Kobe Was Ridiculous

[holidayinn21]

Yes the same Utah Jazz who were the number 1 seed both years. let's act like the Jazz weren't the heavy favorites both years. Basketball discussion on this board is straight trash.

Lakers were favored to win the West as soon as Shaq signed, and got packed up in 5, with back to back sweeps

The revisionist history

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Yes the same Utah Jazz who were the number 1 seed both years. let's act like the Jazz weren't the heavy favorites both years. Basketball discussion on this board is straight trash.

Lakers were favored in 1998 going into the series: NBA playoffs series |SportsOddsHistory.com

They were the definition of mid. Alot of teams have been number 1 seeds. Shaq had no business losing to them.

How is that on Shaq? The Lakers as a team had no business losing to the Jazz in '98. Shaq and Kobe were both all-star starters, Jones and Van Exel were both all-star reserves. FOUR all-stars and they lose to a team of Malone and some 35yo white guys barely over 6 feet tall.

It makes no fukking sense for you to blame Shaq for that loss, but it's similar to you blaming Bron for this last loss. Look at the numbers:


Shaq: 32-9-1 on 56% shooting (up from 28ppg regular season), forced Foster/Ostertag/Carr into a combined 48 fouls in just 4 games. He should have shot free throws a lot better, but he wasn't the weakest link.

Jones: 15-4-3 on 41% shooting, 4-14 from three (down from 17ppg regular season)
Kobe: 10-2-1 on 37% shooting, 0-7 from three (down from 15ppg regular season)
Van Exel: 9-4-3 on 24% shooting, 4-21 from three (down from 14ppg regular season)
Fox: 10-4-3 on 41% shooting, 9-20 from three (down from 12ppg regular season)
Fisher: 6-2-3 on 35% shooting, 1-6 from three (same as regular season)
Horry: 5-6-2 on 36% shooting, 1-2 from three (down from 7ppg regular season)



Game 1 was a blowout loss where everyone played like shyt.

Game 2, Shaq scored 31 on 14-20 shooting, but Fox, Kobe, and Van Exel all shot like shyt and the Lakers lost by 4. Shaq and Jones combined for 17 in the 4th, Kobe and Van Exel combined for 0.

Game 3, Shaq scored 39 on 17-30 shooting, but Jones and Van Exel shot like shyt and Kobe hardly shot at all. Lakers lost by 11.

Game 4, Shaq scored 38 on 14-24 shooting, but Fox, Van Exel, and Fisher all shot like shyt and Kobe barely took any shots at all. Shaq scored 19 in the fourth in an attempted comeback but fell just short, losing by 4.





How the fukk you blame that shyt on Shaq? Y'all literally just post out of your agendas with no recognition of reality.

 

[10bandz]

Lakers were favored to win the West as soon as Shaq signed, and got packed up in 5, with back to back sweeps

The revisionist history

Exactly....look at the preseason odds

1996-97 NBA Preseason Odds | Basketball-Reference.com

Checkout the Preseason Odds for the 1996-97 NBA season and more on Basketball-Reference.com

www.basketball-reference.com

This was the first year Shaq was on the Lakers. Lakers were 2nd favorites after the Bulls to win at +500 while Utah was 10th at +1800

1997-98 NBA Preseason Odds | Basketball-Reference.com

Checkout the Preseason Odds for the 1997-98 NBA season and more on Basketball-Reference.com

www.basketball-reference.com

Utah was 2nd at +600, Lakers 3rd at +700. Almost even but we got swept

1998-99 NBA Preseason Odds | Basketball-Reference.com

Checkout the Preseason Odds for the 1998-99 NBA season and more on Basketball-Reference.com

www.basketball-reference.com

Lakers literally the FAVORITES to win the title, Spurs 3rd favorites and we got swept


If we would've lost in 6 or 7 in any of those series it'd be different. But 1-12 in those three series with "The Most Dominant" who could've won a 3peat "with anybody"


edit: then you got 2000

1999-00 NBA Preseason Odds | Basketball-Reference.com

Checkout the Preseason Odds for the 1999-00 NBA season and more on Basketball-Reference.com

www.basketball-reference.com

Portland favored to win the title......and pretty much was gonna win the title if they won Game 7. But they didn't and Kobe outplayed him in that Game 7.

 

[Ozymandeas]

Yea let's act like basketball aint a team sport. Yea a team that had back to back 60 plus win seasons were mid. A team that went to the finals in back to back years were mid. Like I've said basketball discussion on this board is complete trash.

