[video=youtube;bgcBHQvpNks]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bgcBHQvpNks[/video]
Lillard knows basketball and expresses his basketball knowledge at a level deeper than a lot of players. Not quite at the Kobe level, where he can basically break down every player and play to its fundamentals, but close. Kobe, as much as I hate to say it, will probably be a very good coach or GM if he wants to.
I think Kobe may be jealous of Damian's ability to be that good and also be a good person. Kobe is like an evil, biblical despot -- he has his power, his wealth, his ruthless cunning and willingness grease his own path with the ground bone and fat of those who dare stand in his way. Damian is Ninja Jesus.
Kobe will not be a good coach, for the same reason Magic was not a good coach. He won't be able to stand his players. And the feeling will be mutual.
I think to get to the level of an MJ or a Kobe, you have to be an ego maniac. They don't play well with others.... the other thing is, I don't understand where the idea that great players make great coaches came from. To me, they are two completely different jobs and being good at one doesn't mean you will necessarily be good at the other.
I think it pretty much comes down to believing the player has such a grasp on the game itself, that they could be able to teach it as well at that profound level.
So much of what Jordan was would be very difficult to teach. Obviously his moves could be studied, but his talent and his drive to be the best are things that simply can't be taught. If they were, we wouldn't see a Darius Miles or a Derrick Coleman. The funny thing is, if you watch Kobe it's really obvious that he has modeled his entire game after MJ. I can only imagine how many hours and hours of tape that Kobe has watched of Mike. For years they tried to anoint another Jordan, and time after time they never really seemed to measure up. In terms of talent and drive, I think Kobe has come the closest. He's still not as good as MJ, but to see them both in their primes going head to head would have been something.
So he skips practice to write blog promises to score 50-point games. Between cheating in poker games, getting future murderers riled up. I love this guy! How fast can we dump Hickson?
Kobe has evolved a hard guy persona, cussing to reporters and saying he'd "smack" players and now coaches. To coach, he'd have to reverse his development of the last 5-10 years. Couple that with his lack of financial necessity, and...he won't.
Well, essentially, Dan Patrick was trying to goat Lillard into saying how much he was flattered by Kobe's praises and always wanted to be him, but when Patrick asked him all those sort of pointed questions about how much Kobe probably influenced his life, Lillard basically ignored everything about Kobe and said Iverson and Arenas were really the guys he watched as a kid. Kind of painful to watch/listen to, with Dan Patrick broadcasting straight out of Kobe's rectum. The start of the interview has that "Kobe respects your game, how flattered are YOU!" feeling to it.
Thanks. I had thought Sly had made it up...Iverson and Silly Gilly...yeah right. But now that you say it, I can believe it. I just drank some coffee. Maybe my finger will get the energy to hit the play button...I doubt it.
Hit the play button. It's good. Damian is obviously half asleep, but it's his typical open honest straight answers. He also gives his Iverson/Arenas comments in way that makes them perfectly understandable. It's almost as if each sentence Damian takes the trouble to utter tells you something about him.
This is OT, but speaking of someone being half-asleep on tv/radio, did anyone notice how Jalen Rose was wasted as all hell calling into Mike and Mike the morning after the NCAA championship? Rose had clearly been up all night drinking with the Fab 5, and no one on the staff pointed it out, but he was clearly tanked, and it was really funny to listen to. Had to post about it, because I haven't seen anyone mention it anywhere else. Jaalen Roooosse wuz waasted and tryyying to make poiints! I feel like if that interview had been on CBS Sports or something, then it'd become a headline on ESPN.Com, Around the Horn, PTI, SportsCenter, etc., and people would be calling for Jalen to step down from his job, but with ESPN's monopoly on the industry, that one was quietly swept under the rug, and no one in the sports media noticed, because the "sports media" these days consists of ESPN, and well, ESPN.
Okay, I invested the 8 minutes. In almost every question, Patrick leverages Lillard into an inferior position, inviting him to put himself down, but Lillard rarely bites and refuses to lie prone to the ridicule. Patrick seems unaware of how many minutes our rookies played, how many starters were out, and how we led until the end. All he can do is chortle at how Kobe got 47 on Damian. Lillard should have informed him.
