Make no mistake, w/ Kobe the USA easily comes home w/ gold

<div class="quote_poster">TheFreshPrince Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">He should have had the basketball IQ/awareness to know that his team was struggling to score, so he should have put the scoring load on his own shoulders like he did in 95% of the lakers games.</div>
OOOOOOOOOOOH I see. Now it's okay for him to ball hog and be selfish. Didn't he get criticized for that

<div class="quote_poster">TheFreshPrince Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">And yes, CP3 is a much better playmaker than Kobe. I don't think I even have to debate it. Check out APG, and A/TO ratio if you think it is debatable</div>
There is no way you'd put Chris Paul in over Kobe to make a play at the end of the game. U have to be crazy

 

Playmaking is different than what you seem to think it is. CP3 makes the people around him better, Kobe doesn't. I never criticised kobe for being selfish when his team was struggling.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Rock4life Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">No it's great logic. Kobe is known to have big games in the most hostile situations. The chances of him not being a factor on that team are minimal considering the fact that he's prolly the best playmaker on the team, plus the best momentum breaker. Meaning with one big play the game could've swung in USA's favor. The so called clutch players disappeared in the clutch and couldn't even play defense. Nobody on that team can hold Kobe and his range can stretch out that pissy zone they used on us. It all comes back to Kobe.</div>No, it's terrible, horrible logic. How do you know Kobe would even be able to get along with the players? You don't. You can't predict sporadic things like chemistry. You don't know how well he's going to play with others and how good he's going to be at getting people involved. And Kobe, while known to have big games, also has poor games when he's needed. How about game 7 against Phoenix last year? great first half but disappeared in the 2nd half. I realize he was trying to get his team involved, but when you're down and you're the best player, you should take over and will your team back like DWade did in game 3 vs. Dallas. Kobe didn't do that. He let his teammates down by being so passive all 2nd half.

And by no means is Kobe the best playmaker for the USA. He's the best at creating his own shot, but playmaking is a lot more than that. Playmaking is getting others involved, making the right pass at the right time, etc. LeBron, Wade, and Paul are all better at getting others involved because of how unselfish they are compared to Kobe. Kobe is a great playmaker when he wants to be, but he's not the best.

The fact of the matter is that, if USA couldn't win with a team of All Stars, they weren't going to win with Kobe. They still had some of the best players in the NBA all on one starting lineup. LeBron, Melo, Wade, Bosh, Howard, Hinrich, JJ, all are great players, and if they can't win a gold, Kobe isn't going to help too much.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Moo2K4 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">No, it's terrible, horrible logic. How do you know Kobe would even be able to get along with the players? You don't. You can't predict sporadic things like chemistry. You don't know how well he's going to play with others and how good he's going to be at getting people involved. And Kobe, while known to have big games, also has poor games when he's needed. How about game 7 against Phoenix last year? great first half but disappeared in the 2nd half. I realize he was trying to get his team involved, but when you're down and you're the best player, you should take over and will your team back like DWade did in game 3 vs. Dallas. Kobe didn't do that. He let his teammates down by being so passive all 2nd half.

And by no means is Kobe the best playmaker for the USA. He's the best at creating his own shot, but playmaking is a lot more than that. Playmaking is getting others involved, making the right pass at the right time, etc. LeBron, Wade, and Paul are all better at getting others involved because of how unselfish they are compared to Kobe. Kobe is a great playmaker when he wants to be, but he's not the best.

The fact of the matter is that, if USA couldn't win with a team of All Stars, they weren't going to win with Kobe. They still had some of the best players in the NBA all on one starting lineup. LeBron, Melo, Wade, Bosh, Howard, Hinrich, JJ, all are great players, and if they can't win a gold, Kobe isn't going to help too much.</div>
No..No..No...Don't give me no crap about gettin along with the players. That's pure garbage, cuz we all know that when you play for ur country everybody puts they're ego aside. As far as getting others involved, Kobe's just as good as anybody on that team. The difference is he doesn't have the talent Wade, Lebron, or Carmelo has. So ppl like urself and others, are able to say things like, "Kobe doesn't get teammates involved enuff". Then when he makes an effort to get teammates involved you say, "How come he didn't takeover in Game 7 against Phoenix". Seems to me you can't make up ur mind whether u wanna criticize him for shooting too much or NOT shooting too much. Either way ur gonna criticize. Kobe's been takin over games since the Lakers first championship. HOW DARE you mention anybody else in the same sentence. If Wade was so good at makin plays, where was he against Greece? Matter fact, where was Lebron the year before when we lost in the olympics? The fact is, there not better than Kobe and none of them have the ability to change the complexion of a whole game like Kobe. Better commercials doesn't equal better basketball. A couple baskets or defensive stops, we beat Greece and nobody says a word about "team basketball".

 

<div class="quote_poster">Rock4life Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">No..No..No...Don't give me no crap about gettin along with the players. That's pure garbage, cuz we all know that when you play for ur country everybody puts they're ego aside. As far as getting others involved, Kobe's just as good as anybody on that team. The difference is he doesn't have the talent Wade, Lebron, or Carmelo has. So ppl like urself and others, are able to say things like, "Kobe doesn't get teammates involved enuff". Then when he makes an effort to get teammates involved you say, "How come he didn't takeover in Game 7 against Phoenix". Seems to me you can't make up ur mind whether u wanna criticize him for shooting too much or NOT shooting too much. Either way ur gonna criticize. Kobe's been takin over games since the Lakers first championship. HOW DARE you mention anybody else in the same sentence. If Wade was so good at makin plays, where was he against Greece? Matter fact, where was Lebron the year before when we lost in the olympics? The fact is, there not better than Kobe and none of them have the ability to change the complexion of a whole game like Kobe. Better commercials doesn't equal better basketball. A couple baskets or defensive stops, we beat Greece and nobody says a word about "team basketball".</div>Firstly, to answer your question as to where was LeBron and Wade in the '04 Olympics, they were riding the pine along with Melo. They were arguably the three best players on that team, and they sat the bench for the most part. So that point is completely irrelevant. Also, I'm not really criticizing him. If you take a look at my prof, you'll notice I have him listed as my favorite player. I love Kobe Bryant. I think he's the best player in the NBA right now and will likely go down as one of the all time greats. However, I reserve the right, as a huge Laker fan, to criticize him. I'm not going to place the blame on him for the loss of that series, cause they blew their chance when he exploded for 50 in game 6, and it was certainly not because of a lack of effort on his part. However, I do feel he could have been A LOT more aggressive in the 2nd half of game 7. All season, when they Lakers were down, he took it upon himself to get them back. He didn't do that. I expect him to do. However, the team in general played like pure crap that day, so it's not all his fault. Also, Wade is great at taking over games. You obviously missed the last four games of the Finals. He DOMINATED those four games. So, I don't know the point of that argument. I look at it this way though, the USA had essentially a top 5 or 10 player at every position on the court. If they can't win with that kind of talent, one player is not going to make a goddamn difference. I just don't know why you can't accept that.

 

@this thread title