Kobe Bryant Says Smush Parker Was ‘the Worst’

True. Bron plays defense and passes the ball. He makes his teammates better so he definitely is no Kobe.

“He can’t do anything with the ball. Don’t give it to him.” –MJ yelling at Paxson for passing the ball to Will Perdue
.
“You ever hear of a guy, six-eleven maybe and two hundred sixty pounds, a guy big and fat like that and he can’t get but two rebounds, if that many, running all over the damn court and he gets two rebounds? Big guy like that and he gets one rebound. Can’t even stick his ass into people and get more than that…Big, fat, fat guy. One rebound in three games. Power forward. Maybe they should call it powerless forward.” – MJ talking about Stacey King.

.
“It’s a hell of a lot easier to make Earl Monroe look good than it is Brad Sellers.” In reference to Sellers lack of ability.

.
“If you pass the ball to Bill Cartwright, you’ll never get the ball from me.” – Jordan to Armstrong

.
“Why the hell don’t you ever set a pick like that in a game?” – MJ yelling at and hitting Perdue on the head.

.
“I don’t know about trading a 24 year-old guy for a 34 year-old guy.” – MJ on the Oak trade

.
.
.
Yeah, Jordan held his tongue when speaking about team mates…

I love it when facts get down voted. Makes me laugh every time..

He counters a lot of Kobe hate but he’s not an apologist. He will also often argue his point in the comments. He does a lot more than the writers and commenters who he criticizes/criticize him with strawman and ad hominem attacks.

what we fail to realize is smush was a legends on the streets and would put it to kobe if it came down to the blacktop..ijs

Kwame Brown, Smush Parker, Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, Trevor Ariza, Pau Gasol, Shaquille O’Neal (/vice versa), and Lamar Odom have all experienced the height of their careers (and the greatest Playoffs of their careers) with Kobe, on the Lakers. Undeniably.

The have all acknowledged his influence on their game. Hell, his training regime inspired Melo, LeBron, Paul, Chandler, and Williams to each re-evaluate their methods of practice.

He was the only player Tracy McGrady wrote in honour of as a competitor (Yao as a player & friend). Game recognizes game. Why don’t people get that?

Grown men and women who have played with or against Bryant aren’t obligated to speak about him with such respect. But they choose to when the topic arises. Bryant has earned his the same way that Mikan, West/Russell/Cousy/Chamberlain/McAdoo/Frazier, Dr. J, Magic/Bird, Worthy, Thomas, Rodman, Olajuwon, Jordan, Shaq, Wade, and Kareem (most similarly, historically, in transience of greatness achieved & means of achievement) earned theirs.

Half of your coments have to do with Kobe. Say something respectful every now and then and I’ll take your comments more seriously.

1. So his shooting percentage increased but it was because he now plays with Kobe but it’s not because of Kobe? And isn’t that the definition of making a guy better? Having his stats increase? And if his FG% increases, doesn’t that mean he’s more efficient?
2. Again, same thing. So he played his best season with Kobe but he isn’t better because of Kobe. What else do you want Kobe to do?
3. PER? LOL. Bullshit in, bullshit out.
4. Sasha was in the league because of Kobe. Same as Smush. Neither would have done a thing without him. That’s the definition of making a player better.
5. ^
6. “He set his single season career high in FG% in 2007″
7. Vlad was a shooter. His FG% went up with Kobe. The only thing he does, wants to do, or will ever do, he did best while playing with Kobe.

Your entire post is summed up as saying that FG% is a bullshit stat. Do you want him to turn them into better passers and better rebounders? Is he a coach too?

He would’ve said those things regardless of who he’d be seeing…he’s got a history of bashing teammates that he’d see the next day (i.e. the Bynum incident). Call him an arrogant jerk but don’t imply that a man is a coward because he says something about someone who just happens to not be present at the time. Also, you don’t know what question was asked to spur that soliloquy, so you shouldn’t assume that he just felt like ranting about Smush Parker.

SMH. Absolutely no good comes out of trashing your teammates 6 years after they were on your team. As much as I admire the man’s work ethic, he simply does not inspire or galvanizes his teammates in a way that maximizes their talent on the court. He has simply always been about getting his. Just look at what Nash has done in his last years with Phoenix, never complained, helped make career years for role players who wouldn’t see pt on any other team, and stayed positive with his team and org despite having the least talented roster in the entire nba. Night and day with how Kobe handles things.

.If you want to argue making a player better is making their FG% go up, then every player who is better then every other player, makes every lesser player better. As defenses aren’t stupid. They aren’t going to focus on the guy who isn’t any good.
.
.Kobe makes his teammates shooting %’s better by taking away defensive attention. That’s what your arguing. You aren’t arguing he makes them better players. Because, factually speaking, none of them were better basketball players with Bryant then they were without him. Gasol’s best season as a pro came without Kobe. Odom’s second and third best season as a pro came without Kobe. .Why is PER bullshit, but FG% isn’t? shooting a higher % means your a better player while producing at the same efficiency with even more production doesn’t? Well that sounds pretty fucking stupid now doesn’t it?.Sasha was in the league because of Kobe? Or he just went to Turkey because of the lockout and had an NBA clause that expired? And was forced to stay another year? I mean he wasn’t playing almost 30 minutes a game in New Jersey or anything. You know, because guys not good enough for the NBA don’t play when they get traded and all..Kwame Brown’s best season as a pro came in 2003-04 – against FG% is a product of defensive attention, not Kobe making people better. If Kobe made people better, they would be better. They would literally play better then they’ve ever played.
.
You know what? here, let’s just end this stupid ass point how i ended another.
.
Caron Butler. – whose production as a rookie mirrored what it was as the second/third (whatever you want to argue) player on a team next to Kobe. Then he left…..and his production spiked, even per minute….despite joining worse players. (Kobe Bryant & Lamar Odom > Gilbert Arenas & Antawn Jamison) Unless you want to argue that too?

