NBA Finals - Green is Good

Had to interrupt my sabbatical for a shout out to my favorite current NBA player and his new crew, who are at the moment on the verge of winning an NBA title. Over, I might add, the heavily hyped and pre-series favorites Los Angeles Lakers.

Y'all know by now what I think of Kobe Bryant, possibly the most overhyped superstar in the history of the NBA. Bryant is a frighteningly talented offensive force, a self-made one-man band who is known for his focus and determination, but as I've said here before, his leadership qualities are severely lacking. Kobe wants us all to think he's changed his spots, he's become a leader, a team player, that he's been more involved with off-court team activities. And when he was awarded the league MVP this year, he invited his teammates to stand on the floor with him in a move that sports commentators positively gushed about. Around these parts, there was a lot of gagging.

Kobe, you might remember, was the guy who bitched about his team, his team's management and owner over the summer and begged them to trade him -- or at least trade their young players for someone who could help him. To be fair, Paul Pierce of the Celtics bitched about his team too, asking to be traded in the off season, but Pierce didn't chase away the best center in the NBA, when he apparently still had another title in his large hands.

Kobe knows how to yell at his teammates but he has no idea how to be a true on-the-court leader. Pierce, certainly less of a talent than Kobe, is proving to be the best leader of this series.

Nobody was even sure if Kobe would show up for the season, but he did arrive and wouldn't you know it, those kids weren't half bad and then boom! the NBA gods dropped Pau Gasol into the Lakers lap in exchange for a piece of paper with a date on it. Suddenly, the Lakers are the team to beat. They earned the top spot in the West and then pretty much sailed through the playoffs right into the NBA finals, where they were considered heavy favorites -- 9 out of 10 of espn.com's experts picked the Lakers to win the series, even though they didn't have home court advantage and the Celtics had beaten the Lakers in both meetings during the regular season.

Ooops.

The C's held court in Boston, winning the first two games fairly easily -- though not without drama. It was clear the plan was to stop Kobe from beating them, to put the ball in the hands of his young supporting cast, which hasn't really been up to the big-stage pressure. But then neither has Kobe, really. Four games into the series and he still looks confused.

Except early in Game 4 when the Lakers were building a 24-point lead, have the Lakers looked to be as good a "team" as the Celtics. And even that went all to hell when the C's climbed back by crushing L.A. in the third quarter and then completing the historic comeback in the fourth and putting them on the brink of an NBA title.

If you were watching the entire series, you would see that the Lakers have only been able to solve the Celtics' defense during short bursts, the most important at the end of the game two (that furious comeback that fell short) and then at the end of game three, which they won. Game 4 seemed like a sea change in the series. Whoa, not so fast.

Even as they were building that big lead, I thought the Celtics weren't giving the same defensive effort and they were missing a lot of easy shots, shots they would normally make and have been making. The Lakers won the first quarter 35-14 but the C's took the third 31-15 -- the fourth time in the four games where they've won the third quarter, a quarter the Zen Master has always stressed as being all-important to winning NBA games.

The Lakers only have two true superstars (Kobe + 1/2 Gasol and 1/2 Lamar Odom). While both are excellent players, they are not in the same league as Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Even more impressive to me is how KG, the heart of all those Minnesota teams he played on, has easily slid into the second/third banana role in Boston. They are superstars playing like role players. I mean Allen played the whole game and had nine boards. Every time they get a defensive start, they fist pump in the way other teams do when they get a three or a dunk.

Defense has been the difference. The C's have cut the Lakers' scoring by 10, 20 points a game off their average (of course, scoring often drops off in the half-court nature of the playoffs but you get my point) and they've neutralized Kobe who hasn't had a decent shooting night against them all season -- he must have nightmares about getting suffocated by green jerseys. I think Doc seems to have taken a page out of Larry Brown’s playbook from the 2004 playoffs, when the Pistons basically keyed on Kobe, hoping to make him have to make more decisions with the ball and therefore, use more of the shot clock.

Kobe has been forced to give up his beloved rock, and he may indeed be bitching to and about his teammates about why they haven't been taking advantage, but Kobe isn't a playmaker in the strict sense of the word. He's a shooting guard who looks to score first, only giving up the ball if he doesn't have a look or a near-look or a sort-of look. Most of the time, when a player like that passes to an open man, it's in the flurry of competition and not often in the best place or way or situation for said role player to get off his best shot. That's asking a lot of your teammates, especially on the sport's biggest stage.

