noah did.
Yikes.
Since we’re talking about LeBron: The guy’s passing is prettier than ever and I love seeing him cheer for Delonte who had 21 points off of the bench, on 6-for-9 shooting.
Tonight. Is finally here. Allen Iverson is home in Philly and it’s all going to be going down live, on NBATV. I’m attempting to get this DVR of mine hooked up to record it. It’s only been sitting in a box by my TV since I moved into my apartment last October. Oops. I loathe hooking up electronics as much as I love basketball. That’s a lot.
I know I’m avoiding the Greg Oden news. I don’t have anything else to say. Or, I can’t say anything else without getting upset. I wrote about it for my blog over at TheScore.com, and that’s really all I have left inside of me, with respect to this situation. My heart is aching for the city of Portland and their amazing fans. I’m feeling for the entire Blazers organization, I’m thankful for the class, grace and genuine care they’ve shown for Oden and, of course, I’m sending positivity and love his way.
Congratulations to the Nets, for grabbing their first victory of the season and killing that nasty losing streak/start to the season. I was hoping they’d get victory number two in NYC yesterday, but as you can see from the game notes we’ve got posted, it didn’t happen.
Did you all see Chris Paul’s crazy-insane line from his return to the court on Friday night? In a victory over the TWolves, CP3 came back bigtime, scoring 16 points, dishing 15 assists, grabbing six boards, snagging eight steals and blocking a shot. Yeah. How does a guy return from an ankle injury to grab eight steals? The guy is special.
So tell me, what would you do if the clock was winding down in the third quarter and your opponenet decided to tuck the ball against their side, bend over and tie their shoes? If you’re Luol Deng, you’d shuffle back and forth watching, politely waiting for him to finish. #bullsfail.
Have a great Monday, everyone. Make sure you tune in to catch Allen’s return tonight.
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What KG say”
“Let’s bully these n#ggas.”
I would have been pissed if Bron was dancing if I played for the Bulls. But, instead of whining like a little punk on the sideline, I would have flagranted fouled the piss out of The King and let the word witness my anger.
Noah chirping like a sucker, begging Lebron to “act right” was lame to me. Bron basically pissed on your front porch. You gonna ask him to clean it up, or you gonna punch him in the mouth?
I don’t think Bron is “scared” of the Lakers or the Celtics. But, I do know that the Lakers and the Celtics wouldn’t have been beggin Lebron to play fair either.
Do you mean “scared” like he’s worried about getting beat up? Or “scared” like he doesn’t want to give a good team any extra motivation.
I think it’s the latter more than the former.
Lebron ain’t worried about pissing off the Bulls. But, nobody in the league wants to deal with a pissed off Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant. Or a pissed off KG and Paul Pierce. That’s trouble for your whole team.
Myles
I see your point, but for some reason I can’t get too worked about it. It was kind of like Bron forgot the Bulls even existed they were playing so crappy. He wasn’t even concentrating, just chilling wait for the game to end or something. He wouldn’t do that to the Lakers or Celtics because he would be dialed in during the game, and he would know that they would have to face them later.
I remember Jordan yucking it up on the bench playing around when the Bulls were SMASHING the Jazz in the Finals that one year. Laughing and mocking somebody. It’s all part of the game. Bron’s dancing was a little overboard, but I don’t see it as bullying.
More like blatant disrespect than bullying. Like “Y’all lil n#ggas don’t even matter…”
Respectfully, I say “eff that.”
If dude saw Lebron dance and it “turned him off” then so be it. He compared Bron to Mark Jackson, Antoine Walker and Nick Van Exel. None of those players were superstars, but they weren’t bums. I could give a flying frick if most folks thought they were lame or showboats, or whatever.
I just gave an example of Jordan showing up the other team on the bench. Bron was dancing. I wouldn’t do it, but I don’t have a big problem with dude doing it. It just doesn’t move me.
Like I said, I get your point. If you only taunt people you know you can beat, that makes you a bully. I get it.