Actually, it was a few months before he saw Bynum again. Definitely not the next day.

Kwame Brown and Pau Gasol had their best seasons Pre-Kobe.
.
Odom was great in 2010-11 next to Kobe granted. But his 2nd and 3rd best seasons, came again, Pre-Kobe.
.
Shaq’s best season was 1999-2000 – Kobe’s 4th worst season as a pro, and Shaq’s production and efficiency dipped every year with Kobe from there on out.
.
Trevor Ariza – His Best Individual Season was either in Houston after Kobe, or Orlando before Kobe. One or the Other. His best season no matter how you determine it (production – efficiency – both), came without Kobe.
.
Jordan Farmar – Best season was 2011-12 in New Jersey. Both in terms of efficiency and production.

Yes, half of my comments on here have to do with Kobe..the half that are on posts that are about Kobe lol.

There was no concept to miss. Only a wrong point to correct. Who else was going to start at center, 36 year old Vlade Divac?

I remember that video he took (either at the Rucker or in China), on that park bench.

Was the main conflict between them related to basketball or something that would be considered personal?

LOL their playoff performances? because they all played on great teams away from LA? — I’m not arguing Kobe isn’t a great great player that people benefit from playing next to, i’m saying he doesn’t make people better basketball players. Simply because, aside from a TEMPORARY spike in FG% there is not any evidence that he does.
.
“Butler was injured & he has maintained close ties with Los Angeles since his departure. Notice how he plays for the Clippers now” <— This point is astonishingly stupid. Kobe made him better, proof of such is him playing for the Clippers!! hahahahahaha – what? — The only good thing about LA is being in close proximity to Kobe Bryant now? Come on bruh, LOL i am dumbfounded.

That is the point.
There was no center WORTHY of starting.
Your stupid if you don’t understand this.
Kap said: “He had Mihn looking like a starting center”
Meaning that Mihm is NOT a starting center, but looked like it playing next to Kobe.
Appears as if you think he said there were no centers on the team. There were. Just not starting worthy one. Fairly simple concept…

Los Angeles was great in large part because of Kobe. Dude, these guys went to the East. Do you not understand that? The East was atrocious at the time.

It means that he was traded from Los Angeles to Washington as part of the Kwame Brown trade (which, in turn, led to Los Angeles’ trade for Pau Gasol) and that he took what he learned from Kobe and, along with his natural talent, applied it on the court. This led to his improvement. Butler and Bryant are great friends who acknowledge each other’s talents while Butler acknowledges Bryant’s tutelage.

He returned to Los Angeles, in my opinion, because of fate. There, Tough Juice can compete (four times during the regular season, potentially seven thereafter), student versus master. It worked out well and was likely influenced by their friendship.

You conveniently fail to remember that Butler’s lone season with the Lakers was riddled with injury. They were in the playoffs before Butler, Odom, and Bryant all got hurt & Tomjanovic had to leave. That season was simply an exercise in poor fortune.

Additionally, I wrote “close ties to Los Angeles”, the city, not Kobe, the person. Family, culture, and comfort are all valuable factors when considering a profession, @disqus_rOeXXBD2qs:disqus.

these guys beef like crazy

lol.
You truly do not understand. Not even close to understanding.
I’m so baffled i’m going to move on from this…
Good luck in life.

Oh thank you for such groundbreaking information Conor. I never knew that. — If what you said wasn’t related to Kobe then it wasn’t relevant. I don’t care about why people consider a profession, especially if the information is coming from some random person for some random reason.

smh. If you are arguing that Bryant made players better, making excuses for why they improved away from him is a contradiction. If he made them better he made them better. If he didn’t, he didn’t.
.
Did Kobe teach Butler things? Probably. Did he make him a better basketball player by being his teammate? Maybe, but there is no proof of that.
.
- And it seems to be you who doesn’t remember Butler’s lone season in LA – he played in 77 games, started 77 games, & played 36 minutes a game. — Unless you really want to argue that he was playing through an injury just for shits and giggles? seeing as how they weren’t a playoff team and finished 14 games under .500 – it’s pretty safe to say he was healthy.
- Also, Kobe played in 66 games while Odom played in 64, the team was hardly overrun by injuries.
- Also, Rudy Tomjanovich coached 43 games, the team went 24 and 19 in that time. When he stopped, the team continued their winning ways until around game 62 – where they finished the season 2-18 with Bryant and Butler being healthy throughout the whole stretch. — Lamar Odom went down for the year about 4 games into the losing streak…..so, i guess the argument that Lamar Odom made his teammates better may be there? Or even that Rudy T made his players better? But Kobe? Naw – no argument there at all. If you care about facts that is.

The proof is that he became an All-Star in Washington.

I’m done.