LeBron is officially cooked. Come pay your respects

[Mars]

Funny thing was, they weren't quiet in 2013. Now they just want to pretend 2013 never happened because stan wars are more important than reality even though Kobe looked far worse on defense at 34 than Bron looks at 37 and they all knew it.

CantStop himself said so at the time and is trying to rewrite history now:















Even Kobestans couldn't front at the time - they were disgusted by Kobe's defense. Laker media was even worse.

To call Kobe Bryant's defense this season bad is to call the Pacific Ocean big, or the sun hot. He hasn't just been bad and he's not just a liability. His presence on the defensive end of the court has actually become a detriment, in the truest sense of the word. And the worst part? He's not failing to play defense. He has willingly decided that he no longer needs to try.


That Kobe Bryant, undisputed leader of this team, needs to be held accountable for horrific effort on defense tells you all you need to know about why this team is playing the way that it is. If the team's defense is terrible, it is because the team's leader is very clearly stating with his play that defense does not matter. If the team lacks chemistry, it is because it is tough to like and respect a guy so clearly hanging you out to dry on the defensive end. If the team's effort is inconsistent, it is because the team's leader only tries half the time. If nobody is doing the little things, it is because the team's leader isn't doing anything he doesn't want to do.


You can say that Kobe Bryant never gives up, even when things look bleak, if you are paying attention to one side of the court. If you pay attention to the other side, Kobe Bryant gives up before the game even tilts in one direction or the other, for no apparent reason. When it comes to defensive effort, make no mistake: Kobe Bryant is tanking.


Kobe Bryant has no business criticizing the team's defense. Not when he's done this. And this. And this. Those are all posts, by three different authors, two of which are born and bred Lakers fans, criticizing Kobe Bryant for his horrific defense this season. Kobe has not been a consistently awful defender, but for large swaths of the season, he has defended recklessly, idiotically, or he simply hasn't defended at all. Kobe doesn't just gamble, he plays Russian Roulette without taking out any of the bullets. He doesn't just collapse to the paint, he ball-watches as if in a hypnotic trance.


It is impossible to tell if the Lakers have a defensive scheme problem, because first and foremost, their defense has a Kobe Bryant problem. The Lakers defense has rarely been on the same page, whether Bryant is involved or not. But Kobe's defense isn't even in the same book as the rest of the team's.


I don't see anybody else on the Lakers double teaming random players off the ball. I don't see too many instances of anybody else comically over-gambling the passing lanes. And at least 80% of the Lakers' most egregious cases of ball-watching (something which does happen to everybody from time to time) seem to involve Kobe Bryant as well. If any of these actions are a part of the Lakers' defensive scheme, then Mike D'Antoni should have been fired the moment he unveiled it. But, since nobody else on the team is doing this shyt, it seems pretty clear that Kobe is the one breaking the defensive playbook.



Kobe is ruining his own historic season
Kobe's hypocrisy knows no bounds

 

[Trojan 24]

Funny thing was, they weren't quiet in 2013. Now they just want to pretend 2013 never happened because stan wars are more important than reality even though Kobe looked far worse on defense at 34 than Bron looks at 37 and they all knew it.

CantStop himself said so at the time and is trying to rewrite history now:















Even Kobestans couldn't front at the time - they were disgusted by Kobe's defense. Laker media was even worse.

To call Kobe Bryant's defense this season bad is to call the Pacific Ocean big, or the sun hot. He hasn't just been bad and he's not just a liability. His presence on the defensive end of the court has actually become a detriment, in the truest sense of the word. And the worst part? He's not failing to play defense. He has willingly decided that he no longer needs to try.


That Kobe Bryant, undisputed leader of this team, needs to be held accountable for horrific effort on defense tells you all you need to know about why this team is playing the way that it is. If the team's defense is terrible, it is because the team's leader is very clearly stating with his play that defense does not matter. If the team lacks chemistry, it is because it is tough to like and respect a guy so clearly hanging you out to dry on the defensive end. If the team's effort is inconsistent, it is because the team's leader only tries half the time. If nobody is doing the little things, it is because the team's leader isn't doing anything he doesn't want to do.