This situation is different. If Bron talked trash and got in the face of inferior players, but kept his mouth shut when he was dealing with the real players in the League, I would be giving him the side eye. But, the dancing thing is more about disrespect than bullying. He’s like “Y’all ain’t even competing, so eff y’all.”
I think that these teams need to make sure Bron understands there will be consequences for his actions. They can handle it like men on the floor. I don’t feel a need to chastise him, and his actions really don’t make me think any different about him. He’s the same cat he’s always been. Just like most cats in the League…
I’m just tired of people always holding up these old players in the league like paragons of virtue. Man, that gets old.
What does Lebron’s dancing tell you about his character? His character as a human being, or his character as a player?
Why is that even important?
Dude balls hard.
I get you.
I just don’t know about those old cats. Maybe the really old cats, like the Big O and them, but not the Birds and Magic and Isiahs of the world.
You think they respected every team. You think they didn’t try stuff against the wack squads. Have little games within the game to keep themselves motivated? I don’t know man. I just think that certain things weren’t focused on. Allowances were made back in the day, and what was created were these myths about the perfect ball players who never tried to show folks up. It’s all relative. Back in the Oscar Robertson’s day, it was considered showboating for a guard to dunk in the game on a fast break.
Bron dancing just shows me that he doesn’t respec teams who don’t make him respect them. If you can’t compete, with him, he won’t even deal with you like a man.
Part of me sees why that’s a problem. Another of me finds it hilarious. If these cats don’t want to play hard, then eff them. Beat them down, show them up and move on. Reminds me of how the University of Miami used to do cats back in the day. Or how that 1985 Chicago Bears team used to do. Or how Deion Sanders used to handle himself.
Some cats feel like “If you want me to respect you, make me respect you. It ain’t given.”
Since I’ve felt like that at times, I can understand it.
Some cats feel like “If you want me to respect you, make me respect you. It ain’t given.”
Since I’ve felt like that at times, I can understand it.” That’s pretty much the best thing that has been written in the comments today.
@ James the Ball: “If the cavs get up by 20 on the Celtics or lakers…I would love to see him dance!!”: (Bron/Cavs dancing vs. Celtics) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLXlq4QIEwc
Thanks for coming out.
Anyways… you are an idiot because you thought Denver was going to beat the Lakers last year. And still talked smack about Kobe when he put your team out … that is all.
but actually, last year i did not expect the Nuggets to win, i expected the Lakers to win that series and the Championship which they did. i was, however, rooting for the Nuggets to win because they happen to be my favorite team. Please tell me if that was wrong of me. I’m sure in your perfect world, everyone is down on there knees with u, collectively choking on Kobes sack
Kob’s off-balanced change of direction on a dime, sharp angled fadeaway banker after drawing contact? Now that was skill, worthy of praise. A shot I don’t know if any other player could do.
Yet, I still laugh.
Am I evil?
And that shot Kobe hit was the best shot of his career. Luck or not, the reason it went in was because it was squared up perfectly, so even though he overthrew it, it banked it because it was square on target. C’mon dudes!
Can you see the significance of a 60 footer to force overtime in the FINALS compared to a game winner in the first quarter of the regular season?
Put that same shot in the regular season, and it would still be heavily praised–although not as much as it actually is.
But with Kobe, he makes a difficult shot from 3 point land, with less “luck factor” than a full-court shot, and people are all “THAT MEANS NOTHING ANYONE COULD HAVE DONE THAT IT WAS PURE LUCK AJSDFLKAJSKF JKALS F*CK KOBE.”
You get my point?
Was it more significant? Yep.
Was it a greater shot? Not really.
I mean, Bird has a plethora of clutch highlights that people replay over and over again, and the majority of them are not in the playoffs (although many of them are). This will be a highlight that will be repeated on every documentary detailing how clutch Kobe is. Significant or not, it is truly a great indicator of how clutch Kobe Bryant is– lucky or not.
But we’re talking offense here guys. Not GOAT! He’s still working his way up on that list too, but, to me, that consists of a whole lot more than being the best scorer ever seen.
Just a thought …
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