Kobe Bryant: ‘I’ll Be Scoring a Lot More When [Steve] Nash Gets Back’

I’m taking Wilt, Bird, Shaq, Robertson, Duncan, and LeBron over Olaujuwon and I wouldn’t think about it too much at all. If Kobe and Shaq were able to get along better, they could have run off 5 or 6 in a row with Shaq leading them. That’s not a shot at The Dream. That’s just how special Wilt, Bird, Shaq, Oscar, Duncan and LeBron were/are. Hakeem was one of the most skilled big men in the history of basketball. But you don’t dismiss the physical dominance of Wilt and Shaq or even LeBron’s physical dominance.

I know about Magic’s rookie performance. I also know that the Lakers were Kareem’s team and he had been the best player in those Finals prior to his injury. He had 33 and 14 in two games, 38 in one game, and 40 points and 15 rebounds that he got injured. It was a remarkable performance by Magic, and one of the best in NBA history, but let’s not act as if Kareem wouldn’t have sealed that championship/MVP had it not been for his injury.

How were Magic’s championships won that make them more significant than what Kobe won? Magic was more of a leader and team player than MJ as well – does that make him a better player?

Do you know what illogical means?

ok, why?

Kobe smells a 138 point game. #kobesystem

yeah i understand that. you are right, he will be able to something with the offense. i just think that if they are trying to compete for title, maybe they dont have all the pieces yet.

In 3 out of 5 of his championships, Kobe had great moments with Shaq, but those were Shaq’s teams much like Scottie having great moments with MJ, but those were MJ’s teams. In the last 2, they were his teams so on only 2 out 5, he’s been the most dominant guy on his team. Magic was mostly responsible for 4 out of 5 and the only one where he wasn’t the most dominant player for the entire Finals series was his rookie season. And he gave a performance in the game where his guy Kareem was out that was an all-time great performance. There’s no way anyone can think that Magic’s 5 and Kobe’s 5 are the same. For anyone to think that Kobe can match or move past Magic as the greatest Laker of all time is wild given that he’s now playing with Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash. He has more help than he’s ever had. More help than Jordan ever had. More help than Magic ever had.

its like the Moneyball scene, when the old guys dont want to except that there might be another way to understand the game. we all want to believe that we can automatically understand whats good and bad with a player purely based on all the basketball we have seen through our lives but it just isnt the case. we see a dunk and all the analysis goes out the window.

he had a better on court impact than Kobe. how can you say otherwise?

this is why BAMN and others seem like haters because they have to respond to comments like this. can you honestly say that Kobe is better than Oscar or Magic or even Shaq. where is your reasons?

ill never figure out how Kobe fans call this hating.

I figured your first reply was just a joke because Nash will come back more motivated than ever. He and D’Antoni have a great chance to compete again and now they have teamates in Howard, Gasol, Bryant, Artest, Jamison? These players are towards the end of their careers now but that gives them an edge come playoff time. I’ll take defense, poise, experience, and Kobe in the last 5 minutes over athleticism, youth, and potential. I see the Lakers as 3rd-4th best in the West despite their record but they will only continue to play stronger if healthy.

Isn’t that how you win a game? Whichever team scores the most points? I thought you were intelligent Caboose..

Yup, I was saying the same thing Drig’r. Lakeshow and Conor have been defending as well but Caboose and bamn just see things differently. It isn’t their fault I suppose..we’re all just people with our own opinions. At least we all share a pasiion for this game.

LOL quit making Caboose look bad. These guys are smart but they just don’t see the game the same way as we do. They call it a Laker fan thing so we might as well just call them stat nerds. I don’t even know why we waste our time on a guy who has Halo as his picture. Play more ball and less video games bro..

You can’t compare Dwight to Kareem in that way. A better way to do it would be to compare Kareem’s place in the league during that time period compared to Dwight’s place in today’s game. In today’s game, Dwight is the best big man in basketball. Which means that if Kobe wins, it would be his 4th championship playing with the best center in basketball. Steve Nash is one of the best, if not the best, passers in basketball and one of the best free throw shooters ever. Gasol, while he may not be the player he was when he first got to LA, is still one of the most skilled big men in basketball. Michael Cooper was a great defender, but he’s not a Hall of Famer. Which means that Magic played with only one Hall of Famer in Kareem. Kobe is now playing with one guy in Nash who will easily get in, one in Gasol who should get in being the best Spanish player to ever play, and one in Dwight who, if he wins 1 or 2 championships or gets a few more Defensive Player of the Year awards, will also be in. That’s Kobe playing with 3 Hall of Famers compared to Magic playing with 1.

