Kobe Bryant Discussion: Mamba Out!

That was awesome, thanks for posting. Lots of good stuff, and great to see them on such good terms. The behind the scenes stuff like Kobe's bone spur in his ankle in the Boston series is new info. Him sizing up Reggie Miller in the offseason.... lots of nuggets including info on their fight. I'm glad they did that.

 

I wish Kobe had a great cast around him during his peak powers. I can only imagine the damage he'd have done in the playoffs on the biggest stage when he was flat out unstoppable.

Some of his best years were wasted on pathetic teams.

 

lol at the part where shaq joked about joining the GSW so he can tie with Kobe for 5 rings.

 

The Players Only interview with Kobe & Shaq was freakin great!. LMAO @ Kobe, Shaq and the rest of the Lakers mooning at the Kings fans while riding off on the bus after they beat the Kings in game 7 in the 2002 NBA Playoffs.

 

I will always love these two. Oh, what could have been, 6-7 titles easily. I love how Kobe can grab 5 trophies, Shaq 4... and there are still planty left. Take that NBA

 

haha poor choice of wording on my part. def not funny in the ha ha sense but moreso in the interesting/thought provoking type of way.

I too feel shaq cheated himself and the fans and ill never forgive him for that. still love the guy tho

 

also just watched the full interview...one of the best ones ive seen. so genuine and a lot of great info. makes me sad as well but truly blessed to grow up watching those 2

 

I wonder how many players/people wonder what they could accomplish in life or their career if they were obsessed like Kobe. The reality is that it’s not a very fair comparison. So few have that single minded focus and live such an unbalanced existence. It’s not even healthy.

I would fail that test miserably if I just applied the “Kobe standard” to myself. I might fail the Shaq standard tbh.

But in spite of Shaq not squeezing every bit of talent out the way Kobe did, he’s still top 6? All time scoring. He’s the MDE, the Big Aristotle, and much more. (Also the Big Sensitive)

He has nothing to be ashamed of, but we don’t have to sugar coat anyone’s shortcomings. Kobe will be one of the few that we will ever be able to say squeezed the most out of his ability based on effort.

However, if he wasn’t so stinking stubborn, we all know he was capable of shooting 50% for a season. (Something he never did) He could have been better in other ways besides sheer effort.

Loved the interview and both being real and coming clean about some stuff. Kobe chose to be the bigger man, and Shaq finally realized it and admitted he made mistakes in how he treated Kobe.

And Kobe appreciated it, but also didn’t give enough of a rats a** about it that it didn’t affect him like it affected Shaq. Some good life lesson stuff there.

 

The thing about basketball and team sports is that you need to have some luck. Accomplishments don't happen by yourself, as evidenced by years between our rings in the 2000's. If Kobe went into the league without Shaq, it would've been a very different story. Coaching is also a big aspect as well, Phil was the mastermind of handling big egos and getting players to work together well.

I hope that the pieces all align for us soon like 20 years ago. It's been too long since we have been great.

 

Jalen Rose

 

Wow.

 

With Kobe's money and connections it's easy to get a son. Look at Federer. First twin girls, then twin boys...

 

Ummm why Matt Barnes?

 

I completely missed that part.