Kobe Bryant Discussion: Mamba Out!

Look I'm pretty sure there's not a single person on this site that doesn't adore what Kobe has done for this franchise. He's a legend, he's a Hall of Famer, he's maybe the greatest Laker ever. Fine.

That doesn't excuse his poor play and when someone plays poorly, we should feel free to call them out regardless of who it is. Was there some over the top negativity towards Kobe? Yeah probably, but people are frustrated. We've been begging for a smarter Kobe since literally the first game of the year. Of course there's bound to be frustrated fans that allow those emotions to boil over into hyperbolic reactions/statements regarding Kobe. Those people should be allowed to react that way though. This is a message board where we should feel free to post our opinions without someone standing over us like an overbearing parent saying, "see? you overreacted didn't you?" in a patronizing way.

You coming in here and saying "oh I told all you guys to relax!" was incredibly disrespectful to us as first of all there's only a few people who reacted in the way you're describing and second of all, you didn't take names. One thing we wanted to bring to LB from CL was the great discussion and that doesn't come from your kind of post. I go head to head with a lot of people on this site and a lot of people call me out. That's fine. I make mistakes, I'm human and I'll own up to those mistakes (Hi Wes Johnson!). When you come on here and make a blanket statement that is vague, you're going to end up upsetting everyone instead of just calling out the person and talking it out there. Make your point and open a good dialogue. Don't come in here and say, "Oh man all those Okafor supporters look stupid after last night!" because there were a LOT of those and most of them have gladly made the switch, but you're going to piss off a lot of people that way.

If you want to defend Kobe, fine. Feel free please! Kobe doesn't have a lot of defenders around here after the way he's been so selfish this season, it'd be great to hear from another perspective. If you do though, make sure you come strong with your opinion and put your foot down and be ready to defend your position. Disagreeing with someone doesn't have to be a battle, it can be a polite discussion.

As for your point about Kobe: I'm still in utter disagreement that we shouldn't have called him out early in the season even leading up to the last game or two. He was playing selfishly and making the season about himself. Byron and the Buss family were enabling him to do ti and that made it worse, but he accepted everything they gave him gladly and more and really stunted the growth of the team in the process. He knows better and we're seeing evidence of that now as he changes the way he's playing to better suit our needs.

 

^^^ I still busted out laughing.

And great post, real, so much calmer and well presented than my angry, "that's all I can stands!" one.

If Kobe had been playing closer to how he has the last 2 games all season, we'd have been praising him for starting to pass the torch and celebrating his last season. I think we'd have more wins too. I don't know that he'd have to had to come out and announce his retirement like he did and turn this into a farewell tour as soon as he did either, because he seemed to do it to get fans and the media off his back.

I have said that Kobe physically CAN'T play like the same old star anymore and I stand by that, but he absolutely can play smarter and he has shown that. If you show that you can, and you say that you WILL, and you don't keep it up for the most part from here on out, well then I'm gonna keep having an issue.

 

That's more than fair, my friend. We all have great great memories of Kobe. In fact if anything I think that's why we were so frustrated to begin with. Nobody on here truly wishes harm to Kobe after everything he's done (at least I hope not, I certainly don't), we just want what's best for the team.

I'm extremely grateful that he recognized what needed to happen yesterday. I'm hopeful he continues that rout but I'll try to keep those hopes tempered. You were right before when you said we shouldn't expect him to change, but he did. I'm hoping it's a permanent change.

 

I'm mostly with you on the Kobe stuff.

 

Noice.

 

Good stuff. Yeah, Kobe came through with the rare 50% shooting night and definitely let Russell run the show.

 

Not taking bad shots probably does help though. For example not taking like 12 threes in a half like against Philly probably heels preserve the legs. Or not taking a lot of difficult shots by halftime in general, wearing out completely by then. Not taking 26, 24, even 19 shots in a game, a high percentage from deep, usually well guarded, probably is a good way to start saving those legs for all game. He's not young anymore, he can't play like he is, less shots is better. Look at his FG attempts since the Philly game, steady decline, only took 12 tonight. Being realistic as this is still Kobe, I'd think if he kept closer to no more than 15/16 a game, probably better for him in the long run.

 

^^ I do too, tada. The thing is Byron seems to be completely incompetent and thus I don't see us breaking twenty wins with his horrible coaching. The lineups are insane. There seems to be no semblance of a defensive scheme and the offense is just bad. I don't see how we get wins this season. We couldn't beat Philly. We are tanking, unfortunately . . . whether it's intentional or not doesn't matter. It seemed to me that the FO is ok with it. Now after what Mitch said, I'm not sure. But again, Byron doesn't seem capable of winning regardless. I, too, wanted us to at least get 32 wins. That's a total pipe dream at this point.