Kobe Bryant Enjoying Proving Critics Wrong

Well I don’t really read the comments from people that are just saying things. Hard to tell if that’s just anger, hate, sarcasm, or honesty. Like someone said LeBron wasn’t worth Evan Turner earlier, I didn’t take that seriously. I don’t think anyone giving a genuine basketball opinion thought Kobe was done. But if your Kobe love runs so deep that you think every negative thing that has been said about him is an honest opinion, how have you kept your sanity? Y’all Laker fans are more emotional then teenage girls. Y’all hate Gasol, even though he’s clearly your second best player. Y’all used to hate Bynum, then he had 6 good games and now he’s the bees knees. please, the playoffs are going to roll around and Kobe will be breaking down, Bynum will prolly be hurt, and Gasol will have to deal with questions about the consistency of his character. Then y’all will lose in the second round or third round and the cycle starts again.

Maniac, ma dood. Honestly love this Laker team. They just have so much more to prove and I like ‘old’ Kobe. Pau is gunna be Pau. I just ask that for every egg he lays he gives us a gem also. Troy the drunk and McBob are nice additions. Troy is hittin them shots and grabbing the boards and even dishing every once in a while. McBob is that scrappy player every good team needs to come off the bench. Blake finally realized he is a decent PG. Matt Barnes doing exactly what I thought he would do last year. Bynum is who we told everyone he is. Just good to have NBA back in general though.

Lol so Kobe isn’t 2nd in the league in scoring? Lebron isn’t only ahead by 0.4 points? This has been his only big scoring night? Ok. I’m done here.

its 11 games. how f*ckin childish to think the 11 games so far this season tells you anything. In that case, Dallas needs to trade Dirk quick. That guy is the worst best player in the league. Oh and the 76ers are going to win the championship. what’a joke

nbk, Your seemingly having a “teenage girl tantrum” right now. Your tossing things out there like “we hate Gasol” “hate Bynum.” That’s all fine and good, but I have never said anything like that?? Love both those dudes for all they have done for my favorite organization. You might be thinking about that fact that Gasol was worse than Carlos Boozer in the West semi’s and so i’ll call him out when he stinks like that. Doesn’t mean I hate him. I don’t hate anyone on my team. (except Sasha V. and Smush Parker) I don’t like the term hater, but your edging towards that right now. I know you hate Kobe and the Lakers, but there’s no reason to hate on them right now. They had a fun game against an easy team. Let us enjoy basketball instead of telling us why our team is so terrible etc.

So, we’re going to ignore that three games ago the entire NBA was talking about how Kobe was shooting so much his arm was going to fall off and Bynum was being neglected?
He drops 48 on 50+ percent shooting, and we’re ignoring the fact that he’d taken 28 effing shots by the end of the third quarter? 28 shots!
He is easily on place to DESTROY his shot totals from the year when he averaged 35 a game. Just destroy them. And nobody thinks this might not be the most sound policy? Or rather, if you think that you’re just hating on his greatness?
Nah, Kobe is Kobe. He’s great. But he is shooting a LOT. An amazing amount in fact.

Yeah Webber is kinda crazy on that one. haha. Dwight is just too athletic and not injury prone to not be the top Center. After last nights game its easy to say, glad we Shannon Brown didn’t re-sign.

JTaylor – In regards to Kobe’s clutchness – he came in #1 on 82games.com’s Sortable NBA Player “Clutch” Stats, with “Clutch” is defined as 4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points.

The way laker fans in general talk about PGasol is the same way they still to this day talk about Shaq. It seems like they are willing to say anything to downplay the impact his teammates have on recent laker’s success in order to inflate Kobe’s greatness. It’s quite ingenious of them.

@nbk – Kobe is averaging 6 apg..I’m not sure if you actually watch Laker games, but he kicks it out a lot. The only game this year where he played like absolute crap and didn’t pass was against the Nuggets. I even wrote on here after that it was absolutely horrendous of him…but he’s toned it down since then.

Allen said it best. “Kobe is Kobe.” That’s it. That’s what happens. Some days you are going to love it, and other days you are going to want to throw a $4 million ring at his face. At the end of the day, he is a top 10 player in the history of the L and nothing you do, I do or he does is going to change that now.

Who has downplayed Gasol’s importance? No one. But to claim he’s the most important player on the team is asinine.

he is averaging (.3) (.3) (.3) more assists per 36 minutes then last season. while shooting 2 more shots. His passing is the same as Monta Ellis’ (actually he’s a little more selfish), it’s a last resort. Obviously this argument is never going to change anything with you, you have had big huge kobe ball sack goggles on your face since the first time you started commenting, his raw stats reflect that he is being less selfish then ever, so y’all use that as your evidence, when really, this is the most selfish he has played in the last 6 years, if not his whole entire career.

