Ballin’: Record-Setting Kobe
NBA December 24th. 2007, 8:52am
Los Angeles Lakers 95, New York 90: Kobe has now become the youngest player in NBA history to surpass 20,000 total points. Also, Phil Jackson felt comfortable to say he doesn’t see the Lakers trading Kobe, because it’d be like giving up a ‘diamond for a bunch of garnets.’ LA nearly blew a 25-point third quarter lead, but Jordan Farmar stole an inbounds pass with four seconds left and the Knicks never got a shot at a game-tying shot. Still waiting for the Knicks to yank Curry from the starting lineup.
Detroit 94, Houston 82: Does any team need a breather more than the Rockets? Besides the 13-15 record, fragile T-Mac went down again, and even Yao got busted up, too. It resulted in the Pistons owning the second half en route to winning their 12th in 14 games.
Golden State 105, Cleveland 96: Nice road win for the 16-12 Warriors, who received 29 from Stephen Jackson and 27 from Baron Davis. The Cavs seem to be jogging along at 12-16, and this may mean a first-round matchup with the Pistons. That’ll be interesting, huh? You know, we’d actually pick the LeBrons to win that series. NBA box scores have now added the +/- stat, and it was slightly eye-popping to see Larry Hughes register a -23 in only 18 minutes of action.
Boston 103, Orlando 91: Four players scored 20 or more points and the Celtics shot 52 percent and cruised to victory. Orlando fell to 18-11 and has won just three of its last 10. Not to rub salt in the gaping Magic wound … but the Orlando starting backcourt of Nelson and Bogans shot 2-for-5 and scored seven points. Seventh seed, anyone?
Denver 106, Sacramento 105: Wow did the Kings blow this one. Beno Udrih, an 89 percent free throw shooter, clanged two in the final minute, leaving the door ajar for Linas Kleiza to bury a 22-footer at the buzzer. Denver’s 16-11 and starting to get it together. We smell a Nuggets-Lakers first-round series, which would be fun as hell.
9 Responses to “Ballin’: Record-Setting Kobe”
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December 24th, 2007 at 9:51 am
I don’t follow NBA basketball other than to see if the Pistons win or not so please excuse my ignorance. At what point will Kobe ever be placed as one of the best of the best.
We all know he is great but…No significant other! Jordan had Pippen, Bird had Mchale and Parrish, Magic had Kareem (or other way around).
Will it take another dynamic duo situation for Kobe to placed amoung these names?
December 24th, 2007 at 10:27 am
If you follow the Cavs at all, that -23 for Larry Hughes would only register a “That’s all?” He’s easily the most despised player on the Cleveland roster by the home fans. It stems from a combination of sucking and having a contract that destroys our cap.
@e man: Man, if only Kobe had a good player on his team. Like a hall of fame center in his prime. Man, if something like that ever happened, I bet Kobe and this theoretical center, let’s say it was someone like Shaq, would probably win at least three championships in a row.
December 24th, 2007 at 10:32 am
But Shaq and Kobe’s divorce does not overshadow that? My point here is that yes Kobe had Shaq but in the end they hated each other and that hatred completely overshadowed the both of them. You can not honestly rate Kobe and Shaq up there with those other duos.
December 24th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Kobe the youngest to 20,000 points? Who cares? That’s the perfect example of how today’s 24/7 media cycle drives applause of meaningless stats. The real accomplishment would be if he took the least amount of games to get to 20,000. So how did Kobe do? The final paragraph of the AP story on him being the youngest tells the tale…
“Bryant, who scored 39 in the Lakers’ 95-90 win over the Knicks, needed 811 games to reach 20,000 points, 15th-fastest in league history. Chamberlain did it in 499 games.”
Not so meaningful now, is it?
December 24th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Also, I’d like to see the stats on youngest to 20,000 women.
December 24th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
+1 to Tugnutts
@eman: I don’t think duos are a measure of a great player. Wilt Chamberlain is no less a legend because he was such an ass that people hated playing with him. Kobe will probably be remembered as a great scorer who couldn’t win without help (Wilt also never won championships when he was setting records). I do consider Kobe the best player in the league from 2004 until this season, but Lebron has definitely surpassed him this year.
All-time…no idea. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
December 24th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
And Scott Skiles-to get shitcanned on Christmas Eve. Happy Holidays!!
December 24th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
I see your point Tugnutts; also Wilt entered the league at 23 and Kobe at 17/18. But I think the youngest to 20,000 stat still has some meaning, cause it implies that Kobe could surpass all those guys in points scored eventually cause he’s still relatively young. When people cite Kareem as the all-time leading scorer with his 38,000+ points, they don’t mention that he played a full 20 seasons and averaged “only” 24 a game for his career. Obviously if Wilt and Jordan played as many games they’d have more total points. But that’s not the point.
e man: Kobe is at the least the second best 2 guard of all time. I think these last 2 seasons put him past other greats like Jerry West or whoever you’d like to argue is 2nd at that position after Jordan. And he’s slowly creeping into top-10 all time. Still not the level of the best of the best (historically) like MJ, Bird, Magic, Wilt, Russell, Kareem, etc…(perhaps another title as the main man will do the trick), but he is clearly in that 2nd tier of all-time greats already, with another several years of his prime left.
December 25th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Would the Lakers still be willing to trade Kobe for T-Mac straight up?? Each passing day makes that seem less likely. And causes me to drink more.