<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Kobe Bryant is no longer one of the 10 best basketball players in the world. He remains exceptional, just not elite. He falls somewhere in the 11-to-20 range -- in the same group with Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson and Vince Carter but behind Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Jermaine O'Neal, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Tracy McGrady and, as Chicago Bulls coach Scott Skiles said last week, Dwyane Wade. Basketball isn't like baseball or football. One player can very much alter the look of an entire team, and make it a winner by himself if he's good enough. That's why Garnett and Shaq and Duncan always have winning records, no matter the supporting cast. You'll find very few top 10 talents in the history of basketball with a record as bad as the one Bryant's Lakers have this season.</div> Source
Well for this season, yes, but next season he should elevate his game back to the "Top 10" level in the league, as long as the Lakers have success.
This also applies to VC when he was with TO. I don't have anything against him right now, but he contradicted himself by saying that he wanted to be with a contender. However, he was the franchise player and should have lifted the team by himself if he were one of the top players in the NBA.
Kevin Garnett's wolves are just as bad as the Lakers, and they have the exact same team as the team that went Western Conference Finals. Kobe has had so many injuries to his supporting cast including him, Odom and Grant for about 15 games, Kobe about 15 too, Vlade and George about 65
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Zoltar:</div><div class="quote_post">Kevin Garnett's wolves are just as bad as the Lakers, and they have the exact same team as the team that went Western Conference Finals. Kobe has had so many injuries to his supporting cast including him, Odom and Grant for about 15 games, Kobe about 15 too, Vlade and George about 65</div> Uh, no. Wolves are much better than the Lakers. The TWolves struggled this year because age was catching up to them and they had a couple of injuries. They were just inconsistent all year, much like the Lakers.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Zoltar:</div><div class="quote_post">Kevin Garnett's wolves are just as bad as the Lakers, and they have the exact same team as the team that went Western Conference Finals. Kobe has had so many injuries to his supporting cast including him, Odom and Grant for about 15 games, Kobe about 15 too, Vlade and George about 65</div> k first of all...vlade basically didnt play. how do you KNOW for a fact that vlade would have made your team better...maybe he wouldnt have fit the system...maybe him and kobe wouldnt have gotten along...you never had him basically, so thats not an excuse. its almost like saying the raps struggled because they didnt have duncan. vlade was hardly even a part of your team secondly...t-wolves had injuries to olowokandi, cassell missed TONS of time...madsen and wally have missed time as well. and to be exact...no. they arent just as bad. lakers are worse. look at the records.
no...its like the lakers missing grant...but good effort how you even gonna TRY to say something like that, when you're the one mentioning brian grant, and george missing time.
SMH...... Kobe Bryant is easily the best shooting guard since MJ and easily top 5 greatest of all time at SG @ age 26. Snackuille Oneal could not win with this NBDL team LA had, make the playoffs? of course, hes a dominate center, being the best Shooting guard doesnt carry far as being the best center, thats a fact. Better supporting cast and you get better results. Take Kobe off LA replace him with peirce.....LA sucks worse and Boston is 10 games better in wins....EASILY.
Kobe is better than D-Wade, Shaq, Lebron, Jermaine, T-Mac and Amare Stodumire. Non of these players with the exception of Lebron have carried a team single handedly. When has Shaq ever won a ring by himself? At Orlando he didn't do much and he didn't win anything in LA until Kobe became a starter and started scoring 20ppg. Time will tell with Lebron and I doubt he will go all the way as a stand alone player. I would put money on Kobe ending up better than the vetrans like Tim Duncan.
I remember Tmac carrying the Magic to the playoffs with his best players being first Mike Miller then Drew Gooden as a rookie, and averaging 32-7-5. I think most people would consider that "carrying a team" in it's best form. Amare Stoudemire? Since when is he even a Top 10 player? I'd say Lebron carried the Cavs this season, his supporting cast is decent, but really not much to rave about. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">SMH...... Kobe Bryant is easily the best shooting guard since MJ and easily top 5 greatest of all time at SG @ age 26. Snackuille Oneal could not win with this NBDL team LA had, make the playoffs? of course, hes a dominate center, being the best Shooting guard doesnt carry far as being the best center, thats a fact. Better supporting cast and you get better results. Take Kobe off LA replace him with peirce.....LA sucks worse and Boston is 10 games better in wins....EASILY.</div> The thing is those are arguable, not neccesarily fact, though the Top 5 SG at 26 could be very true considering the 26 part. How do we know Pierce couldn't do just as good or maybe better? Maybe the chemistry would work better, and him and Odom would become a force to reckon with, I don't think Pierce would've made the playoffs either with this team, but it's not a clear cut thing as the Lakers team isn't terrible. Also Pierce isn't even the next best swing player out there, their's a few people most would put over him.
I do recall that this is exactly what I said was going to happen with the lakers this year. Bryant has got a lot of talent, but he is just not the kind of ball player that is going to lead your team to the promised land **now**. next year? who knows... he may have learned that he needs to rely on those around him more in order to get to the finals again by then. ...Of course, he just as well may not... 5 years down the road we could all be saying what a great talent he "could have been"...
Last time i checked....ESPN has been a little quiet pushing lebron right now...considering hes struggling to take his team to the playoffs, in a weaker conference with a better supporting cast.
