Kobe Bryant Discussion: Mamba Out!

Honestly I only recognize Blake and Sacre.

 

Man watching this now I can see it's the exact same thing D'Antoni is doing in Houston. Dude really is a one trick pony. Instead of Howard and Kobe, it's Capela and Harden. Same 4 out spacing. In fact he was so desperate for that in LA, he played guys like Meeks, Blake, and MWP, letting them jack up 3s like they're Curry. In fact MWP had the 3rd most FGA and most 3pt FGA on the team... LOL.

No wonder that team didn't work.

 

Bynum. #12

P.S. Yes... I know. I just pretend Dwight (or whoever) never happened and Drew just changed number.

 

One of the most underrated aspects about Kobe is that pretty much all of his key supporting cast other than Pau Gasol barely stayed in the NBA after playing with him. No other superstar can really claim that

1. Lamar Odom - out of the NBA after a failed Mavs and Clippers stint
2. Luke Walton - never really played again
3. MWP - pretty much out of the league
4. Fisher - had a small stint with OKC but washed out soon after
5. Farmar - only came back for a "feel good" season when we were tanking
6. Vujacic - Phil gave him a shot in NY but didn't last
7. Josh Powell - lol
8. DJ Mbenga - lol
9. Adam Morrison - even more lol
10. Andrew Bynum - technically injuries so I'll put him last

The exceptions were Ariza, Gasol, and Shannon Brown who even got minutes on another team.

When we talk about carrying bad players - Kobe pretty much kept these guys in the NBA by himself. He often got them another deal with another NBA team, where they washed out of the league shortly after.

 

I don’t think that’s fair to be honest. I loved a lot of those role players. LO, Bynum Metta, Fisher, Sasha, Farmar. All came up huge for us at various points in big moments and were key parts to our titles. The fact that their careers kinda fizzled out after their stint doesn’t really mean that they’re trash players that Kobe had to carry.

 

Caron Butler tho
Jodie Meeks
Kent Bazemore
Marshon Brooks

Looking back at the rosters kinda makes me pissed compared to teams now. Kobe spent half his career with scrub teammates

There are others, but I’m not counting post injury Kobe.

 

Under his criteria it’s fair, but I agree that LO, Sasha, Metta, Farmer contributed to our success. But if you go through Kobe’s prime, he carried some absolute scrubs who went out of the league never to return. Just look at our point guards before D Fish returned or Brian Cook.

 

I think Kobe helped them be their best though - at least that’s what I took from it.

 

Precisely my opinion. The notion that Kobe was selfish and didn't make his teammates better is total BS. How many players can you come up with that underachieved next to Kobe? Now compare that to some of the current stars, who are known for making teammates better (strictly based on asst numbers) and how their teammates are doing.

 

Kobe breaking down a Harden on Detail.

I’m curious, but not enough to spend money. Maybe Kobe secretly wants to help others shut him down.

 

Damn...I miss this guy

 

Great story but there's a missing component. Kobe learned some Slovenian phrases while Vujacic was playing. No doubt in my mind he probably learned to curse him out during those later years... lol. Slovenian and Bosnian are fairly similar languages as I understand it (might be wrong here), and that's probably what Nurkic heard.

 

I think he spoke to him in Italian

 

lol I think I saw it on Instagram talking about how Kobe adapts or works on his weaknesses and a post I seen said that one game a flash from a camera caused him to miss a free throw, so during the offseason he trained his eyes by looking at the sun for hours a day to train his eyes

 

Lol yes remember this from Kobe Doin' Work. I also remember reading something like this article about him knowing how to swear in all sorts of languages:

Washington Post