The Perpetual NBA Thread

[empy]

FXT - buti na lang hindi niyo siya dinale ng career-ending injury :evillaugh

[BoEinG_747]

palit daw ng pangalan sabi ni Phil....his system will from now on be known as the "Bryangle offense" :bwahaha:

hahaha galing mo talaga sir 54

[wren]

FXT - buti na lang hindi niyo siya dinale ng career-ending injury :evillaugh

nobody wanted to get close to him, for that exact reason.

[baiskee]

na record ko din yung game...

peste, the replay game schedule was 12MN.... pero pinalabas na nila 1:45am na.

lecheng boxing replay yan...pati commercials buong buo din. :fire:

[ILuvDetailing]

It could be a blessing in disguise for the Rockets if they can get the top pick in this years draft.

Alam mo naman si Isaiah Thomas, mahilig sa guards and undersized PFs :bwahaha: he has 3 very good rooks, why not develop them instead

[theveed]

M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!
By Steve Kerr, Yahoo! Sports
January 23, 2006



More on Kobe: One-man Showtime

Sorry Chauncey Billups, Elton Brand, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki – you're no longer in the hunt for the NBA's Most Valuable Player award. Kobe Bryant locked up the award Sunday night with his stunning 81-point barrage in the Los Angeles Lakers' come-from-behind victory over Toronto.

Think about that: 81 points! That's right, eighty-one. The second most points ever scored in a game in league history, behind only Wilt Chamberlain's record of 100. It was more than Michael Jordan ever scored and more than Oscar Robertson or Kareem Abdul-Jabaar ever had. It was as many or more than the Houston Rockets have scored 12 times this season.

Bryant's performance – especially since it rallied the Lakers from a second-half, 18-point deficit – ranks as the greatest show I have ever seen in the NBA. And I was in Cleveland back in 1990 with the Cavaliers when Jordan scored his career-high of 69. (I had two points.) I never thought I'd see anyone top that. But Kobe did.

The scary thing is that we all should have seen this coming. Since Dec. 20, Kobe is averaging 43.4 points per game. In his 62-point outing against Dallas, Bryant didn't even play in the fourth quarter. How much would he have scored had the game been close? On Thursday in Sacramento, he had an off night – and still scored 51.

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His point totals have been so ridiculous that his 37-point effort in Phoenix on Friday was barely noticed. For almost anyone else, 37 would be a career night. For Kobe? It's a subpar game.

The question now is how high the bar should be raised. Is 90 points a possibility? Think about how preposterous that sounds, yet Kobe has actually made it a valid question. What if the Lakers play the Suns – who scored 149 points Sunday night and still lost – and Bryant gets hot? Then what? Could he score 100?

The man is virtually unguardable. His shooting range goes way beyond the three-point line, and his ball-handling ability allows him to get to any spot on the floor. His strength and fearlessness puts him at the free-throw line time and again, and his steely nature at the end of games makes him lethal in the clutch. He is a basketball machine.

What this all means is that Bryant has to win the NBA's MVP award. Brand was the early-season favorite after his fast start, and Nash has been mentioned as a repeat winner for leading the Suns to first place in the Pacific Division. Nowitzki also deserves consideration for his play and for the success of the Mavericks. But Kobe has elevated his game to an entirely different level – one that has rarely been seen in the history of the NBA.

He is far and away the best player in the league, and he deserves to be honored. After the show he put on Sunday, can anyone argue that he's not the MVP?

[empy]

hmm...the Indy natives are getting restless :hihihi:



Time to tinker is gone; trade O'Neal, rebuild
Bob Kravitz
Indianapolis Star

Today marks exactly one month before the NBA trading deadline, or 42 days since Ron Artest was put into permanent timeout. And the Indiana Pacers, now a bland, mediocre franchise doomed to middling status in the Eastern Conference, have left themselves with only two real choices:


Start the rebuilding process now, or wait until this summer?
Because unless somebody has a debilitating brain cramp and opts to send Kevin Garnett here for Ron Artest and a nail clipper, the Pacers are going absolutely nowhere. Fifty wins, at best. A second-round playoff ouster, at best.
What? You think Pacers president Larry Bird and team CEO Donnie Walsh, who so thoroughly botched the Artest situation from the start, are going to make a season-saving trade sometime in these next few weeks?
No.
Blow it up.
Start over.


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...89/1004/SPORTS

[niky]

I just caught the replay of Kobe's 81 pointer last night.

Needless to say, I'm impressed. If you'd asked me before that game who I thought was better, I'd have said Jordan, hands down. I'd have said "Kobe only shoots a lot because he's a ball hog", blah blah blah.

During the game, Kobe wasn't hogging all the shots at first, the ball went around, the Lakers scored an okay 49 in the first half, but Toronto just blitzed them with an 18 point lead... this is the Toronto, remember, that held Kobe to 11 last December, and broke Kobe's 40+ streak last year.

In the third quarter, with Odom and the others shooting pretty poorly, Kobe just took off. He outscored the entire Raptor team in the third quarter, and didn't let up. He also outscored the Raptors by himself in the fourth, too. Kobe wasn't just shooting, he was defending well, stealing the ball a couple of times, leading off fast breaks and finishing them, too.

