Kobe Bryant Discussion: Mamba Out!

Over. The. Hill.

 

Regarding that quote on his pride, I would say that IMO he approached leaving no stone unturned and not quitting in the wrong way to start the season. Chucking as much as possible is certainly going down swinging, but I think he could have handled it differently. That said, that quote, that attitude, never quit, try everything, give everything he has, that's why he's Kobe, that's what made him the player he was and is, and what has him playing so well again, and I'm very glad he's turned his last season around. He actually deserves to be in the All-Star game, for example, with how he's played for a while now. Nobody should be able to have some of the games he's having in their 20th season at age 37 that he's having. I can't see any current player being able to do the same thing in either of those circumstances. And that's leaving out what all his playoff games add up to, and the achilles injury.

 

Has anyone ever had a three game stretch at those numbers at age 37?

 

I remember the 85 Finals pretty well. Memorial Game Massacre in game 1. That put Kareem in a time machine and he dominated the rest of the series. Still my all time favorite Finals.

 

This is a bit tough.

Kareem had a stretch of 30 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 2.7 blocks, 0.3 steals, and he shot 33-48.

Karl Malone had a three-game stretch of: 31.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and shot 32-62.
Malone had 31.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and shot 32-59
He also had 29.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and shot 29-54
He also had 30.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and shot 39-59
Then his month of February was pretty ridiculous. He AVERAGED 26.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists on 55% FGs.

 

I checked points, rebounds, and assists. From what I could find, the last person and only other person to do this was Karl Malone.

Age 37: 3 game stretch of 31.3 ppg, 11.3 rpg, and 3.3 apg.

He also had a 4 game stretch when he was 36.

Edit: But, I'm not sure if there is a way to find this stretches like this before the 1984 season so it's possible other players have done this in the past as well.

 

LOL. "Are you nervous about these FTs?" Is that even smack talk?

Yeah, Kobe's nervous about FTs with a lead in a regular season game.

 

Soft *** trash talk.

 

Is that right?

 

ESPN is always trying to keep Kobe out of the top 10. And with LeBron rising in their minds and now Steph Curry and Durant and some others as popular as they are, they're also trying to start to push Kobe down the list even further already IMO. They celebrate the greats of the past, the over-celebrate the greats of right now, yet they want to push Kobe out the door and start erasing the memory of how great he was for some reason. Yet they want to elevate Duncan all the time, because they like him. I haven't seen this list, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had Duncan above Kobe, they are always talking about his rings as if they have more value than Kobe's even though he hasn't been the team's best player when they won a title in over a decade.

Someone high up at ESPN plain doesn't like Kobe. Someone there loves LeBron. Not a big thing, but a tiny example, I get alerts from the ESPN app on my phone, constantly get one when LeBron has a dunk. And it's always about how nasty it was or how hard it was, "LeBron throws down nasty fast break tomahawk dunk". I get one yesterday "Ryan Anderson posterizes Kobe Bryant", as if 37 year old Kobe is supposed to block a dunk by a PF, or anyone cares about a Ryan Anderson dunk.

 

I've been around long enough to know ESPN is famous for this type of stuff......... but this really pisses me off. Much more than it should.

Kobe is top 5, IMO. Top 10 in any basketball fans mind if they're being honest. 12th is just disrespectful.

I'm pissed and I really shouldn't be, but I am.