That article was hilarious
, but really, should it surprise anyone? Who would ever want to play with that guy? As far as I'm concerned, Kobe can play on horrible teams for the rest of his days, because, in terms of karma, he deserves it. Pierce had to wait a decade to even get to the finals, and KG and Ray had to wait even longer, while Kobe has continually run guys like Shaq out of town and then has had the gall to complain that he needs, "help."
Give me a break. My guess is that the final two years (right?) of his deal will likely play out like Jordan's with the Wizards, where MJ was trading guys based on how often they passed him the ball. Oh yeah, that's greatness at work (sarcasm). In both cases, these guys can only play in a certain system for a certain coach with certain players, because, at the most basic level, they just don't play well with others
. The Lakers have always gotten their way, and I'm glad to see them struggling. The only downside is that their poor record will inevitably result in a high draft pick because they're the Lakers, and the NBA believes that it's better for the league when the Lakers and Knicks are doing well.
There were some interesting quotes in that piece, though -
The story of the Lakers' losing Howard has been told as one of the big man chafing under Mike D'Antoni's offense. One Lakers source, though, says Howard's issue wasn't really with the offensive scheme but that "he saw one particular player play outside that scheme with carte blanche, with no accountability. These people who say Dwight couldn't handle the pressure of Los Angeles ... that's nonsense. LA was everything Dwight wanted. To be celebrated. To be among stars. To be among women of this caliber. To live, basically, in one big reality TV show. This was a perfect setting for him."
How misogynist is that? I have absolutely no respect for Howard now. None. Especially when you add to that the fact that he and Harden called themselves, "cornerstones," or whatever, while simultaneously chastising their teammates a few months ago. He's a fraud. I wonder how much McHale and Hakeem want to deck him lol
. Has he even slightly improved his game, because I don't see anything different.
the league has changed around Bryant, and swiftly. The movement of people and the ball, 3s, rim attacks, coordinated defensive effort and generating open shots for teammates are what's winning now. Subsuming ego and glorifying teammates is a winning NBA strategy, and it's what D'Antoni and Nash attempted to bring to the Lakers.
After his first year with Bryant, Nash couldn't hide his disappointment when talking to Grantland's Zach Lowe: "I think it'd be nice to find a middle ground where he does his thing but the ball still can move for great parts of the game. ... But I knew it wasn't going to be the same. When you play with Kobe Bryant, the ball is gonna be with him most of the time."
Or it will be, at least, until he shoots it. Bryant has fired away for nearly two decades. He's fourth on the NBA's all-time scoring list, trailing only Kareem, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan. He's also just a few weeks' play from setting an all-time league record for misses. "The problem is, he's just not as good as he thinks he is," says one source in the Lakers' inner circle. "He's just not as efficient as he thinks he is. If he had the other intangibles, like LeBron, or if he was any kind of different person, it would have been easy for us to attract talent, retain it and win."
Who would have ever thought, even just a few years ago, that an espn writer would say that Lebron has the intangibles that Kobe lacks lol. I'm looking at you, Skip Baseless