Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Under Six Minutes
It was about 11:30 last night and I had to get up at 6:30 to go to work. The LA Lakers and the Denver Nuggets were in the fourth game and it was a close game and I was struggling to stay up from sheer exhaustion. At that point, Reggie Miller, who was the color commentator for TNT stated, "It is under six minutes and it is Kobe Bryant's time." Kobe had only 17 points at the time and had scored only two points in the second half. At that time, something clicked in his head. It was almost like he had heard what Reggie Miller said. He was being guarded by Kenyon Martin who is a physical defender and was doing a better than average job on Kobe. Kobe had committed three turnovers until he turned it on. He scored 14 of his 31 points in the final 5 minutes. The first shot was a whirling, twirling spinning fade away jump shot from the top of the key that everyone knew only a few players in the history of the game could make. Suddenly, I jumped up from my sleep focus position and began to feel energized as if it was me who made the shot. Oh, by the way, the shot was on Kenyon Martin who played the best and most discipline defense of the night but could only look on in amazement as Kobe hit the shot in his face with the shot clock winding down to 0 seconds. Next, Kobe squared him up and hit a shot just inside the three point line that it seemed like he had missed time and time again. However, this time he swished it through and at that moment, I realized the greatness of the moment so not only did I sit up in the bed, I got out of my bed and began to watch the game as if it was 6:00 pm on a Friday night. The next time down, J.R. Smith ended up guarding Kobe and without any hesitation, he went right around him and finished at the rim with the left hand and got fouled. He followed that up with another acrobatic fadeaway drive to the basket and 3 free throws. Love him or hate him, criticize or praise him, Kobe Bryant has something inside of him that other players simply don't have. While Kobe Bryant was orchestrating his symphony like Beethoven, Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, who are considered amazing players by most basketball enthusiasts, digged as deep as they could inside there soul only to realize that no matter what they said or did at this moment, Kobe Bryant was not going to be denied. He was not denied and he delivered possession after possession out- dueling J.R. Smith, Iverson and Anthony all at once. Even in a 3 on 1 duel, Kobe still believes he can win. Like I said before, it was almost like he had heard what Reggie Miller had said and at that point, he flipped the switch on his lawnmower and mowed the Denver Nuggets down like a patch of grass that was just beginning to grow. At the matured age of 29, Kobe Bryant has place his self in a room only reserved for the likes of Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Jerry West and all of the other great players who had that extra ummmph that propelled them time after time in a pressure situation.
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2 comments:
Just think about what you're saying for a second. Yes K-Mart was D'ing him up pretty well this series. Yes Carmelo and Iverson are perennialy among the league's elite players. But let's have some perspective on what Kobe did. This is still a team defense that in spite of having the league's leading shot blocker the past 5 years gave up 36 to PAU GASOL in game 1 without him having to take a shot beyond 10 feet. Denver never delivered a hard foul in 4 games the likes of which even Dallas has delievered at least 2 of to the Hornets this series already. Denver's team is coached by George Karl who hasn't been able to coach a legitimately good defensive team in 10 years since he had Gary Payton who was the premier, perimiter defender at the time. You can't, by looking at any of the games this series, seriously believe that Kobe should have had a problem scoring against the Denver Nuggets. Furthermore this is round 1. We don't rate Jordan's greatness by what he did in round 1. Think about all those years he used to torch the Miami Heat or the Washington Bullets for 50 point games in the first round. It's hard to even remember those in the pantheon of Jordan lore because those games were so insignificant. It was what he did in the NBA Finals that separate him as a basketball player. Kobe has definitely stepped up in a finals game before. The game 4 against the Pacers when Shaq had fouled out comes to mind. But he doesn't have nearly the legendary status of those elite players yet. That being said. If Kobe can reproduce these efforts 3 rounds from now against a Celtics Defense that plays well as a team and won't give anything easy, your point will have been made. If he can even do it against the Spurs in a potential Western Conference Finals I will be impressed. But since Shaq's departure I think everyone would agree that Kobe's affect on the NBA playoffs has been disappointing at best. I would argue that what Lebron did against the Pistons last year is three times as impressive as Kobe's efforts against the Nuggets, seeing as he did it with an inferior team to what Kobe has now and did it to a superior team then the Denver Nuggets, and most importantly in the Conference Finals against a team that had been there for the last 4 years and is still good enough to go again this year. But if Lebron doesn't get that elite status as Bird, Magic, Jordan for that there's no way Kobe should for this.
Your personal dislike for Kobe has clouded your judgement. Firstly, Lebron is not on the level of those other guys because he has not rings. Like I ALWASY tell you, when you comparer great players, the standard is set higher!!!!! ALso, I have never said Kobe was in a room of his own. How about this? IF Kobe wins 2 more championships, will you give him his just due?
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