Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Pringles ended Kobe's career

 

That sounded like the night during Shaq / Kobe 3 peat years when Chick had a flashback and called excitedly, ...."ball into Kareem"

 

MDA is trash. Preaches no defense. Has no leadership skills as a coach. Oh and he also ended the career of probably the greatest Laker of all time so f*** him.

 

Remember the greatest quote ever " Hell yeah we played defense.. Did it for 20 minutes"... Gets asked probably another fair question about D and he goes straight to the "Now you're pissing me off" lmao. So desperate.

 

as much as we want to blame mike d, Kobe has said himself as well as it has been documented that he pretty much made the rules on that team. mike d said he wanted to rest him many times, but kobe gave the death stare or something to that effect

 

He's the coach. You think Pop would ever let Kobe decide when he wants to come out of the game?

No. Be a head coach. Grow a pair. Don't let the superstar tell you when he's coming out of the game and yeah I know we're talking about Kobe Bryant, but I also know good, quality head coaches call the shots not the star.

 

So now we are going to compare Mike to Pop and Phil (two of the greatest coaches ever) as the standard? I get that a coach should be a coach but like you said, we're talking about kobe bryant.

i by no means am saying dantoni is without fault (id personally say about 75%), but lets be real. the thing that made kobe great is also what turned out to be his downfall. that fire and pure will to get the team to the playoffs could not be extinguished. i would have loved to see how pop or phil would have handled it though.

dantoni was given a tough hand which he preceded to play horribly. i am far from a dantoni fan, but i just feel he gets a harsher rep than necessary.

i guess what im trying to say is that i dont think that any coach outside of the all time greats could have reigned kobe in those last years. my 2 cents

 

There is no room for rational thought when talking about the end of an era of the most watchable player in the history of Western Civilization.

Mike Antoni can suck it

 

:Headbang:

 

Blaming MDA for Kobe's injury tells me one of two things about you. You either didn't watch Kobe play much or you are a person looking to blame anyone but who's actually to blame regardless of common sense or logic.

Kobe screwed Kobe. Now, follow me here. That sounds negative but it isn't. That is who Kobe was. All out, balls out, play the next night after a high ankle sprain, golf size swelled knee and making tomahawk dunks with a torn labrum.

Kobe used every sweat of talent he had and the way it ended was fitting of how he played. The only thing that surprised me was it took year 17 for it to happen. I thought he was done after 2011 when he couldn't move in that Dallas series. The fact that he was able to squeeze out another 2 years of prime ball was amazing in on itself.

 

But I don't like Antoni's face. Let me have my fun.

(But yes, you are right) Kobe ended Kobe)

People's biggest strengths are often their biggest weaknesses, and Kobe is no exception.

But it also applies to Pringles. His job is to protect his players - even if from themselves. Players don't know better than coaches. Period.

Coaches are to be objective, on the outside looking in. Magic didn't take chances on Ball or Ingram in Summer Ball, and he's not even the coach.

So while Kobe was his own worst enemy, a good coach and leader simply doesn't let the player overrule him. Period. If you allow that, you were never qualified to coach that caliber of player in the first place.

It's what set Phil apart.

Sooooo, in conclusion, we can both be right. Participation trophies for EVERYONE!!!!

 

well said. both parties can be right and take the blame at the same time. I think we all just miss the kobester

 

Never thought I'd post Cowturd in this thread but...

 

Man, F Dike Man'foni!

How the F does he make it into a Lakers Optimistic Thread? Them was dark days and somehow it was Kobe's fault??? I strongly disagree. Like Laker2015 said, dude needed to man up and be a legit coach...but he ain't one. And I guess he pulled the 'stache over some of your eyes, cause when it came time to man up, he got sheepish. What? You can't stand up to Kobe...GTFOta here. Why again did Kobe wear #8? Yeah, it had something to do with looking up to MDA and frankly it drove me MAD....but that's the truth. So Mikey had the authority to sit Kob if need be, but he was too busy sitting Gasol and Gassin out Kob.

But you want to know where the real onus of this lies? Its on Jimmy boy and I'm so happy we kicked his anus to the curb. Cause a man he was not. We had a team with Kobe, Gasol, Dwight and Nash as our headliners with holdovers from the triangle era...yet, we bypass Chief triangle for a guy that rather stashe 17 seconds of the shot clock with his 7SOL POS offense. You had Kobe that gained 5 rings and was Mr. Elbow within the triangle and it was humerus how silly he made opponents look from that spot. You had Gasol and Dwight that were obviously more efficient and comfortable in a half-court offense operating from the post positions. Heck, you even had Nash who was a great shooter and could help spread the floor in a half court offense like the triangle.

The triangle is known as the triple post offense. We had 3 post players in Kobe, Gasol and Howard and 2 of them had won titles in the triangle offense and were absolutely brilliant playing from that position in the offense. Also Kobe, Nash and Gasol all had miles on them and Dwight was coming off back surgery, which Nash too suffered from. Kobe primarily was fully conscious about how he needed to train and eat right to prolong his career. Yet despite all that and rudimentary reasoning, Jimmy boy decided to pick the stached one instead of his (at the time) brother in law. No one can convince me that the helter skelter, 3 flinging, up and down, possession hording 7 seconds or less offense was the best complimentary style to highlight Kobe, Pau, Dwight and an old as dirt Nash.

It was Jimmy boy's cowardliness and ego that was at fault for the fall of Kobe and the worst era of Lakers basketball ever. Phil is not a great executive, but a great coach he definitely is. I know what most of you would say is that if Phil was here, Jeanie would probably make him the team president and he would turn us into the New York Knicks. Well, that may be true, but the Knicks have been the Knicks for 5 decades and that was without Phil at the helm. Remember, even with Phil out, Dol-an. They sent Phil back to the Hills of Montana, but they still got Steve Mills running that team...so lets not act like Phil destroyed the Knicks singlehandedly. Forget a big apple, he was given the keys to an absolute lemon.

Also, lets not ignore the rapid abyss that we have experienced since Kobe limped off from 2 made free throws. Yeah it was a time speckled with some high draft picks and possibly our next dynamic duo along with a 60 point legendary finale...but still it was the worst showing in Lakers history. Had Phil been here instead of MDA, that super team of Kobe, Pau, Dwight and Nash may have won us 17 and possibly one upped the C bags in the process. Yeah, its an optimistic outlook at an alternate timeline, but guess what thread we're in?

Which brings me back to what I'm optimistic about the most. Mitch/Jimmy and their nonsensical basketball ops are outta here and hopefully they can continue to kick rocks as far away as possible from our Lakers organization.