Pau Gasol Feels He Has Nothing to Prove After Playoff Meltdown

Why do laker fans hate the bigs that had a hand in 16 chips? They hate Kareem, they hate Shaq and now they hate Gasol, they do know that without those guys, the franchise wouldn’t be known as the greatest franchise in NBA history (along with Bos).

ITS OBVIOUS TAYLOR, AT LEAST WITH SHAQ AND GASOL, DOWNPLAYING THOSE GUYS, ESPECIALLY SHAQ, PROPS UP KOBE. AT LEAST, IN THEIR EYES. ITS ALL A PART OF THEIR DISTORTED VIEW. ACCORDING TO THEM, SHAQ WAS JUST A FAT GOOF OFF WHO DIDNT HAVE NEARLY AS MUCH TO DO WITH A THREEPEAT AS KOBE.

The Lakers organization hasn’t shown Kareem the proper respect for what he contributed. Kareem should have had a statue before Magic. Sure, Magic was more of a cultural icon than Kareem, but Kareem won the same amount of rings as Magic and piled up more career accolades. That should matter more. To all fans.

weak statment he gotts2b pissed…u got swept and dallas never put the broom down until they got a title….kb24 gonna get at him for havn no fire…hahahaaa!!!

“There’s a legit argument to be made that Kareem isn’t just the greatest Laker, but the greatest player in NBA history”

I’ve hated the Lakers, because they’ve always stood in the way of my Blazers.I’ve hated them because they are usually so damn good.

I’ve been a fan of KAJ since he was Lew Alcindor. The greatest scoring center of all time. He belongs in any argument as the Greatest of All Time. IMHO

As a Lakers fan, I can say that Kareem is a top 10 all time player. He was dominant, innovative, and pivotal in Lakers success for several championships. That said, he was disliked because of his attitude. He was a selfish person, a know-it-all, and at times a bad teammate. This is why the Lakers were able to acquire him in the first place. No one just trades away Kareem because they think they are getting a better player, it’s because the bucks knew that he was holding the rest of their team back. Pat Riley has commented plenty on Kareem and Magic and it is clear why everyone loved Magic. First off, Magic is clearly the best Laker of all time without dispute. He was great on the court, versatile and also charismatic off the court. That’s a terrible reason to not give a guy a well deserved statue, but sometimes that’s the way it is. I don’t know any Laker fans that dislike our bigs. I’ve heard things about Shaq, but that is because many of us saw 4-5 championships go down the drain when he left. Right now we have two really good centers. Yes, I called Gasol a center. In reality the Lakers still have amazing depth and options with our bigs. Lamar and Pau are great at the 4, but Gasol can also slide to the 5 and allow us to spread the floor without Bynums big body clogging the lane. Likewise, if we want to go big we can have LO at 3. Pau is underrated as a center because everyone concentrates on his deficiencies as he gets bodied up by guys who have 50lbs on him. He’s not going to be a dominate center but he can provide options in our rotation and by reducing Bynums minutes to around 20 a game, and limiting his wear and tear and chance for injury. My hat goes off to that Dallas team because I knew they had a championship caliber squad but I, like most people (including NBA teams), just slept on them.

Marc… what does his attitude or anything he does outside of play basketball matter to you or anyone matter… do you think it would be cool if people got to see you at work and said yeah hes a decent (enter occupation here) but his jokes arent funny or he is a square… whatever the case may be it doesnt pertain to your work at all… is that cool…?!?!?

Of course its true. How many rings would Mike have with out Scottie?
Magic without Kareem/Worthy? Larry without Mchale/Dennis Johnson/Chief?

I wasn’t saying it like Kobe was the top dog, I was saying it like Kobe wouldn’t have rings without those guys like Manu Ginobili wouldn’t have a ring without Tim Duncan.

But Kobe is the top dog in comparison to Gasol. Gasol is Kobe’s Ginobilli. Or at least he has been the past 3 years.

Gasol and Bynum are what made the Lakers title contenders. Not Kobe – Bynum goes down the Lakers lose. Pau isn’t on the team the Lakers can’t make it out of the first round. (I’m hella bored at work, I started this on purpose)

Shaq would have ringSS without Kobe. Shaq would have won rings if he never left Orlando. Shaq shouldn’t be part of this conversation, he’s the best player (“most effective/dominant”) since Michael Jordan retired.

Pau/Bynum without Kobe is still one of the more dominating big men tandems in the league is it not? Odom/Pau/Bynum could make up the scoring deficit on a Kobe-less Lakers team.