The rap on Gasol all those years in Memphis was that he was soft. I think y'all can see that now, not to mention his defense is pretty ordinary for a 7-footer with a wingspan like that. Odom is a guy who fills up the stat sheet but his impact on the game is not as great as it could be (or is perceived to be). He loses focus, is easily confused and after that tremendous start, disappeared in the second half. Seriously, one minute he was driving to the hoop, making big play after big play, digging the flow and the next, POOF! he was gone, gone, gone.

I think Doc Rivers is out-coaching the Zen Master in this series. Going with the smaller lineup may have been obvious with the C's down by 20 points, but putting in Eddie House was a brave move. Even the ABC commentators were saying Rondo wasn't taking advantage of his open looks -- which was Philip's strategy, to have Kobe roam off of Rondo, to give him those short jumpers, figuring he wouldn't make enough of them to make a difference. Even though his scrappy defense was helping his team, they needed a guy who would take what the Lakers were giving them -- or in civilian terms, to shoot the damn ball. And when House came in, he hit two huge freaking shots, making Doc look like a genius.

Seriously though, I'm beginning to think Phil Jackson is overrated. How is it that he has Sasha grab-and-bitch Vujacic on Allen in the fourth quarter with the entire series in the balance? Anyone can tell by watching Vujacic play that he's a jerk of mammoth proportions and his penchant for playing dirty is hardly good defense.

Goes to show all that extra-curricular nonsense doesn't substitute for moving your feet and staying in front of your man. Remember Vujacic was the guy who earlier in the game, fell to the floor while holding onto Allen and when he didn't get the call, used his legs to hold Allen down directly in front of referee Steve Javie. It's the most obvious foul call of the series (which is saying a lot) and Vujacic looked at Javie like he just asked him on a date.

I'm thinking this game, this series, ought to put to rest now and forever, the comparisons between Kobe and MJ. It's unfair to Kobe anyway -- they aren't the same kind of players and never were. But then nobody will ever be like Jordan, so maybe it's doing him a favor. Still, I don't see MJ blowing a 24-point lead in a crucial game 4 at home.

I think it also puts into sharper focus the idea that Kobe is some bigger-than-life factor at the end of close games. All of these games have been within the Lakers' grasp in the fourth quarter and Kobe, who one of the ABC announcers called the NBA's best closer, has only been a factor in one of them. If it's true, then when is Kobe going to get it done. I mean if he's not doing it (and didn't in his last NBA Finals appearance) when it really counts? If all Kobe needs is teammates who can keep his team close into the waning moments of the game so he can take over and lead them to victory, then the only person Kobe should be bitching at is the guy looking back at him in the mirror each morning.

Because to be fair, the Lakers have been in all of these games and the Closer has been out closed out.

Sure, the Lakers could still make history and win, but I think everyone can see by now, including the participants, who the better team is in this series. I'll give you a hint: they wear green.

See ya soon, sports fans....

Kobe Kaboom

So maybe L.A.'s just too small a town for two Kobes.

S.O.L. picked an interesting week to be down here in LaLa Land.

Well, y'all know the Kobe of which I speak, the poor under appreciated L.A. Lakers superstud. He's got a new teammate in Los Angeles this season -- George Karl's son Coby, who incidentally was NOT named after either Kobe or a Japanese steer.

The big question is how long the two will actually share a uniform. Since the younger Coby is a rookie draftee, you can rest assured if he goes anywhere, it will be the developmental league. So yeah, crazy as this world is, it's getting crazier here in L.A. while As the Kobe World Turns continues.

For those of you living under a rock, Kobe Bryant announced in a frenzied 24-hour period that he was sick and tired of the Lakers losing ways and he wanted out of Lakerland unless they replaced GM Mitch Kupchak with ex-GM and Kobe father figure Jerry West. Only since West was under an expiring contract with Memphis and since he and Mitch K. are buddies, the Logo got bent out of shape when his protege was called out by his once favored son. Then Kobe seemed to diplomatically back away from his trade request only to raise it again, only with no ifs, ands or basketballs. Whew. Must've been quite a day in the Kobe crib.

The long summer pushed on. Kobe went to play for the U.S. National Team and demonstrated to his superstar teammates that he could actually pass the ball. This news flash did not go unnoticed by his new running mates, some of whom the Black Hole was campaigning Lakers management to bring to L.A. by any means available. No matter that in doing so he completely dissed his current teammates.

