heres a good article on why kobe still isnt fuckin wit jordan...
Kobe's numbing numbers still don't add up to MJ
January 24, 2006
BY JAY MARIOTTI SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
The grand objective, as preached by a certain retiree immersed in motorcycles and cigars, is not to create a national lockjaw epidemic by jacking up 45 shots a night and trying to challenge Wilt Chamberlain. Rather, the idea is to score what is necessary in the context of winning championships, as in six of them. It took Michael Jordan many painful, maligned years to realize there was a W in we and an L in Michael.
But eventually, he figured out the meaning of synergy, cohesion, not letting his mates feel like cardboard cutouts and making them better players. I'm not so sure Kobe Bryant ever will reach that point, which defines the difference between being the greatest player of all time, as Jordan was, and the player who just authored the greatest regular-season solo performance of all time, as Bryant did Sunday night.
Placed in an individual cocoon, Kobe's 81-point earthquake reading was one of the dazzling sports achievements we'll see. Disgusted with the sluggish play of his Lakers teammates, he assaulted the Toronto Raptors and a double-digit deficit the way a mob boss devours rat finks. He scored 55 in the second half -- remember the fuss we made over Jordan's Double Nickels game? -- and was unstoppable even as the opponents knew he was coming and gunning every time. Unlike Chamberlain, a 7-1, 275-pound force who bullied stiffs and midgets for 100 points back in 1962, Bryant showcased a spectacular athletic arsenal that comes closest to Jordan's seminal moments as a one-man blur. He attacked the basket like a pit bull, reduced defenders to furniture pieces, dropped in finger-roll layups with chilling finesse and pumped in jump shots -- leaners, fallaways, turnarounds -- as if his arm was mechanical. Nor was the explosion an aberration. Since the splurge began in mid-December, he has produced masterpieces of 81 points, 62 points, two in the 50s and six in the 40s. His scoring average is 43.3 over the last 15 games, a rate he almost doubled on a phenomenal evening in Hoops Hollywood.
"I've seen some remarkable games, but never anything like that,'' said Phil Jackson, Bryant's coach and Jordan's ex-coach.
"You're sitting and watching, and it's like a miracle unfolding in front of your eyes and you can't accept it,'' said Bryant's boss, Lakers owner Jerry Buss. "Somehow, the brain won't work. The easiest way to look at it is that everybody remembers every 50-point game they ever saw. He had 55 in the second half.''
"To sit here and say that I grasped what happened, I'd be lying,'' said Bryant, who said he'll let his wife laminate and frame the stat sheet so he can "look at it one day when I have a potbelly.''
What's it all about, Kobe?
Yet, in the biggest scope, what does it really mean? Where is this incredible barrage taking Bryant and a merely decent Lakers club that doesn't ooze of talent but can't develop and survive a postseason round if it's The Kobe And Nobody Show? If Bryant is daring to become the Jordan of his day, doesn't he have to blend in better with Lamar Odom, whom Jackson loosely has compared to Scottie Pippen? Doesn't Kobe also need help from the front office? And if he gets it, how is, oh, the volatile Ron Artest going to react when he wants the ball and Bryant is hugging it? The sports-is-entertainment crowd loves the idea of Kobe pushing the envelope and approaching Chamberlain's 100-point barrier as an ongoing angle, but the purist in each of us is compelled to ask a broader question: Are so many shots and points from one player ultimately healthy for the sport, the team ideal? Dominant as Kobe is, can't you imagine a gifted 12-year-old somewhere hogging the ball and gunning away because he happens to be markedly better than his teammates? Jordan's career scoring night, a 69-point show against Cleveland in 1990, came on 37 shots from the field. If he'd attempted 46, as Bryant did against the lowly Raptors, he may have threatened 90. Thirty-eight times in his NBA days, Jordan cracked the 50-point plateau. In those games, know how many times he took as many shots at Bryant did Sunday?
Once, in an overtime game against Orlando when he scored 64.
When we ponder Jordan's signature moments, we think of the postseason -- The Last Shot and Wrist Flick in '98, The Sick Game, the barrage of three-pointers and shrug against Portland, The Craig Ehlo shot, the twisting, gravity-defying layup against the Lakers. With Shaquille O'Neal helping, Bryant had his defining moments as a three-time champion in L.A., but before anyone tries to place him in the same wing with Jordan in any pantheon, Kobe will have to prove he can win a championship or two without Shaq. Of course, the last thing he wanted to hear the other night was a Jordan reference.
