Wow, Kobe had the balls to make the comparison with Jordan (and a false one at that-- MJ never shot 17% for a game; 20%, maybe, like say 4-20, but not in a playoff game)? He's hit a new low. Glad to see his ego is still there despite his PITIFUL performance (and, let's be honest, save for a couple of games, his entire playoffs has been subpar).
You want to talk about those games he quoted? Sure. Here's the stats, from
this site
Game 1 (the 10-29 performance): 32 points, 11 rebound, 4 assists
Game 2 (the 9-20 performance): 27, 4 and 4
Game 3 :
46 points, 7 boards, 5 assists (the shooting wasn't bad either, or else your reporter would've mentioned it, no?)
Game 4 (the 5-15 showing): 23 points, 2 reb, 4 assists
Game 5: 18 points, 5 reb, 9 assists
Game 6: 32 points, 4 rebounds and
13 assists (also must have been good shooting)
He averaged 29.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 6.5 assists for the series, which are all respectable #'s (particularly being the sole focus and also going against 2 of the best defenders of all time-- how many all-defensive teams has Prince been on again?
). We can't determine his FG% for the series, because we're missing some games, though I'll take the reporter's word for the games in question.
Look, I haven't been dogging Kobe just because he's shot poorly, but A) because he hasn't done the other things (spare me the "but they weren't making shots" discussion-- I could just as easily say that about Jordan), and ALSO (and this is the big thing imo) because he hasn't been aggressive enough in terms of getting to his spots and drawing fouls to supplement his scoring. Look at MJ's 10-29 performance-- he ended up with 32 points, which means he made between 9-12 FT's that game. Look at the 5-15 game for 23 points-- that means he made between 11-13 FT's. Ditto for the 9-20 showing (which is still better than Kobe's average FG% night during the course of a season, but whatever)-- 27 points, meaning he made between 7-9 FT's. He obviously
attempted more FT's than this, unless we're to assume that he made every FT he took. The point being that he was aggressive and found ways to score and help his team even when his shot may have been off (and unless I saw the game, I wouldn't be able to tell if it was his shot that was off, the defense, if he went to the rim a lot and got blocked, or a combination of all of these). You'd have to see the game to make that judgment. Even commentators such as Tim Legler commented after Kobe's game 3 performance that it was inexcusable to have only 1 point in the first half, and how a guy like Jordan would have gotten to the line or done the other things to get himself involved. On the heels of that, Kobe gets only 5 points in the first half of game 4 with no FT's attempted. Inexcusable imo.
But I've actually SEEN these past 4 games, and in all of them Kobe has A) not been able to get clean looks against Prince, B) taken some incredibly forced shots when he didn't have to, and C) settled for a lot of jumpers rather than making his move quickly and having the defense react to HIM rather than vice-versa. I'd never criticize him for simply having a bad shooting night or two (and make no mistake, if Jordan shot < 40% for the entire series in question like Kobe is doing, the reporter would've just stated that, which is why he only focused on 3 games, one of which is still better than Kobe's average FG%) . I criticize him for not being aggressive (you can make a case that he should've had 1-3 more FT's in game 4, but that's about it imo), and not doing the other things that help a team win.
Beyond all this, the comparison is irrelevant because Kobe is not receiving a
fraction of the defensive attention that Jordan did with those Pistons, and Prince is not nearly the defensive equivalent of Dumars and/or Rodman (not yet at least); in particular, he has slow feet and often stands nearly upright on defense, which his length compensates for, but which can and SHOULD be exploited by Kobe, but he's been settling for long J's. PLEASE don't try to say that Kobe faced 2 and 3 defenders in that game-- the only time this happened was when he got into the lane and Detroit clogged it; even on pick-and-rolls, which Detroit tended to trap when Kobe was the ballhandler, the original defender did not follow Kobe all the way out, and let the secondary defender (the defender of the "roll" man) herd him out towards halfcourt while Kobe's defender hung back a few steps in case Kobe got around. It wasn't a hard trap. They would've been even MORE effective had they done that, imo, as Kobe seemed doggedly determined to get into the lane HIS WAY at all costs, instead of finding other ways.
But yeah, it's always good to see that his arrogance hasn't subsided after what seemed to be a very humble postgame press conference. He has real nerve even mentioning Jordan in the same breath as himself, and it goes to show you his unabashed hubris. He'll learn when he's on his own team that he's not half the player he thinks he is.
But if Kobe goes off for 38+ the next game with at least 5 assists, and 33+ in game 6 with 6 or more assists, then you won't hear a peep out of me as to his performance. I'll promise you that-- you can quote this.
Because before you become the GOAT (the acronym), you have to stop being a goat (literal).
"IF" the Lakers lose this series, then the whole team except Shaq and Kobe needs to be blown up and they need to start from scratch.