The blockbuster trades got done this summer, but the Kid went to Beantown and the other O'Neal stayed put in the Midwest.

So Kobe arrived at Lakers training camp determined to put a happy face on his predicament and collect his paycheck (which is more than tonight's lottery payoff). Poor Kobe. Poor, poor Kobe.

Behind the scenes, apparently, Kobe and the Lakers had agreed to keep the trade request matter under wraps. Then early this week, team owner Jerry Buss told the L.A. Times that he would entertain offers for his disgruntled superstar, not that he expected to get even close to even value in return. However you read it, it was a compliment to Kobe but Kobe cried foul.

In one of his now famous punk ass moves, he asked out of practice three straight days. Philip claims it was "leg fatigue". Right, S.O.L. is having excuse fatigue. The rumor mill went on tilt at the news that Kobe cleaned out his locker, a story he flatly denied. His agent said he was "just organizing" it.

Here's S.O.L.'s take: I think Kobe got wind of the comments and blew a a major gasket. I think he absolutely did clean out his locker in a fit of churlishness. (Looking back from our current perspective of the real Kobe psyche, can anyone now believe that he didn't mail in that second half against Sacramento four seasons ago? Or the 2005 second half in Game 7 against the Suns? Wake up people.

Instead of facing the music like a man and understanding that his own erratic behavior started this whole trade story nonsense, he took his ball and went home.

I think a person could argue that Kobe has about as much talent around him as LeBron James has in Cleveland. Maybe Cleveland is slightly better and plays in the weaker East but if the roles were reversed, James would be thinking about how his talent could make his teammates better not how much better he is than his supporting cast. He certainly wouldn't call out his boys in public, not like this.

I've said it before. Kobe hastened the end of the Shaq era and he's getting exactly what he deserves in return. The Lakers haven't won a playoff series since Shaq left. If Kobe's the best player on the team than why shouldn't he take some of the blame?

Further, his immature blabbering this summer was directed at the team that stood by him in his darkest days, that rehired Phil Jackson to appease him and didn't flinch when he "tested" the free agent waters with the crosstown Clippers when he knew all along he wasn't going anywhere.

I hear fans in L.A. cry that Kobe should be mad that the Lakers haven't done much to make the team better. I agree that Mitch is a lousy GM but how come nobody asks who would want to play with the second coming of Pistol Pete? A moody, selfish, jerk who hogs the ball in the All-Star game so he can improve his own legacy.

If Kobe wants to know what's wrong with his team, all he has to do is look in the mirror.

Kobe Chronicles, Continued

Pug On a Rug, 2007
Have enough of the Kobe Bryant Soap Opera yet? It's a lot less guilt free than watching an actual train wreck.

Kobe, you may recall, woke up one morning during the week that LeBron James was stealing Kobe's All-NBA crown and realized his NBA ring collection was likely going to stall at three.

Instead of crying into his bowl of Wheaties, Kobe embarked on a long, strange day of schizophrenia, giving a different take on The State of Kobe with every new interview over a 24-hour period. First he wants the Logo to return, then he wants to be traded and then, he’s a Laker for life. A couple of weeks later, he travels to Spain to have a sit down with Lakers owner Jerry Buss because he doesn’t think the organization is clear on his demand to be traded. As if all that flip-flopping came out of somebody else’s mouth.

Well, as it goes with the world of sports and celebrity when the Franchise complains, the brain trust says “how high can we jump for your kingly self.” What they’re really saying is if we didn’t spend a freaking 100 million bills on your ass and give you a God-damned no trade clause, you’d be playing basketball in Memphis right now.

The latest rumors features Minnesota nice guy Kevin Garnet, a.k.a. KG and The Kid, a.k.a. one of the league’s classiest guys, coming to Staples Center to run with the self-labeled Black Mamba, or as we like to call him here at S.O.L., The Black Hole.

According to the very reliable Chad Ford of espn.com, the sticking point of the three- or four-team deal with would include the Celtics, Pacers, Lakers and Wolves and players like Jermaine O’Neal, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom, is whether the Celtics will give up Al Jefferson to Minnesota. Right now, it’s a deal killer for the Celtics, in part because they have their own superstar to appease in the disgruntled Paul Pierce (get someone to run with me or I’m gone). Just an aside here, but has there been any trio of players from a Championship dynasty that have sucked so badly at being team general managers than Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge? I don’t think so.

