Joe Mama said:
I think you are reading my post a little too literally. I don't know if Kobe Bryant truly "couldn't stand" to see Shaquille O'Neal destroy the Pistons I just know that through the first half of several of those games Shaq was shredding Detroit only to have his teammates, especially Kobe Bryant, inexplicably freeze him the rest of the game.
I'm not trying to put the entire weight of the LA Lakers' Finals loss on Kobe Bryant's shoulders. I do however believe that he didn't play particularly well, and he did play selfishly. In fact I think the Karl Malone injury was the biggest factor in their loss.
Joe Mama
I agree with you on most of what you just said. The Lakers needed to get Shaq the ball much, much more than they did during the 2004 NBA Finals. That had been the Lakers' problem since before they won a single championship with Kobe and Shaq, and during their run it was their main problem as well, they were just so good that they could win despite this flaw.
Kobe didn't play well in the Finals, I'll concede that to you. I just don't think Kobe Bryant is a selfish player. He was on the court with Shaquille O'neal and 3 other scrubs at all times, and because of that, he wasn't able to get anything decent going towards the rim. The bottom line is, Kobe's job on the court is, above all else, to score the basketball. He simply did not have the opportunity to do that in the Detroit series. You know, I've seen great players get tripple teamed and have nothing going from a scoring standpoint, so they do other things. They make the extra pass, they kick the ball out of the post when they get trapped, they make stops on defense, they dive on the ground, and they will their teams to win in other ways besides scoring. Michael Jordan could do it (although most of the time he could just score anyway), Magic Johnson did it, Isiah Thomas did it, Anfernee Hardaway did it at one time, and I've seen Kobe Bryant do it. Unfortunately for him, in this case it wasn't an option. The other guys just weren't getting it done. Sure, he should've passed the ball to Shaq more, but who knows if Shaquille could've been effective with more touches. Considering the constant beating he takes, and the minutes he was playing (42.6 mpg, up from 36.8 in the regular season), and the sluggish way he was playing on the defensive end, he may have been giving LA all he could already. Hell, if you really want to put the "weight" of the Lakers' loss on anybody, you know a significant portion of it had to go to O'neal. Namely, around the midsection, under his chin, and probably on his thighs.
Basically, it was a really poor performance on behalf of every single Laker that took the court last June. They were totally dominated mentally by a team that had as much NBA Finals experience as I do. They didn't look like they believed they could win it, and that was probably their most dooming shortcoming. Maybe if Karl Malone played he would've made a big difference, who knows. But Gary Payton lost all confidence, their young guys were totally overwhelmed. Even Luke Walton, who had such an inspiring Game 2, was confused and bamboozled once Detroit adjusted. Derek Fisher was ineffective, Horace Grant looked old, Shaq looked fat on D and Kobe looked like crap.