Someone disagreeing with you is not a trash discussion. You are not God nikka You have an opinion. I have an opinion.

Shaq is considered a top 10 player ALL-TIME. Most dominant player ALL-TIME. So, yea, I'm expecting him to beat Malone and Stockton and white boys that work at Jiffy Lube in the offseason.

As far as the bolded, that's a case of numbers lying to you. Phoenix averaged 59 wins for three years in the mid 2000s. Atlanta won 60 games in 2014. Toronto got 59 games in 2018. None of those teams had enough to get over the hump. The Jazz were the same. If you gonna talk all that nonsense about Shaq not needing Kobe, then he deserves criticism for losing for all those years

 

[Professor Emeritus]

You give TD, Duncan, KG to Kobe it's the same fukking results. Maybe not a 3peat per se but overall through the long term definitely winning hella rings

lol at naming "TD" then "Duncan" so it looks like two different guys.

And of course Duncan would get the Lakers rings, he was getting the Spurs rings in the same era with a worse roster and all-time is considered just as good as Shaq. What do you think that proves about Kobe? Duncan would get rings because of Duncan, not because of Kobe.

The whole point of listing other guys who could get rings with Shaq is that those players are considered historically inferior. Naming Duncan makes no sense because he's an all-time GOAT ranked higher than Kobe anyway.

 

[GreatestLaker]

Lakers were favored in 1998 going into the series: NBA playoffs series |SportsOddsHistory.com






How is that on Shaq? The Lakers as a team had no business losing to the Jazz in '98. Shaq and Kobe were both all-star starters, Jones and Van Exel were both all-star reserves. FOUR all-stars and they lose to a team of Malone and some 35yo white guys barely over 6 feet tall.

It makes no fukking sense for you to blame Shaq for that loss, but it's similar to you blaming Bron for this last loss. Look at the numbers:


Shaq: 32-9-1 on 56% shooting (up from 28ppg regular season), forced Foster/Ostertag/Carr into a combined 48 fouls in just 4 games. He should have shot free throws a lot better, but he wasn't the weakest link.

Jones: 15-4-3 on 41% shooting, 4-14 from three (down from 17ppg regular season)
Kobe: 10-2-1 on 37% shooting, 0-7 from three (down from 15ppg regular season)
Van Exel: 9-4-3 on 24% shooting, 4-21 from three (down from 14ppg regular season)
Fox: 10-4-3 on 41% shooting, 9-20 from three (down from 12ppg regular season)
Fisher: 6-2-3 on 35% shooting, 1-6 from three (same as regular season)
Horry: 5-6-2 on 36% shooting, 1-2 from three (down from 7ppg regular season)



Game 1 was a blowout loss where everyone played like shyt.

Game 2, Shaq scored 31 on 14-20 shooting, but Fox, Kobe, and Van Exel all shot like shyt and the Lakers lost by 4. Shaq and Jones combined for 17 in the 4th, Kobe and Van Exel combined for 0.

Game 3, Shaq scored 39 on 17-30 shooting, but Jones and Van Exel shot like shyt and Kobe hardly shot at all. Lakers lost by 11.

Game 4, Shaq scored 38 on 14-24 shooting, but Fox, Van Exel, and Fisher all shot like shyt and Kobe barely took any shots at all. Shaq scored 19 in the fourth in an attempted comeback but fell just short, losing by 4.





How the fukk you blame that shyt on Shaq? Y'all literally just post out of your agendas with no recognition of reality.

I wasn't paying attention to betting odds back then I was a kid. I'm talking strictly what analyst were saying.

 

[10bandz]

lol at naming "TD" then "Duncan" so it looks like two different guys.

I meant to say Dirk, fakkit.

You can add Chris Bosh (as the #2 option) in there too. No sitting in the corner as a #3 getting mentality fukked up playing with Kobe

You haven't take a break off this forum in since we got eliminated. I'll let you carry on though

 

[GreatestLaker]

Someone disagreeing with you is not a trash discussion. You are not God nikka You have an opinion. I have an opinion.

Shaq is considered a top 10 player ALL-TIME. Most dominant player ALL-TIME. So, yea, I'm expecting him to beat Malone and Stockton and white boys that work at Jiffy Lube in the offseason.

