| 06 February 2009
It has been a while since my last article mainly due to the fact that being a senior in college is, for some reason, a lot harder than being a junior. However, school hasn't stopped me from following the going ons in the NBA. If nothing else, I've noticed a few things going on around the league that are just plain stupid.
Kobe v. Lebron is a stupid debate
We're a couple of days away from Kobe v. LeBron 2.0, the 2009 edition - and we're also still buzzing about Kobe dropping the most efficient 60-point game by a guard in NBA history and LeBron posting the best, well at least statistically speaking, triple-double of my lifetime, both happening at Madison Square Garden.
Unfortunately, I have to weather every non-Lakers fan telling me how much LeBron's game was better than Kobe's. On the other hand, I have all of the Kobe nut-huggers telling me LeBron failed in his attempt to 1-up Kobe. Being a fan of both the Lakers and basketball in general, I fall somewhere between both extremes. I'm in the middle asking, 'why does it matter whose game was better.'
Of course, as a Lakers fan I'm a little partial toward Kobe's performance. Anytime you score 61 points on only 31 shots that's an amazing performance in my book, however, I love watching great performances and what LeBron did two nights later in the Garden was just that. Again, anytime someone drops a triple-double while scoring 50-plus points is an amazing performance. So why do people care whose was better.
Shouldn't we all be grateful that this happened during our time - no, that this is happening? Shouldn't we all be youtubing the highlights and watching them again and again and again? Shouldn't this be one of the high points of all of our lives (well, unless you're Mike D'Antoni who had to excruciatingly watch as two superstars came onto his home court and torched his team - embarrassing). I was beyond excited watching Kobe back in his 2006 'Kobe-mode' and it was exhilarating watching LeBron's triple-double develop as if it were a snapshot of this season: Kobe and LeBron, keeping basketball interesting night in and night out.
The debate shouldn't be about whether or not Kobe is better than LeBron (or vice versa ), or whose incredible performance was better - but it should be about if we've ever had any two better offensive parameter players in NBA history. Have there been any other two ridiculously unstoppable offensive forces in the league at the same time? Not any two that I can think of. I can only sit here and thank the basketball gods that I'm witnessing the individual equivalent of Lakers v. Celtics in the 80s. Since team play hardly ever matters anymore anyway, could we ask for anything more as basketball fans?
The Kobe-Lebron debate is fun, and cute, but it's not what's important - not nearly as important as them doing things that just add fuel to the conjectural fire that is the debate. And hopefully more fuel is added to the fire this Sunday when the Lakers end their six-game road trip in Cleveland as the Cavs are riding their 23-game home winning streak. The Lakers are coming off of a wins in Boston, New York and Toronto in their last three and Cleveland is going into the game with three days of rest.
This is going to be a great game, and as a Lakers fan, I completely want the Lakers to win and for Kobe to outshine LeBron, but as a basketball fan I will be fine with LeBron doing what he did against the Knicks to the Lakers as long as Kobe takes his shots. Instead of wanting Kobe or LeBron to be better, I think we should all be rooting for them taking 30 shots each. When it comes to these men, I'd much rather watch great individual performances than two teams playing great basketball, much like I would have preferred two great basketball teams playing together in the 80s over individual performances.
To follow up on that, not playing defense is stupid.
Dear Mike D'Antoni,
I hate that you, for some reason, have spent your entire life neglecting the fact that defense is a part of basketball. I can understand that every once in a while someone is going to drop a lot of points on your team, but c'mon, at some point you have to start enforcing the importance of defense. Kobe torching your Knicks was, in my opinion, no different from the 2006 season when Kobe averaged 42 and a half points against you team. But allowing LeBron to come in two nights after Kobe scored the most effortless 61 points I've ever seen (he literally looked bored in the second half, he was walking to the line taking that long 'I wish I was somewhere else' deep breath after every foul. His facial expression didn't change when he pump faked Wilson Chandler, back pivoted and knocked down the 8-footer. He just jogged back nonchalantly and hit two more free-throws to break the MSG record). To let the MSG crowd chant MVP for an opposing player, one would think you'd have a little pride and to not allow another super star to come in and post ridiculous numbers.
Whoever thought that was wrong. I can't believe, well actually I can, that you'd let LeBron come in, just two nights after Kobe added 61 to his career point total, and post the first 50-point triple-double in over three decades. I'm embarrassed for you. Free throws win games, defense wins championships, which is why you'll never have a ring as a coach.
Injuries are stupid
Andrew Bynum out 8 to 12 weeks. Andrei Kirilenko out for at least four weeks. Andrew Bogut probably out for the rest of the season. Jameer Nelson out for up to six weeks. Luke Ridnour out for up to four weeks. Elton Brand out for the rest of the season. I really don't have much more to say that this really hurts the Lakers and the Magic who are actually have legitimate title hopes.
Mo Williams being snubbed again is stupid
I know, I know, Ray Allen is having a great season, one of his best seasons in a while, but no one really likes watching Ray Allen play. He's not like Rashard Lewis (who also made the Eastern Conference All Star Team) whose game is unbearable to watch, but no one really thinks, 'man, I can't wait to see Ray Allen play."
On the other hand, we have Mo Williams who has been nothing short of spectacular this season playing along side LeBron James. If you think LeBron James pretty much being a shoo-in for MVP this season is just because he is that much better this season than he was last season you haven't been watching the Cavaliers play this season. Sure, Allen has been the most consistent Celtic this season, but I want to watch fun players in the All-Star game, and that's what we would have gotten with Mo Williams.
David Stern picking Allen over Williams comes off as a gimmick to get a few more thousand people to watch the All-Star game by naming a Celtic, a team with a much larger fan base than Cleveland, over a much more deserving Cavalier. I'm not saying that I'm not going to watch the All-Star game because of this, but it's wrong nonetheless.
After hearing the news, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert said, "Not naming him as the natural and obvious replacement for the unfortunately injured Jameer Nelson is stupidiculous, idillogical and preposterageous." I'm not sure how many of those adjectives were actually words (well, none), but I know exactly how he felt. Cleveland has a right to complain about Williams being slighted, too. They are a half game behind the Lakers for the league's best record, yet both the Celtics and the Magic have both had three of their players named to the All-Star game while Cleveland will only be represented on the floor by LBJ. They are the league's best defensive team and have the best record (percentage wise) in the East and have still not lost at home. It just seems right that they should be better represented.
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