You can say that Kobe Bryant never gives up, even when things look bleak, if you are paying attention to one side of the court. If you pay attention to the other side, Kobe Bryant gives up before the game even tilts in one direction or the other, for no apparent reason. When it comes to defensive effort, make no mistake: Kobe Bryant is tanking.


Kobe Bryant has no business criticizing the team's defense. Not when he's done this. And this. And this. Those are all posts, by three different authors, two of which are born and bred Lakers fans, criticizing Kobe Bryant for his horrific defense this season. Kobe has not been a consistently awful defender, but for large swaths of the season, he has defended recklessly, idiotically, or he simply hasn't defended at all. Kobe doesn't just gamble, he plays Russian Roulette without taking out any of the bullets. He doesn't just collapse to the paint, he ball-watches as if in a hypnotic trance.


It is impossible to tell if the Lakers have a defensive scheme problem, because first and foremost, their defense has a Kobe Bryant problem. The Lakers defense has rarely been on the same page, whether Bryant is involved or not. But Kobe's defense isn't even in the same book as the rest of the team's.


I don't see anybody else on the Lakers double teaming random players off the ball. I don't see too many instances of anybody else comically over-gambling the passing lanes. And at least 80% of the Lakers' most egregious cases of ball-watching (something which does happen to everybody from time to time) seem to involve Kobe Bryant as well. If any of these actions are a part of the Lakers' defensive scheme, then Mike D'Antoni should have been fired the moment he unveiled it. But, since nobody else on the team is doing this shyt, it seems pretty clear that Kobe is the one breaking the defensive playbook.



Kobe is ruining his own historic season
Kobe's hypocrisy knows no bounds

@Bilz He got you down as a Kobe Stan

 

[Trojan 24]

What are we arguing about here? That Kobe Stan's were actually critical of Kobe? Yeah we never hid that

 

[Professor Emeritus]

What are we arguing about here? That Kobe Stan's were actually critical of Kobe? Yeah we never hid that

The claim was that LeBron's defense was so poor this season that it has tarnished his legacy, even though he's 37 and has had a historic season offensively. Despite the fact that literally every metric whether advanced (Defensive Rating, Defensive Win Shares, Defensive Box Plus/Minus, BBall Index rankings) or traditional (blocks, steals, charges taken) has Bron as a positive on defense this year. A lot of those metrics are flawed, but you couldn't have literally EVERY single measure in his favor if he was as bad on defense as they're claiming.


Kobe's 2013 season at 34yo is portrayed now as a remarkable, legacy-burnishing accomplishment, despite the fact that he was even worse on defense and not quite as good on offense even with a lot more help on both sides of the ball.

Anyone who claims Kobe's 2013 season was a positive accomplishment at 34yo and yet is trying to trash Bron's season at 37yo is a pure hypocrite.



The side issue is that @CantStop just can't stop lying, and I had receipts to prove it.

 

[Joe Sixpack]

 

[fifth column]

And Bron won championships with star guards before. Westbrook been on four teams in four seasons. Can’t blame Bron for his decline.

So why did Bron bring him in then?

 

[Joe Sixpack]

The gall of these “Kobe/Laker” fans.. The franchise has been in the toilet for years until Bron blessed y’all with his presence…

fukkin delusional fanbase acts like it’s 1987

Franchise was absolute GARBAGE until Bron came…

Kobe even told Jeannie to clean this shyt up Bron ain’t comin to this trash ass team clean this shyt up Jeannie if you want Kang

 

[Professor Emeritus]

So why did Bron bring him in then?

I can't read the Lakers' minds, but from the moves they made it looks like they thought status quo wasn't good enough and they needed a moonshot. Everyone thought the Durant-Kyrie-Harden Nets were going to be some sort of all-time team, plus there was a loaded Clippers team led by Kawhi-Durant, a very solid Suns team and the defending champ Bucks. Bron at 37yo didn't think he'd be good enough to be the sole ballhandler/creator and carry AD + unreliable role players like Kuzma and KCP to a title against those squads.