As far as the bolded, that's a case of numbers lying to you. Phoenix averaged 59 wins for three years in the mid 2000s. Atlanta won 60 games in 2014. Toronto got 59 games in 2018. None of those teams had enough to get over the hump. The Jazz were the same. If you gonna talk all that nonsense about Shaq not needing Kobe, then he deserves criticism for losing for all those years

It's a team sport. Shaq aint going out there and beating a 60 win team by himself. Did you even watch the games? Shaq barely got any help. In 98 Shaq averaged about 30/10/2 and they still lost.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

I meant to say Dirk, fakkit.

You can add Chris Bosh (as the #2 option) in there too. No sitting in the corner as a #3 getting mentality fukked up playing with Kobe

Kobe/Dirk and Kobe/Bosh ain't winning no three-peat dynasty rings.

You haven't take a break off this forum in since we got eliminated. I'll let you carry on though

And if I had taken a break, you would have said that I ran away and was in hiding.

Y'all always play both sides. Why do you even care so much about my posting activity, why not just talk basketball?

Speaking of that, why haven't you owned up to lying about my posting activity in the season threads and lying about why I got banned from the thread? It's funny that I caught you in an outright lie exposed by your OWN previous post, but you just ghosted rather than admitting you had made the whole thing up.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

I wasn't paying attention to betting odds back then I was a kid. I'm talking strictly what analyst were saying.

So Lakers had 61 wins, 4 All-Stars, favored by betting odds, and had the typical extra media gassing cause they are the Lakers, but you think the analysts "heavily favored" the Jazz....why?

 

[BlueHeffner]

This is my goat

 

[Professor Emeritus]

He didn't do shyt from 1996 to 1999 either though when Kobe was a bench player. He lost to the Jazz twice in the playoffs. The Jazz.

Kobe nearly won 6th Man of the Year in 1998, he was an all-star and the Lakers' #3 scorer
Kobe was a full-time starter in 1999, he was a 20ppg scorer and the Lakers' #2 scorer.


Shaq played very well in 1998, it was the guards who played like shyt and blew their best chance.

 

[10bandz]

Kobe/Dirk and Kobe/Bosh ain't winning no three-peat dynasty rings.






And if I had taken a break, you would have said that I ran away and was in hiding.

Y'all always play both sides. Why do you even care so much about my posting activity, why not just talk basketball?

Speaking of that, why haven't you owned up to lying about my posting activity in the season threads and lying about why I got banned from the thread? It's funny that I caught you in an outright lie exposed by your OWN previous post, but you just ghosted rather than admitting you had made the whole thing up.

I clearly said maybe not a 3 peat but definitely as many titles over the long term.

@ thinking Kobe and Dirk couldn't win 3 titles in a 5-6 year timeframe in their primes

And if I had taken a break, you would have said that I ran away and was in hiding.

Y'all always play both sides. Why do you even care so much about my posting activity, why not just talk basketball?

Speaking of that, why haven't you owned up to lying about my posting activity in the season threads and lying about why I got banned from the thread? It's funny that I caught you in an outright lie exposed by your OWN previous post, but you just ghosted rather than admitting you had made the whole thing up.

Taking a break or posting 200 essays frantically to defend a basketball player 15 years younger than you......yeah no middle ground there

Speaking of that, why haven't you owned up to lying about my posting activity in the season threads and lying about why I got banned from the thread? It's funny that I caught you in an outright lie exposed by your OWN previous post, but you just ghosted rather than admitting you had made the whole thing up.

i dont even know what the fukk you're talking about. First off, you're a "Blazers" that allegedly grew up right next to the Forum in the 80s, hated the Lakers you're whole life and circled back to rooting for them because of a basketball player 15 years younger than you. Any posting activity in the Lakers thread is nothing but pure, unabashed dikkriding on your behalf.

Secondly, I don't give a fukk right specific reason you got banned from the thread. You were in the thread every day caping for your mans which suggesting the absolute fukking idiotic trades and then trying to talk down on Laker fans who didn't agree with you, as if Laker fans are supposed to view the team through some Bron dikksucking lens than you do. You clearly got banned because you were stinking up the thread and eventually someone reported you.

I dont make NOTHING up, I just don't have the time to spend all day carefully crafted misleading narratives to win forum arguments.

Im done with you for the day, you can carry on.....

 

[BlueHeffner]

Not a Kobe game winner but prob the highlight of his I've watched the most
Had Spike like

Kobe: Yo Fault

 

[LurkGod]

Ain’t no way Shaq can get all the credit for the three peat and not take the blame for the sweeps when Kobe was a damn teenager