Magic really didn't mesh with the Lake Show team in the locker room, and he was benched in the final minutes of the closeout game. He was very frustrated, told the press he wanted to play point guard again (Lakers had Nick Van Exel at point) and he sounded like he might even leave the Lakers to play someplace else. Then he came back a few days later and said he couldn't play any place else and retired.
Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 11197 Location: The Other Perspective
Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2020 11:45 am Post subject:
slavavov wrote:
I read Pearlman's book, and although it wasn't fair enough to Kobe (it doesn't focus enough on the great things he did, I mean you need to balance reporting the good and bad), I did enjoy reading it, as I enjoyed reading his book on the Showtime Lakers.
But here's what I've always wondered about Kobe: if he never played with Shaq, and instead was "the man" his whole career and still had the opportunity to start contending for championships when he was relatively young, would he had developed differently? Is it possible he would've seemed a lot more socially aware and mature in his early to mid 20s? Is it possible he would've seemed a lot more likeable on the surface if Shaq (and Phil) weren't there to influence the media and fans to believe that he was a petulant egomaniac man-child who had no social skills?
Great questions. He would have lost A LOT while putting up incredible individual stats like Jordan did as the man so early in his career. This might have sped up his process into becoming a more mature leader. _________________ "Chick lived and breathed Lakers basketball…but he was also fair and objective and called every game the way it was played."
-from Chick: His Unpublished Memoirs and the Memories of Those Who Knew Him
I read Pearlman's book, and although it wasn't fair enough to Kobe (it doesn't focus enough on the great things he did, I mean you need to balance reporting the good and bad), I did enjoy reading it, as I enjoyed reading his book on the Showtime Lakers.
But here's what I've always wondered about Kobe: if he never played with Shaq, and instead was "the man" his whole career and still had the opportunity to start contending for championships when he was relatively young, would he had developed differently? Is it possible he would've seemed a lot more socially aware and mature in his early to mid 20s? Is it possible he would've seemed a lot more likeable on the surface if Shaq (and Phil) weren't there to influence the media and fans to believe that he was a petulant egomaniac man-child who had no social skills?
Great questions. He would have lost A LOT while putting up incredible individual stats like Jordan did as the man so early in his career. This might have sped up his process into becoming a more mature leader.
Well we know what that bad team would have been: the John Caplipari Nets. So just take out Kittles and insert Kobe and imagine how the next 20 years would have looked like. You would have seen Marbury and Kobe together. You would have seen Kidd and Kobe together. Most likely the Nets would not have ended up with Kenyon Martin in that case and it is possible they could have ended up with Richard Jefferson.
If you are saying our Lakers and we dont end up with Shaq, we sign Brian Williams to be our center with our cap space and we dont sniff the finals for years while not being bad enough to really land the top talents to take us over the top. Although that could mean West pulls the trigger on sending Jones to the Raptors so he can acquire a talent that fits kobe's timeline in McGrady.
I've liked all of Pearlman's books. But I do think sometimes narrative gets crammed in even when the facts disagree. Take the Magic comeback.
Page 6
"Los Angeles dropped a 98-97 crusher to Orlando on March 17 when the normally cocksure Van Exel bypassed a potential game-winning shot--one he certainly would have taken had Magic not been on the floor."
Here's the ending, courtesy of NPZ.
Nick had the defender one on one with 5 seconds to go, could have gone in for winning layup. Do we think in that moment he was thinking, wait, Magic's here, don't do that. And then...he does in fact launch the potential game-winning shot with just under 2 seconds left! But somehow this becomes a tale about how Magic was harming his young teammates' development.
That's all basketball instincts in that clip. He couldn't get a layup cause he couldn't beat his man, had to settle. Pearlman embellished all right.
On a slight tangent, I was confused by that Orlando possession. Where you started the clip, I had no awareness of the shot clock. Didn't know why that was such a normal possession when the game was going to end like that. So I rewind a little further and realize there was only 27 seconds left, so a 3 second differential. They were just going to let Orlando run that shot clock down, launch a shot, try to get the board with maybe 1 second left? That was bad coaching. That was a lucky turnover. It's only a 1 pt game, 3 second differential. I'd do the foul game and hope they miss free throws.
Agreed on foul and FTs. At worst you have to hit a 3 pointer (and have to get a decent looking one). They had the worst two things collide -- that set up by Del and then a lucky TO and an open floor. At that moment, Del couldn't take a timeout and Nick had to run it down court to see if there was something there.
All 4 of us including the author probably all watched that and saw it slightly different. I differ from you two gents in that Nick seemed to get spooked when he saw a taller defender suddenly in front of him. Didn't matter if it was Anthony Bowie or Penny. Not that Bowie was a bad defender, he actually saved the game for ORL. When he couldn't break him off, Nick's best option was to then just attempt a layup (Bowie not a high flyer) and hope to get fouled himself. You ALWAYS wanna test the refs in that situation and if they swallow their whistles, so be it. Nick pulling it out like that and then taking a fallback shot was the worst thing he could've chosen. The Donald played better D in blocking his man off face to face/body to body than Nick played O. And I like me some NVE/Lake Show. PS: An LG bro gave me that game, prolly doesn't want his name out there. Larry Legend I call him.
I already have a rant about our 96 bizzaro team. We lost 7 games by 1 point and won a couple by 1. Nine in one year is record level type stuff. And we had zero OTs, which probably hasn't happened more than twice in 500 team seasons if you count everyone. Only time we've ever done it in either city. We also lost 3 in a row by 1 point in Nov culminating in the one at PHX where Finley beat us at the buzz. Nick fouled up by trying to test the refs for a jumpball. In THAT case, they'll go to the home team. He did that the prior season at MIL in Del's 2nd game and we lost that too by 1. Marty Conlon got the tip and hit FTs after the foul and we lost at buzz. Del was yelling at Coop on the bench why didn't he call TO and Coop was goin, "Aaaah know!..." and shakin his head in dismay. The Suns game was the 2nd time he got burned.
This one is the only 1 pt loss that still induces pain. Check some of my comments. We really shat the bed, blew a big lead in 4th. Chick was right re: Schoolboys! Chick also blew the fridge, which is why he was extra pissed.
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