If The Kid ends up in L.A., it will be good for his pocketbook in that after spending his entire career in the Midwest, he will finally get that big city exposure he so richly deserves. But pairing him up with Kobe would be like a cosmic joke on Garnett, who has never complained and has endured years of playing for a team being run by a revolving door of officials with heads up their asses; been victimized by the league’s most selfish players who happened to be also be his teammates (hello Starbury and Sam I Am) and along the way lost his best friend to a drunk driver.

If there is a basketball God, Kevin Garnett will end up in Phoenix to play with Steve Nash. It looks very unlikely at this point, but summer’s here and hope springs eternal.

I'm not sure what I make of reports that Kobe still wants out even if they get Garnett. But I do have a couple of theories. (You didn’t think I was going to remain mum on that).

One, as someone suggested to me recently, is that the Phil and Kobe Honeymoon show is over, that Phil once again believes what he said about Kobe in his book two years ago (he’s uncoachable). And Kobe believes that Phil has the upper hand with management, especially since he's literally sleeping with the bosses daughter.

Second, as I’ve already talked about in previous posts here, Kobe remains convinced that there isn't a realistic deal the Lakers could make right now that would make them good enough to compete for a title against the great teams in the West (Spurs and Suns) and the comers (Dallas, Utah, Houston, perhaps Denver and soon-to-be-vastly improved Sonics and Blazers). If the Clippers play to their potential (that’s coin-flip territory right there) and Golden State finally gets its shit together for, I don’t know, a full freaking season, then even a lineup that includes KG and Kobe would still be fighting an uphill battle to even make one of the eight Western playoff spots.

I believe that Kobe is a big-picture guy where his own legacy is concerned. I think he’s always comparing himself to the next guy, always keeping score. You want to see this in a competitive athlete, as long as it’s not pathological.

He saw how Michael Jordan sometimes had to be acerbic in his rise to greatness and I think he thinks that his current petulance is just him being like Mike. "I just want to win," he's been saying for the last few weeks. "I want to go somewhere where I'm not a scapegoat." This is like that guy who gets a toupee and it looks like a toupee but he thinks it’s the shit, even though everybody’s laughing at him. You can’t be a scapegoat, if you’re actually guilty as charged.

I mean who is he kidding? This is the guy who either chased Shaq out of town, or (if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt) didn’t give a shit that the Shaq was going, because it meant he would finally be the man. And now that he is the man, he's jumping ship like a rat with a life preserver on a boat in dry dock. (Probably overdid the metaphor here, but you guys get my drift).

From Kobe’s point of view, even bad behavior can be excused if it’s in the service of winning. It follows then that no matter what anybody thinks of his actions now, nothing will make them forget about Pouting Kobe like a few more rings. And right now, in his selfishly cloistered mind, the quickest route to an NBA title awaits him in the East. The ends justifying the means I suppose.

Meanwhile about that Draft Lottery, word is that the Trailblazers are now leaning toward Kevin Durant over Greg Oden. There’s rumors that Oden may be susceptible for future health problems regarding his recently broken wrist and a disk in his back. I don’t believe the stories. I think it’s just Portland’s way to justify not doing what everyone says is a no brainer – which is taking Oden with the number one pick. I’m of the school of they can't miss either way, and I know this will sound crazy, but I think Durant is a better fit for the Blazers. They already have a really good post player in Zach Randolph. Even if he is a bit of a flake and a knucklehead, he’s gonna give you that 20-10 a night and with a wing man like Durant, the Blazers will be dangerous. Mark my words. After watching Durant play, I think he will be one of those rare unstoppable scorers in this league from Day One, a LeBron, Kobe, Michael, K.G., kind of guy.

Mets Mojo

I hope I don't jinx my boys but the Mets have begun to rebound nicely from their June Swoon (losing 14 of the first 18 games they played this month). The ugliness was tempered somewhat by the fact that their nearest competitor in the division at the time of the slump was Atlanta and the Braves suffered a similar downturn. However, as the Mets have won four straight, including a sweep of the Oakland A's at Shea this weekend, the Braves just halted a four-game losing streak (in which they scored like one run in 50 innings). So despite playing like shit, the Mets continue to the lead the NL East going into the All-Star break.

Here's hoping the good karma keeps on coming. Go Mets.