Maybe they thought Westbrook would be humble and play smart in his role or have some resurgence in a more limited role on a good squad. Maybe they thought even a 30% chance of that was worth betting on.

I think it was a bad move, I thought it was a bad move at the time. That doesn't somehow mean that LeBron hasn't played remarkably well this year all things considered.

 

[CantStop]

The gall of these “Kobe/Laker” fans.. The franchise has been in the toilet for years until Bron blessed y’all with his presence…

fukkin delusional fanbase acts like it’s 1987

Franchise was absolute GARBAGE until Bron came…

Kobe even told Jeannie to clean this shyt up Bron ain’t comin to this trash ass team clean this shyt up Jeannie if you want Kang

You a grown man following another man team to team. You remind me of them no pride having baby mamas “I don’t care about none of that, imma stick by him”


You’re on a sports forum and you don’t have a favorite team. Disgusting. Shameless like Le29and38

 

[CantStop]

I can't read the Lakers' minds, but from the moves they made it looks like they thought status quo wasn't good enough and they needed a moonshot. Everyone thought the Durant-Kyrie-Harden Nets were going to be some sort of all-time team, plus there was a loaded Clippers team led by Kawhi-Durant, a very solid Suns team and the defending champ Bucks. Bron at 37yo didn't think he'd be good enough to be the sole ballhandler/creator and carry AD + unreliable role players like Kuzma and KCP to a title against those squads.

Maybe they thought Westbrook would be humble and play smart in his role or have some resurgence in a more limited role on a good squad. Maybe they thought even a 30% chance of that was worth betting on.

I think it was a bad move, I thought it was a bad move at the time. That doesn't somehow mean that LeBron hasn't played remarkably well this year all things considered.

Look at this loser masquerading the Westbrook move as a Laker move. Rob wanted Hield. There were articles(we know how much you love articles) saying the management wasn’t sold on Russ. What did Bron do? Went behind their back and set up his own free agency meeting with ADisgust and told Rob to get Russ. Bron thought he was gonna fit in which is why he created that corny 360 nickname for him, Russ and ADNP. But now that it blows up, it’s uh uh uh I don’t know why they did it. Only thing worse than Lebrons defense and effort is his LeGM skills.

 

[Chris Cool]

nikkas still tryna compare this to a team that made the playoffs?

 

[Joe Sixpack]

You a grown man following another man team to team. You remind me of them no pride having baby mamas “I don’t care about none of that, imma stick by him”


You’re on a sports forum and you don’t have a favorite team. Disgusting. Shameless like Le29and38

I like the Steelers

 

[HabitualChiller]

Find a Kobe fan who say he didn’t trick the 04 Finals. Go in the Lakers thread and ask if he didn’t or did. U just lying to yourself at this point.

Bro, fukk out of here.

Whenever anyone mentions Kobe shooting his team out of the series, you nikkas be on your scorned housewife shyt: "What about Shaq? He wasn't playing defense".
"Shaq was out of shape".

You nikkas do EVERYTHING BUT give Kobe blame. Even when you nikkas mention 2011, you also don't mention the Mavs hitting LA with a goose egg, nor do you mention the other reasons why Miami lost that year besides Bron being awful.

 

[McPiff]

You nikkas need to go outside

 

[CantStop]

Bro, fukk out of here.

Whenever anyone mentions Kobe shooting his team out of the series, you nikkas be on your scorned housewife shyt: "What about Shaq? He wasn't playing defense".
"Shaq was out of shape".

You nikkas do EVERYTHING BUT give Kobe blame. Even when you nikkas mention 2011, you also don't mention the Mavs hitting LA with a goose egg, nor do you mention the other reasons why Miami lost that year besides Bron being awful.

this would make sense if your leader @Rhakim in this very thread didn't just pull quotes from a decade ago of Kobe fans blaming him

you guys need to set up a meeting and make sure y'all on the same page.