<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Kobe Bryant has become one of sports' great villains. If he's not on the level with Bonds, Owens and Artest, he's pretty darn close. Fans, media and other players seem to relish any chance they have to bash the 27-year-old superstar. And while criticism of Kobe's off-the-court life is warranted -- and was brought on by Bryant himself -- I'm not buying the knocks on Kobe's game. I'm also not sure what Kobe could do to make people happy. And in the wake of his 81-point outburst against the Raptors on Jan. 22, the target on Bryant's chest grown quite a bit. People are saying he shoots too much. People say he doesn't get his teammates involved. People say you can't win games with one player scoring so many points. The man scored the second-most points in a game in NBA history. He's putting up monster numbers night in and night out -- and he's been getting ripped for it. In the wake of the 81-point explosion, we had to hear coaches remind us that in the long run, you can't win games that way. We even had to hear Vince Carter -- the same Vince Carter who reportedly told opponents which play his team was running when he wanted to get out of Toronto -- tell us that Kobe's memorable game could have a bad influence on young players. He single-handedly beat Toronto -- and isn't that what's supposed to matter most? -- and the first reaction from some people was, "he's a ball hog." That's lunacy. Is Kobe Bryant supposed to pass up shots so Smush Parker can take them? Is he not supposed to implement his will on a game when he can get the job done and make the shots? But what's even more confusing is that many of the people who bash Kobe for his "selfishness" are asking if he can score 100 points. And if Kobe did top Wilt Chamberlain's record, are we then going to rip him for taking too many shots? You can't score 100 points if you don't hog the ball. Kobe can't win. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. The bottom line is that outside of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant is the NBA's most exciting player. People tune in and/or buy tickets to see him. He is today's version of Showtime. We should sit back and appreciate it.</div> It's a decent read, not the greatest, but it's a positive Kobe article. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writ...rant/index.html
One thing that annoys me alot, is that they say Wilts 100 showed greatness but Kobe's 81 showed selfishness.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">One thing that annoys me alot, is that they say Wilts 100 showed greatness but Kobe's 81 showed selfishness.</div> YES! Especially since Wilt and all his teammates went into the game with the goal of getting Wilt 100 points. They were even fouling the opposing team at the end, just so there would be more time on the clock for them on offense. Then there's Jordan's playoff performance, yes it was a great game in the post season, but let's not forget the Bulls actually lost that game.
Yeah Wilt's teammates fouled the other team for points that's not what basketball about. Going for stats, Kobe felt the grove and did it himself.
Not even that...Wilt played in a faster paced NBA....plus factor in that he was a big man scoring most his points on dunks then having a fluke game where he made most of his FTs....I'm not trying to dog Wilt, but Kobe's 81 was harder to get than Wilt's 100...no offense to Wilt or anything I just believe what Kobe did was harder.... the writer is right...we should sit back and appreciate what he gives us day in and day out
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting dtpxcore:</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah Wilt's teammates fouled the other team for points that's not what basketball about. Going for stats, Kobe felt the grove and did it himself.</div> To be fair once kobe got to 70, it started becoming for stats, i saw the game the lakers were up by 10+ with a minutes left and kobe was still scoring. im not hating, but it wasn't totally in the flow of the game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Johnnybrasco:</div><div class="quote_post">To be fair once kobe got to 70, it started becoming for stats, i saw the game the lakers were up by 10+ with a minutes left and kobe was still scoring. im not hating, but it wasn't totally in the flow of the game.</div> On Quite Frankly, Kobe said everyone got into it when he go to 77 points.
The team clearly wanted him to score, they would grab rebounds and look for Kobe. Every time someone had the ball, they would look for Kobe to score. They wanted him to set a record, and he did. In that sense, it was a team effort.