Whoa, we’re going with “meltdown” for his performance. When I think meltdown I think Bobby Knight tossing chairs, not Pau or KG having relatively poor performances against quality competition…

No they probably couldn’t make up the scoring. But without them there is no way in hell Kobe could make up for what they do defensively, and on the boards. The only way I see a team winning a title with their best player shooting 45% from the field and not being dominant in anything else is if they have big-men who control the boards and protect the basket (which Kobe has had in every season he has ever won a title, compared to guys like Michael Jordan who won titles without elite bigmen you can see that efficiency is the difference)

-For instance

*Dominique Wilkins (never played with an Elite Big) Zero Championships, 7 All-NBA Selections – career numbers 24.6PPG 6.7RPG 2.5APG 1.3SPG .6BPG.
*Kobe Bryant (Most his career with an Elite Big) 5 Championships, 13 All-NBA Selections, 9 All Defense Selections – Career Numbers 25.3PPG 5.3APG 4.1RPG 1.5SPG .5BPG

(Now I’m not saying Dominique is as good as Kobe or even in the same section of all-time greats, but Kobe’s “greatness” is over exaggeratted to the fullest.)

and Bynum played in both championship runs, and didn’t play in the finals the year they lost. you can put this together, an idiot can put this together.

Define, “Played” lol. Bynum may have been there, but 10 mins from a hobbling center isn’t why they won. Common a nin-com-poop could put that together

Pau has been the same player since he entered the league. infact his best individual seasons were in Memphis. And Shaq made the finals before Kobe, and won a title after Kobe. IDK WTH your talking about “the reason Pau and Shaq were able to be so effective” – he didn’t help or change anything.

@Lakeshow – if teams win because, “they win because he’s on the team,” then why weren’t those few years under Rudy T. a success? If he’s so deadly creating space for bigs with the pick-n-roll, why is it that in the 06-07 season Kwame Brown/Bynum only averaged less than 6 field goal attempts per game? Isn’t a truly “great” player one who is able to make those around him better? I know Kwame is a laughingstock with no offensive repertoire to speak of, but surely any big playing alongside Kobe would be wide open enough for easy buckets.

@nbk – I guess I should have defined success as “Championship seasons.” But yeah, my bad for not doing my research.

Conversation is over you. You just said Kobe didn’t help or change anything. A blatently stupid statement not meritable with a response. BTW Your favorite all important Laker Bynum’s stats in his pivitol role in the championship runs: PPG:7 RBPG:5 BLKSPG:1…… dam. For a Stats dude i’m surprise how much you love those digits. Should Bynum have been the Finals MVP iyo?

Use a fact to support your smug arrogance, how has Kobe improved anything in Shaq and Gasol’s career other then being their teammate when they won rings? – and Bynum protects the rim and helps with Pau to force teams into shooting an increased amount of shots away from The rim. But he was not more important then Kobe as an individual I never said that. And Pau should have been finals mvp against boston.

Alekesam, your a smart guy. Or at least just don’t have hater glasses on. Theres a point of success a person can reach when people start talking about how great they are on the regular, some folks like to start diminish their achievments. They go from not getting enough credit(“Shaq is the only reason Kobe’s concidered great type people”) to getting a little to much credit(“Kobe’s better than Jordan” type people)to people taking away all credit that he earned and deserves.(“Kobe sucks and brings his teammates down and they all won despite all his negatives” type people.) nbk, admit you were wrong about Kobe having zero effect on the ability of Pau Gasol and Shaq being able to win Championships and we can continue a discussion. I for one think of a finals MVP as the one guy who was consistent through all the series and played the most important role in all the playoffs so if you are talking about The NBA Finals most important player, I would understand Pau Gasol getting the nod. But IMO Finals MVP is Playoffs MVP. If i’m wrong i’m wrong, but I think it’s silly to give an award for 1 series when you wouldn’t be in that series without the other ones.

Pau didn’t even “play” in the playoffs. He was on the court, but, he did NOT give any effort or give it 100%. Did anyone watch him? It doesn’t seem like anyone plays basketball with all these off-subject comments. He was very slow and did not look interested at all. He hurt the Lakers this past playoffs. He didn’t play any defense on Dirk and let everyone out-hustle and out-rebound against him. He didn’t want to defend the basket either. He didn’t contest lay-ups or short-range jumpers near the paint. He was a big disgrace to the Lakers organization. You could easily tell that his body language For him to say that they were better teams out there is just a cop out to give your very best.

shaolin23: kinda hard for me to take you serious when your tellin me Kobe shoulda made Kwame Brown, Smush Parker, Luke Walton, and Brian Cook better. They had their best seasons with Kobe for the most part. And they were all garbage. Absolute garbage. Like, makes Mo Gotti, Andy V, Big Z, and antawn Jamison look like an Super-All Star Squad typa garbage. nbk, correct they are, but Kobe scored 200 points in the Finals. 70 more than any other player. He also had 15 steals by far the most of any player. He had the 2nd most rebounds out of everyone in the series. Thats right he had more than NBA, FHOF, one of its best rebounders Kevin Garnett. He had 17 more rebounds than KG in the series. He did all that in less mins than Pau. I know he had some bad stats to, but i’m presenting a side that maybe you don’t see. Was his FG% bad? Yes, Awful. Was everything else Elite? Yes. So basically you are holding FG% against Kobe and ignoring all the other positives.