Horry was on ESPN radio yesterday and touched on a lot of great topics. He said he thinks Cleveland or Orlando will win the title. He said Artest's style is too similar to Kobe and it's going to cause some issues. He's also not sure Artest can handle Kobe barking at him and might take it personally instead of realizing it's just the heat of the moment. They asked who the best big man he's played with was out of Hakeem, Shaq & Duncan. He said Hakeem easily and considers him the best big man of all time. He had a lot of praise for Hakeem and said he deserves a lot more credit for what he brought to the game. Hakeem didn't have any weaknesses. He said the most driven player he's ever been around is Kobe. He also said Kobe is one of the smartest teammates on and off the court. When Kobe first came in the league he couldn't shoot 3's well and he'd lose 3 point challenges against Horry and Shaw all the time. Horry said Kobe worked on his shot 3 times a day for 3 straight hours until he could beat them at their own game. He kept talking about the importance of team chemistry. He said he expects Cleveland to win because last year they were about pizzaz and hype with those pre-game celebrations. He expects them to be the hungriest team for next season and should be all about business now. Repeating is hard because once you win a title it's hard to stay motivated. You just can't help it and often times you have it in your mind you can turn it on at any minute, but in reality you can't and all off season long teams have been scheming and rebuilding to beat you.
One of the marks of a great player, to me, is he earns the respect of his teammates. One things you can definitely say about Hakeem versus Shaq is his teammates have nothing but positive things to say about him. He was a real leader.
I think the Best in the East will be Orlando maybe Boston if they can stay healthy. Trev's individual defense wasn't spectacular, even if Ron chucks he'll still be an upgrade for us. Anyway I expect Ron to subjugate himself more.
At least with Artest he can guard the thicker players Kobe was having to deal with last year. Melo, Pierce, LeBron etc. Also Artest has a solid back to the basket post game. On the Lakers Artest won't have a lot ball responsibility and can play off the ball setting screens, back picks and spotting up for 3's when he defender leaves to double in the post.
The Dream was pretty phenominal. I think his lack of English speaking ability makes people underrate him in the grand scheme of things.
Boston is the best in the east if they stay healthy. Then its a dog fight for 2nd between Orlando and Cleveland with Orlando leading.
do you think so? i dont really see boston being that much better than orlando or cleveland, that is if the changes those two clubs made work out in their favour. im sure boston will end up at the top of the east, but not by a very large margin. and even then, they may be ousted in the playoffs.