OTB Kobe came out 1st in Points Per 48 Minutes during Clutch Situations. He also comes out 1st in Field Goals Attempted Per 48 Minutes in Clutch Situations. There is a direct correlation.

Haters gonna hate, Kobe gonna ball. Same as always. Let the haters nitpick and dig up stats to prove their petty claims. You guys can pull up all the stats you’d like, but at the end of the day Kobe is a winner. Why that seems to bother so many people, who knows. It’s funny reading all the haters comments… Hate only proves he’s great.

The problem is, most of the guys who dislike Kobe just read the work of guys like Hollinger, Abbott, or Dwyer and worship what they say as being objective truths, when they are just as biased as any of the extreme “Kobe lovers” y’all love to pick on.

I think Kobe shoots a lot.
Some of you agree, some disagree. Many of you think him shooting a lot is justified and necessary.
Somebody mentioned that Kobe is second to LeBron in scoring. Yet, that person neglected to mention that LeBron is shooting 59 percent from the field and taking 19 shots a game, while Kobe is shooting 46 percent from the field and taking nearly 24 shots. And taking 4 threes a game and making 18 percent of them.
I just hate having discussions about Kobe or LeBron because everybody is so busy discussing their legacies you can’t have an honest discussion about the choices they are making in the moment.
Bottom line, to me, Kobe is no longer in the triangle and is playing like he has a point to prove about what he can still do on offense. He’s shooting almost as many shots as Gasol and Bynum take combined.
There may be downsides to passing to passing into the post, but ultimately it makes the game easier for everyone, and allows other players to develop their rhythm.
(Also, to correct myself, Kobe is not going to shatter his shot total mark from the 35 ppg year, that was wrong. But he’s also averaging 4 turnovers a game, his second highest total in his career.)

OTB, I’m with you on that point about Abbot (although he admitted some of the guys that qualify should be ignored). Kobe is clearly the guy on LA who I want making the clutch decisions. But I don’t however think he is some otherworldly clutch performer. Somebody has too take and make (or miss) clutch shots. Kobe takes more then anyone in those situations, he better be at the top of the league when it comes to producing in them as well. If he wasn’t then there would be a huge problem.

Kobe is having a bounce back season for the ages, plus he’s going through a divorce. Trust me when he’s on the basketball court he’s Strictly Business. Focused.

Nice comment there Allen. You actually seem objective… BTW, No one disagrees that Kobe shoots allot. It’s a fact that Kobe shoots allot. For some of us it’s part of why we like him. For others it’s why they hate him. Either way, it’s a fact, Kobe shoots allot. I have no problem with Kobe’s shooting right now. He will slow his roll and make sure Bynum and Gasol get there’s. He is just feeling young right now and is trying to take advantage of having hundreds of days of rest and surgery that worked.

a few hours and 100 comments later Kobe still dropped 48 last night, shooting 18 of 31. Selfish? Idk if i would say that much. Trying to win? yes! Heres a question…if you were on a team, and knew that your teammates were struggling to get a groove (for that night), would you keep giving them the ball or take more shots yourself?
I think no matter what a great star does, its always gonna be frowned upon, win or lose. People have been ready to write off KB is the best in the L and pass it to LBJ or KD. IMO this is Kobe’s way of saying im not done just yet. Granted it was on the SUNS who are not known for D, but still 48 is 48 on more than 50% shooting is outstanding. If that would have been Gasol, would the discussion be he is selfish or holy @#%&, pau just dropped 50?? Kobe was, is and always will be a scorer first. doesnt make him self, because if he wasnt, idk if he would have 5 rings.

i hope kobe does tear it up for the remainder of the year, but let’s not kid ourselves. it’s still very early in the season.

Allen. I agree. I would be stupid to not see that Kobe can be selfish and is not a “get the team going first and foremost” kind of guy. He isn’t. He is a shooter and a scorer. I would like to see him be more of a team player with out a doubt, but when he does his thing and you win you gotta give him that also. If they lost last night this would all be about how selfish Kobe is. Rightfully so. BUT they won. He had about 5 or 6 shots last night that I would say were ill advised. But honestly 6 shots out of 30 are bad ones isn’t so bad for a volume shooter. I do hope (and trust) that in the future KB will be getting his big fellas involved more. Just don’t expect Gasol or Bynum to get more than 20 shots in a game to often. They just won’t. You can strictly pack the lane so much. Gasol and Bynum both are still inconsistent offensively and defensively. You can’t say that about Bean. You can say his shot in inconsistent, but never his aggressiveness, mentality, and approach to the game.

I don’t at all hate Kobe. I even have a kobe t-shirt on right now. And clearly you haven’t noticed, but Taylor and I (and the majority of people tht took part in this comment section) have an opinion about almost everything posted. Not just stuff about your man crush.

I’m what you would call a Kobe admirer. I even have a black mamba in my pants right now, well…I wouldn’t call it black more like lightskinned mamba.