Kobe’s Teammates at Fault for Him Over-Shooting?
Everyone realizes that KB24 fired too many times (and inefficiently to boot) during the Lakers‘ third-consecutive loss last night (and he’s been gunning quite a bit of late), but Phil Jackson places the blame on the supporting cast for constantly looking his way instead of smartly feeding the post. From the OC Register: “Bryant made plenty of poor decisions Tuesday night, including not finding Gasol more often. But as Jackson tried to explain to reporters after the game, the onus is and always has been on Bryant’s teammates to do something productive to prevent him from lighting his own fire for energy to ride to victory. ‘Kobe’s going to come out there and attack if no one else is aggressive enough,’ Jackson said. ‘I always say, ‘If you feed him the ball, then you’re responsible for a lot of what’s going on.’ The simplest way for the Lakers to shake that bad habit? Reprogram themselves as a team that will go to Gasol every single night, appreciating how good he is at creating easy shots for himself and his teammates. Yet this remains a team – even with Gasol’s ridiculous efficiency early this season – ever-ready to fill supporting roles for Bryant, not Gasol. ‘That’s a problem for us,’ Jackson said.”
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