"Throughout my career, I've been compared to him so many times. I wish they'd stop,'' Bryant told reporters. "He was Michael Jordan and I am Kobe Bryant. We were different players. I wish people would let it go. It annoys me. He's one of the greatest of all time if not the greatest and for us in the younger generation -- me and LeBron [James] -- to be compared to such greatness isn't fair. It's important for us to play the game we know how to play and let people sit back and enjoy what we do and not compare it to what they have done.''
Good. Because there's still no comparison, 81 points and all.
If his Jordan comments sound arrogant, that's Kobe for you. He may be taking over SportsCenter every night, but that doesn't mean he's becoming more likable. Do not make the mistake of forgiving a player for past sins based on amazing athletic feats. As I watch him swoop through another triple-team like a phantom, I can't help but flash back to his Colorado rape case and his free fall as a popular athlete, even after charges were dropped. It's hard for mainstream America to suddenly embrace Kobe because he scored 81. We can admire his skills, as we always have, but that doesn't mean I have to admire the man. His jersey is only the league's fifth-best-seller, which means respect for his performances, thankfully, hasn't yet let to renewed worship.
How soon Jackson forgets
I also wonder if Bryant's coach is the same Phil Jackson who torched Kobe in his book as a petulant, uncoachable brat with "narcissistic tendencies.'' True, that was when O'Neal and Bryant were feuding. But in less than two years, it's stunning to see Jackson let Bryant mangle what is left of a triangle offense and shoot at will, recalling this book passage: "It needs to be remembered that Kobe is still an employee, and that he needs direction and guidance in a way that helps him mature into the kind of adult we hope he can be. Kobe is missing out by not finding a way to become part of a system that involves giving to something larger than himself. He could have been the heir apparent to Michael Jordan and maybe won as many championships. He may still win a championship or two, but the boyish hero image has been replaced by that of a callous gun for hire.''
The callous gun just went for 81.
But until he wins in June again, it's a large number in a larger shadow.
Jay Mariotti is a regular on ''Around the Horn'' at 4 p.m. on ESPN. Send e-mail to inbox@suntimes.com with name, hometown and daytime phone number (letters run Sunday).
http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay24.html
Kobe's numbing numbers still don't add up to MJ
January 24, 2006
BY JAY MARIOTTI SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
The grand objective, as preached by a certain retiree immersed in motorcycles and cigars, is not to create a national lockjaw epidemic by jacking up 45 shots a night and trying to challenge Wilt Chamberlain. Rather, the idea is to score what is necessary in the context of winning championships, as in six of them. It took Michael Jordan many painful, maligned years to realize there was a W in we and an L in Michael.
But eventually, he figured out the meaning of synergy, cohesion, not letting his mates feel like cardboard cutouts and making them better players. I'm not so sure Kobe Bryant ever will reach that point, which defines the difference between being the greatest player of all time, as Jordan was, and the player who just authored the greatest regular-season solo performance of all time, as Bryant did Sunday night.
Placed in an individual cocoon, Kobe's 81-point earthquake reading was one of the dazzling sports achievements we'll see. Disgusted with the sluggish play of his Lakers teammates, he assaulted the Toronto Raptors and a double-digit deficit the way a mob boss devours rat finks. He scored 55 in the second half -- remember the fuss we made over Jordan's Double Nickels game? -- and was unstoppable even as the opponents knew he was coming and gunning every time. Unlike Chamberlain, a 7-1, 275-pound force who bullied stiffs and midgets for 100 points back in 1962, Bryant showcased a spectacular athletic arsenal that comes closest to Jordan's seminal moments as a one-man blur. He attacked the basket like a pit bull, reduced defenders to furniture pieces, dropped in finger-roll layups with chilling finesse and pumped in jump shots -- leaners, fallaways, turnarounds -- as if his arm was mechanical. Nor was the explosion an aberration. Since the splurge began in mid-December, he has produced masterpieces of 81 points, 62 points, two in the 50s and six in the 40s. His scoring average is 43.3 over the last 15 games, a rate he almost doubled on a phenomenal evening in Hoops Hollywood.
"I've seen some remarkable games, but never anything like that,'' said Phil Jackson, Bryant's coach and Jordan's ex-coach.
