tickletoy3 said:
Factually yes, you have a good point. It's the first time since what? 1957? But now ask yourself this. The Bulls are defending champs. Jordan needs shoulder surgery. Pippen isn't 100% and didn't play for almost half the season and makes his return about a month before the playoffs begin. And just to make it a fair comparison, add about 5 years of being double and triple teamed and extra pounds to Dennis Rodman. In fact, age the entire team by about 3-5 years. Ok then throw in the fact the Bulls haven't played together as a team that year for over most of the season.. and now they enter the playoffs. I think you get the picture.. (and yes I expect any Miami Heat and Shaq hater to say the bulls would STILL not get swept.. but let's get real)
Ha ha, that team's injury scenario sounds like the lakers last season.....
You know, who really knows what would have happened in that scenario?.....maybe a sweep, maybe not.....
But one comparison I am prepared to make betweem Kobe and Jordan is they are about the only two players I have actually seen get a certain look in their eye when they REALLY want to play ball.....its kinda hard to describe that look, but its almost like they would just as soon rip the heart out of the chest of their opponent, as play basketball against them....an absolute killer instinct in the eyes that say, "you bring anybody you got on your team, your best player and two of his buddies , and I will still drain a 3 pointer on all of your asses from anywhere on the court......don't matter if there's only one second left in the game, this shot is going into the basket. And there aint nothing anybody in the NBA can do to stop me".....
I've seen that look with Jordan and Kobe, but not with many others......Wade wins by just pure superior talent, he's just a better, more athletically talented player than most others....... Shaq succeeds by pure brute strenth and a nice shooting touch around the basket....but every time I have gone to a game and seen Kobe play, he does something that makes me shake my head and say, "man, I can't believe what I just saw"........he's frustrating to watch when he tries to do too much by himself and gets into trouble, but he's the most amazing basketball player I have seen in person......
And did you know that at his current age, Kobe has played 25 percent more basketball games than Jordan did at the same age? Because of all the playoffs and championship post season basketball in the 12 years that Kobe has played, he has a LOT of mileage on his body at this point in his carreer......he can't keep it up too much longer...the age and game mileage will catch up to him, and he may decline quickly when it does.....I give him only about three more really productive years, at the most......but he's a joy to watch when he's on his game...
Let's be honest. A younger, more motivated Shaq had a LOT to do with those rings. I still contend that if Kobe could have gotten along with him together they would have won as many as the Bulls by now. And as great a coach as Phil is, how hard was it to win with both Shaq and Kobe together on the same page for 3 years?
Yeah, I agree with you.....maybe not as many as the Jordan Bulls, but they would have won a few more, no doubt....heck, when Karl Malone and Gary Payton joined the team, the lakers blasted out of the gates with an 18-3 record....then Malone got hurt, some other things happened, and the wheels kinda fell off the bus from there......but they still made it to the NBA finals, where they lost to the Pistons....
I've always wondered how a Walter Peyton or even Bo Jackson would have fared with the same offensive line Emmit Smith had with the Cowboys..
Oh man........stopping Bo Jackson behind that Dallas Cowboy offensive line? I would MUCH prefer trying to stop a freight train rolling down hill.....with my bare hands, ha ha!........just ask Brian Bosworth, the defensive player who tried to stop Bo Jackson from scoring, and Bo carried him into the end zone with him...and the football, ha ha.....
Did you know that Bo Jackson ran a 9.5 hundred yard dash, and was a 7 foot high jumper?.......that guy was an athletic miracle.......
And I have similar love for "Sweetness", Walter Peyton......rest in peace......
But I'm kinda ambivalent about Emmit Smith....he was a very good back, don't get me wrong, but I think even "I" could get some good NFL yardage behind that Dallas Cowboy "cinder block wall" of an offensive line.......any decent NFL running back would have had pretty good yardage numbers behind that Dallas Cowboy offensive unit....they made holes you could drive an 18 wheel semi truck through......
Same here. Doubt we will see it happen though. The Heat are OLD and Shaq is hardly the Shaq of Laker years. He came to Miami with one goal. To help win a title. Mission accomplished. It's almost time for 'Snack' to call it quits. He has nothing left to prove to anybody.
I agree.....Shaq rips on the laker fans, and we rip back at him, but in his prime he was unstoppable, and Shaq and Kobe were absolutely deadly together......Kobe was a fast rising superstar, and Shaq was hungry for NBA rings.....and all the REALLY "fake" laker fans packed the Staples Center.....all the hollywood stars..Jack Nicholson is the only true star true laker fan, in my opinion.....
If the Heat rebuild and get Wade a team around him (same as Kobe) I say the sky's the limit. Should be fun to watch.
No doubt about it.....Wade and Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James are the NBA future.....Wade got the first ring from that bunch, and he will get more if the Miami Heat management do the right things and select the right players.....no doubt....
We totally agree here. Who do you think the Lakers should look at as far as drafting?
In my opinion, it doesn't really matter who they draft, the lakers may be in dire trouble for a few years.....they are over the salary cap, and they are still paying BIG money to former laker players who have been traded to other teams...
And part of the problem is the youth and inexperience of the team as a whole, and some players just don't have that competetive fire like Kobe.....adding a young player from the draft will only magnify the youth and inexperience issue....the lakers started the season with promise, a 26-5 record, but soon the youth and inexperience began to show as all the other experienced teams began to gel and play together....injuries to key laker starters also added to the problem.....
The Lakers have to get very luck very soon, or they will be in trouble, and may be in BIG trouble within a few years.......
Best case scenario, we get someone like Kevin Garnett, and the lakers start seriously contending for rings again....but the Lakers are already over the salary cap, and owner Jerry Buss is not known as a big spender, like owner Mark Cuban of Dallas.....he was practically forced to rehire Phil Jackson at 10 million a year, or risk a lot of empty basketball seats in the arena, and the lakers have the highest ticket prices in the NBA.....
Worse case scenario, lakers keep losing, Kobe opts out of his laker contract, and plays somewhere else, and you will hear crickets chirping in Staples Center in L A....
Center Andrew Bynum is young and shows flashes of brilliance, but lakers don't have any really attractive trade bait to attract any quality players in trade.....
So next year will be interesting for the lakers.....everybody is talking blockbuster moves, but we have no money, little trade bait and no leverage, so it could get ugly before it gets better....
Good "sparring" with you, TT3.....you know your sports, especially international sports....and I agree, a sports poll should be world wide......
I remember a "poll" where they were pondering the best athlete of all time....they used your recommended criteria: find a sport that the "whole world" plays, and decide on the best athlete in that sport......
They determined that the world sport was soccer, and made a compelling case for "Pele" as the greatest athlete of all time.....I thought that was interesting, what's your take? And how does the Miami situation look for the future?....