And these weren't easy shots. He did have a couple of fast breaks and one or two pretty spectacular alley-oops, but almost anything he did inside the line had either someone's arms waving in his face or him sandwiched between two or three players. At one point, he got hit in the eye, but kept playing.

Kobe's got Jordan's fadeaway jumper nailed cold. And he did it from outside the line all throughout the second half. He did over 53% from 3-point range and 60% from the floor. It looked like he couldn't miss, and when he did, it was usually because the defenders were stuck to him like glue... that's the reason for him taking 20 free throws (making 18)... and a measure of the Raptor's desperation in the second half is that fact that some of those free throws were for a 3-point attempt.

You never foul someone that far out... but he was making so many 3's, they just had to try to stop him. By the middle of the third, Kobe was already over 40, and everyone was on their feet every time Kobe made a shot.

I used to be a Kobe hater. I'm still skeptical he can carry such a poor team to the playoffs by himself. But that game was magic, and the MVP flashing on the scoreboard? I believe it.

To think that a game like this is even possible in this day and age, with the tighter defense possible with the removal of the illegal defense rule.

[ILuvDetailing]

If you guys watched the Mavericks game, you'd think that the Mavericks where a poor defensive team the way Kobe shot the lights out. Yup this game was magical but Kobe's season has been magical, he started out slow but boy did he ever pick it up.

[kimpOy]

ito yata iyon basketball team ng Angola ...pinag sisiko na ni Charles Barkley..after ng game nag pa Picture pa... hihihi

ah yes CB34 my fav player...
the most quotable nba player also

remember, those guys from Angola might be carrying spears.

“I don't know anything about
Angola, but I know they're in trouble,”

[yuichi]

for me? MJ...by a mile..... wlang tatalo sa PUSO nya.
and i like MJ's acts in midair....i read an article few years ago, MJ vs Dr.J.......MJ's hangtime is just superb....
although pinakamataas sa vertical jump cgurado si vince carter.

[yuichi]

FXT, galing ng experience n yan! btw..anong gingawa ni MJ don at magisa lnag b sya?

[Isuzoom]

Larry Bird

[theveed]

^^
Labo post hehe... MJ or Kobe nga eh.

[cardo]

Jordan is my favorite player

[falken]

No matter how many scoring records Kobe breaks, unless he can command the respect of his teammates and show us that he's able to lead a team to the championships. It's still Jordan for me.

[rj_tim]

From ESPN.com:


Has Kobe claimed Michael Jordan's throne? If not, who has?


Legler: He has not reached the level of Jordan because he has yet to win a championship as his team's most dominant player. Bryant has three rings playing alongside Shaq, but hasn't even reached the playoffs as the focal point of his team. He must achieve team success as his team's leader to be compared to Jordan.

Broussard: No, Kobe has not claimed MJ's throne. That's heresy! MJ is the greatest and until Kobe or someone else wins close to six titles without a dominant big man, they can't even think about replacing him. Kobe is, however, the second-best shooting guard in NBA history behind MJ. It will take multiple championships to be MJ's true heir. It's clearly between Kobe and LeBron. Let the race begin.

Bucher: There was only one Michael. There is no heir, never will be. Was Michael the next Magic? No. Was Magic the next Dr. J? No. The whole idea of heirs is a bad one. Kobe's blazing his own Hall of Fame path.

Shouler: When Bryant claims the scoring title this year, it will be his first in ten seasons. Jordan had ten scoring titles and does anyone doubt he would also have won two more in 1994 and 1995, the years he was in retirement? Then we can talk about defense, where Bryant is not nearly Jordan's equal. No one is Jordan's true heir.

John Hollinger, ESPN Insider: No and no. If anyone is the heir, it's LeBron James.

Greg Anthony, ESPN Insider: He is the only player I've seen who is every bit as competitive as MJ. The next step is becoming as smart as MJ. Learning to channel all of that competitive spirit and having it bring out the best in his teammates. He's on his way.

[ILuvDetailing]

Only time will tell if Kobe eclipses Jordan's accomplishments.... remember that Michael didn't garner all the recognition and respect until he won all those championships, he was branded as "selfish" after winning all those scoring titles.

[marlon22701]

Not yet....but he will be soon!

MJ's accomplishments in the NBA:

- six NBA Championships
- NBA MVP five times
- Rookie of the Year (1985)
- Defensive Player of the Year (1988)
- Finals MVP in all his six NBA Championships
- MVP triple crown (regular season, finals, all-star game) twice in 1996 and 1998
- 10 scoring titles
- All-Defensive First Team nine times

Kobe's:

- 3-time NBA Champion
- 3-time All-NBA Defensive First Team
- NBA All-Star Game MVP
- 8-time NBA All-Star
- 3-time All-NBA First Team

not much compared to MJ but Kobe is definitely on track to achieve all what his "idol" had achieved in the past!

[wren]

FXT, galing ng experience n yan! btw..anong gingawa ni MJ don at magisa lnag b sya?

they were in town to play the warriors...i guess he just wanted to work out. yup, mag-isa lang sya.