"You're sitting and watching, and it's like a miracle unfolding in front of your eyes and you can't accept it,'' said Bryant's boss, Lakers owner Jerry Buss. "Somehow, the brain won't work. The easiest way to look at it is that everybody remembers every 50-point game they ever saw. He had 55 in the second half.''
"To sit here and say that I grasped what happened, I'd be lying,'' said Bryant, who said he'll let his wife laminate and frame the stat sheet so he can "look at it one day when I have a potbelly.''
What's it all about, Kobe?
Yet, in the biggest scope, what does it really mean? Where is this incredible barrage taking Bryant and a merely decent Lakers club that doesn't ooze of talent but can't develop and survive a postseason round if it's The Kobe And Nobody Show? If Bryant is daring to become the Jordan of his day, doesn't he have to blend in better with Lamar Odom, whom Jackson loosely has compared to Scottie Pippen? Doesn't Kobe also need help from the front office? And if he gets it, how is, oh, the volatile Ron Artest going to react when he wants the ball and Bryant is hugging it? The sports-is-entertainment crowd loves the idea of Kobe pushing the envelope and approaching Chamberlain's 100-point barrier as an ongoing angle, but the purist in each of us is compelled to ask a broader question: Are so many shots and points from one player ultimately healthy for the sport, the team ideal? Dominant as Kobe is, can't you imagine a gifted 12-year-old somewhere hogging the ball and gunning away because he happens to be markedly better than his teammates? Jordan's career scoring night, a 69-point show against Cleveland in 1990, came on 37 shots from the field. If he'd attempted 46, as Bryant did against the lowly Raptors, he may have threatened 90. Thirty-eight times in his NBA days, Jordan cracked the 50-point plateau. In those games, know how many times he took as many shots at Bryant did Sunday?
Once, in an overtime game against Orlando when he scored 64.
When we ponder Jordan's signature moments, we think of the postseason -- The Last Shot and Wrist Flick in '98, The Sick Game, the barrage of three-pointers and shrug against Portland, The Craig Ehlo shot, the twisting, gravity-defying layup against the Lakers. With Shaquille O'Neal helping, Bryant had his defining moments as a three-time champion in L.A., but before anyone tries to place him in the same wing with Jordan in any pantheon, Kobe will have to prove he can win a championship or two without Shaq. Of course, the last thing he wanted to hear the other night was a Jordan reference.
"Throughout my career, I've been compared to him so many times. I wish they'd stop,'' Bryant told reporters. "He was Michael Jordan and I am Kobe Bryant. We were different players. I wish people would let it go. It annoys me. He's one of the greatest of all time if not the greatest and for us in the younger generation -- me and LeBron [James] -- to be compared to such greatness isn't fair. It's important for us to play the game we know how to play and let people sit back and enjoy what we do and not compare it to what they have done.''
Good. Because there's still no comparison, 81 points and all.
If his Jordan comments sound arrogant, that's Kobe for you. He may be taking over SportsCenter every night, but that doesn't mean he's becoming more likable. Do not make the mistake of forgiving a player for past sins based on amazing athletic feats. As I watch him swoop through another triple-team like a phantom, I can't help but flash back to his Colorado rape case and his free fall as a popular athlete, even after charges were dropped. It's hard for mainstream America to suddenly embrace Kobe because he scored 81. We can admire his skills, as we always have, but that doesn't mean I have to admire the man. His jersey is only the league's fifth-best-seller, which means respect for his performances, thankfully, hasn't yet let to renewed worship.
How soon Jackson forgets
I also wonder if Bryant's coach is the same Phil Jackson who torched Kobe in his book as a petulant, uncoachable brat with "narcissistic tendencies.'' True, that was when O'Neal and Bryant were feuding. But in less than two years, it's stunning to see Jackson let Bryant mangle what is left of a triangle offense and shoot at will, recalling this book passage: "It needs to be remembered that Kobe is still an employee, and that he needs direction and guidance in a way that helps him mature into the kind of adult we hope he can be. Kobe is missing out by not finding a way to become part of a system that involves giving to something larger than himself. He could have been the heir apparent to Michael Jordan and maybe won as many championships. He may still win a championship or two, but the boyish hero image has been replaced by that of a callous gun for hire.''
The callous gun just went for 81.
But until he wins in June again, it's a large number in a larger shadow.
Jay Mariotti is a regular on ''Around the Horn'' at 4 p.m. on ESPN. Send e-mail to inbox@suntimes.com with name, hometown and daytime phone number (letters run Sunday).
http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay24.html