I think you’re forgetting that James Worthy was a HOF player and a NBA Finals MVP with Magic on his team. Kobe is on a team with a past his prime Nash and Gasol (admittedly, Kobe is past his prime as well), and a Dwight in his prime. Yes, Nash and potentially Gasol are hall of famers, but to say that this team is any way comparable to the Laker teams of the 80s is laughable. This team in 2006? Sure. Not so much in 2012.

yeah but it’s more than that and again I’m no kobe stan but I also figured that as skilled and knowledgeable as he is, if he wasn’t such an egomaniac he could be crazy efficient. like It’d be kinda cool if after all these years of being a chucking jerk, at the end of his career he turns in a super efficient 50-40-90 season w/ great passing #’s.

I hear you… but I’d take a fully healthy nash,pau,and dwight over an ancient kareem and james worthy. I’m with BAMN on this one.

i think this might be the first time i agree with you. no offense, just differing opinions. well except that Jamison part.

@disqus_oxoGJMLagc:disqus, too:

You, and those who think like you, will never be swayed because you cannot muster enough debating nobility to look past your dislike of the man. If you honestly think that your opinions are worth more on the matter than those who have coached & played with Bryant: think again.

I could just as easily argue that Jordan & his Bulls were especially dominant during an expansion era that saw the old guard, the golden guard of the NBA replaced with a lesser roster of players… I could say that it’s precisely because LeBron James has an inconsistent jump shot or that Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t score from outside of five feet & both benefited from rulebook exceptions (travels & charges, respectively) while being inferior defensively – in every facet of the discipline – to Kobe that makes the latter the best of the three… That Jordan himself said that Kobe is his only logical comparison, man-to-man… I could say all these things, support it with the opinions of professional players and coaches, video recordings, and the like, but I know that you cannot be swayed. No matter what people other than John Hollinger, Henry Abbott, and that little voice at the back of your head that makes you dislike the man say to you… no, prove to you – with logic, with evidence – you will never change your minds because you are incapable of seeing reason and proof which is not your own.

Ultimately, you’ll tell me that a man who forced his franchise to fire its coach is a more commendable understudy than another who allowed his to leave by his own accord. You’ll tell me that a man who once punched his point guard in the face was a greater teammate because he called him to apologize about assaulting him later that day. You will give me numbers written by like-minded zealots that have already been discredited by a series of comments by @disqus_j65FuvcSML:disqus. You will do all of this, and I will laugh and continue to disprove your eternal, boring theories with logic at its most basic because, in the end, it’s hilarious to get you to repeat the same thing for the 5000th time with the same, unmolested certainty of the 1st. In the end, I’m right.

Have a good day.

GOAT list is subjective.

All time scorers : Kobe 6th? WTF?? Dude’s the best scorer in L history. He has a more complete game than Jordan esp. from range and just as efficient if allowed to play his game ( like he’s doing now ).

How the hell have 4 guys come between Kobe and Jordan?? Their TS% and eFG% are virtually identical.

…What evidence has anyone given besides Kobe scores a lot and he has 5 championships? lol. People can’t even talk truthfully about how he’s won them or why he’s won them without his fanatics losing their minds. @LakeShow has never said anything about Kobe that proves anything besides cheering for others like you. Rarely has he said anything original. No one has given any evidence here on Kobe being equal to Jordan in anything or being a top 5 player of all-time. Nothing. All anyone has said is that he has 5 rings and he is a great scorer. That’s it. If you think that those arguments have somehow proven what they were meant to prove, you’re out of your mind. Plenty of people have presented evidence showing that Jordan was superior, LeBron is superior, D-Wade has been superior for the past few seasons, Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird were definitely superior, and all Kobe fans have said amounts to “No, you’re wrong. I like Kobe. He has 5 rings. He has scored a lot of points. You’re a hater.” A 4 year old could come up with arguments like that. In what world is any of that proof for anything at all? That is precisely why his fans on here are a complete joke. I hope he has better fans than you all because you’re all pitiful when you try to stick up for him here.

ok so, as you know, or at least as i’ve said on here numerous times, PER is a basic stat that gives a great idea of a player’s OFFENSIVE production. — it does factor in some defensive statistics, but really, the offense is what matters. And the stat totally over values defensive rebounds. I mean completely and utterly. Which is why you always see Kevin Love at the top of the PER rankings, despite him being a horrid defender, and routinely ineffective in terms of changing his teams fortunes.

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with that being said, Jefferson has been a starter since his 2nd year, his career averages of 16 points and 9 rebounds on 50% shooting are just flat out valued more than Nash’s 14 points and 8.6 assists.

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But if you look at their stats since each became a starter Nash’s PER is 21.2 while Jefferson’s is 21.1

Your brain thinks up some funny sh*t. I’ll take ppg over almost any other stat because that is how you win a basketball game, scoring more points than the opponent. Everything is an argument for you but I’m not trying to debate. I’m telling you how it is young blood.