Kobe was ready to play from the beginning. He was an Allstar his second season and he wasn't even a starter. He got hosed out of the 6th man award that year too. To Danny freakin Manning. He could have also been most improved. Shaq's BS and laziness cost him an 8 title career. No matter how good Shaq was, he left alot on the table.
Disagree. Harris did a good job with lesser talent when it was just Nick the quick, Eddie Jones and Club Ced, but when the big guns came in - Shaq and Kobe - he was in WAY over his head and he was clueless. I couldn’t stand Dull Harris as HC once we had all the right pieces. He was bad at working with big talent and big egos. Sorry. He set us up for nothing because he didn’t know how to coach those guys to win. I was happy to see him go.
no way without Phil LAKERS win 5 titles ... kobe and Shaq wanted Phil ... it’s almost like everything was set and Phil was just sipping martinis by the pool fresh of his 6 titles with the bulls then his phone rings .. I remember actually disliking Phil so much for beating us in the finals ... but I was like oh well if he actually can get us a title that would be great ... same with LBJ .. anybody that can get us a ring I like them ... I actually hated the Bulls
I can't tell you how hoarse I was Kobe's second and third seasons yelling at Harris to do two things he could not seem to figure out: Get Shaq the ball and put Kobe in the game. Shaq should have averaged 35ppg those seasons and Kobe absolutely was ready. Kobe would have been scoring 20pg from his second season forward if Harris had not chained him to the bench. Still gets me going to this day.
well yeah, he got them back into the playoffs because he did a good job developing guys like van exel, jones, and ceballos. but no way was he capable of leading a team to a title, and i don't think kobe comes into his own in 99-00 if harris or rambis is the coach. he needed phil to get him to that next level
Back in the late 90's teams were still playing 6'7" to 6'9" players at the sf spot. This in turn made it difficult to play Kobe and Jones next to each other on the wings. And in those first two seasons of Kobe's career, Eddie Jones was a better player. That's not to take anything away from Kobe whatsoever. He was an 18 year old kid and Jones was 26. And Jones was a legit all-star and two way player. It was one of the main reasons we traded Jones for Rice. We knew we couldn't play them next to each other. So one of them had to go.
Well said TIME. Same for me. Harris had me screaming at the TV more times than I care to remember. Bottom line, Harris was good for overachieving with lesser talent but was a terrible underachiever with championship talent. Again, I was thrilled to see him go. And stoked beyond belief when Phil came. For the record I did meet Harris once at a local event with the Lakers team (bowling if you can imagine). This was when Pig Miller was on the team before Kobe and Shaq. Let me say I was not impressed with Harris in person either. He did not inspire confidence at all.
Going to disagree on this one. I was an Eddie Jones fan, but Kobe was better the day he first stepped on the NBA court. This was the kid that destroyed Michael Cooper in that Jerry West workout and West said at the end of the workout, "He's better than anyone we have right now."
Kobe needed to win in 2004 and 2008 to sit side by side with MJ. No one would have been able to argue at that point. Losing those two finals put him in the second spot unfortunately.
Why did he have to win both of them to be considered side by side with MJ ? That would put him over MJ .
I'm still irked Phil didn't get there sooner and/or Rambis couldn't hold the glue together long enough for Rodman to be on that first championship squad. Dennis had zero respect for him and no one knew how to handle him. He still had it. In 7 of his 23 games he had 15+ rebounds.
just wasn't their time yet. they simply weren't good enough to beat the jazz or spurs in the late 90s everything fell into place once phil arrived
Suns up 50-36 at the half. I like watching these guys play. Booker and Ayton are stars and Monty have them playing the right way. Vogel was right about our matchup with the Suns feeling like the Western Conference finals. They are for real and with more experience they will be a problem for us moving forward.
