<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> 15 or 20 years from now, when you're sitting on your sofa with your children around you and watching Kobe Bryant's number 8 jersey getting retired at Staples, and your little son asks you, "Was this guy any good daddy?", you can proudly say: "Oh yes son. And I had the pleasure of witnessing one of the best sports performances ever when he poured in 81 points against Toronto. It was a memorable night". For Raptor fans watching the game, it truly was memorable, but for slightly different reasons than you may think. Constantly being annoited as the NBA's laughing stock - along with the Knicks - no body on that Raptors team that took floor against the Lakers last night could have imagined, but any stretch of the imagination, that this very night they were going to end up in history. The wrong side of history mind you. But, if you happen to be a Raptor fan and the scenario I painted in the first paragraph takes place, I'm quite sure your response would take a different route and tone, and it will most likely execlude the word "pleasure". Leading by as a large of a margin as 18 points with little over nine minutes to go in the third quarter, the Raptors seemed to be in full control of the momentum and the game uprubting their Play-By-Play announcer, Chuck Swirsky, whose name is right next to the word "Homer" in the NBA dictionary, to say "The Raps are on their way to beat the Lakers by at least 10-15 points". Little did you know Chuck. Apparently, the 52 year old Michigan University graduate forgot two ethical elements that make any huge lead in the NBA easy to overcome: 1) The fact that Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or Tracy McGrady are playing on the trailing team. 2) The fact that Sam Mitchell or Lenny Wilkins are coaching the leading team. This game combined both elements. Because Kobe's performance has taken its share of media coverage over the last 12 hours and more - I forgot it's election day in Canada untill the Starbucks clerk jokingly told me he is voting for Kobe! - I'm going to dig deep into my bag of psychological skills and scientific talents, and try for the sake of humanity to analyze the inner cluelessness that make Sam Mitchell such a unique person, and a hopeless coach. There isn't much to say really, but one question, what was Sam thinking? "The thing about him that is most amazing is that he is relentless," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said of Bryant. "We played man-to-man, box-in-one and zone. We tried to put smaller guys on him to deny him the ball. What can you say." I don't know about you, but I find it absolutley hilarious that Uncle Sam opted not to mention the most obvious way of slowing down a versatile scorer: Double and Triple-teaming the guy. With the Raptors' best defender Morris Peterson - yes I know, it's sad - in foul trouble most of the night, Mitchell dug deep into his sleeve and pulled out some magical strategies in attempting to slow Kobe down. Midway through the 3rd where Kobe started to cook while Peterson was on the bench, Sam went with the league's biggest defensive liability in Jalen Rose on Mr.Bryant. Made no difference. For comic relief purposes, Sam gave Eric Williams the assignment of guarding Kobe at some stretches; I haven't laughed this hard since I listened to Ron Artest's album. Mitchell wasn't done yet. With my favourite moment of the whole game, during a free throw, he instructed Jose Calderon to guard Kobe. At that very moment, I would have bet anyone that Calderon wished he was in Spain after forseeing what's going to happen. Result? 11 points in 65 seconds. Yet, completely neglecting who was covering him, Kobe was going 60, 65, 70,75 ... This issue is truly beyond basketball. It's a matter of biological genetics. Taking the night off just like his coach's brain cells, Loren Woods quipped "Throw two more people at the mutherfucker!" while sitting motionless at the end of Toronto's bench. What is wrong with Mitchell? How can you allow an 18 points lead to become an 18 point deficit within 20 minutes? Did it ever occur to him to let someone else other than Bryant to whoop your behind? Why don't you crowd the guy like you did with McGrady in Houston? Lamar Odom was in contention to break Mark Blount's infamous 0 line, how about triple teaming him? How about letting Sahsa Vujacic or Deaven George take long range shots? Isn't an NBA coach supposed to realize such simple aspects of the game? Is it really that hard for someone with a position of Mitchell's to grasp the most fundemntal instincts of coahcing? You have double teamed average players earlier in the season such as Theo Ratliff, Lorenzon Wright, and Jarvis Hayes to name a few, but that thought didn't cross your mind when facing the league's most lethal offensive weapon? Would Greg Popovich or Rick Carlisle allow such a historic thing to occur? You think the Bad Boy Pistons would have let a single player go for 81 points? Are Raptor fans suppose to sit by and invest their money while you blame every single mistake on the young guns when your veterans get the most minutes? Are they suppose to see you avoid an explanation as to why Charlie Villanueva barely saw any minutes after scoring 12 points in the 1st quarter? What about the fact that you stayed with the zone defence despite giving up 18 offensive rebounds? Is Sam playing some old joke on us? Am I the only one baffled by this? Is Chris Bosh suppose to put up with this? More importantly, are the fans? Few seconds before the second half started, Raptors assistant Jim Todd was interviewed, "We want to let Kobe get his, and shut everyone else down". Well Jimmy, one problem, in the second half, his were 14 more than your entire team's! Kobe Bryant does deserve all the credit for such a magical night, but when Raptors fans think back to this game 20 years from now, their kids won't be hearing about how insanely explosive Kobe was, or how meraculously talented he is, rather, they'd hear a recollection of a sincere tragedy, The Night Mitchell Let a Player Torch Him For 81 Points! And to be honest, you can't find a fitter title.</div> This article has been written by a friend of mine (works for some newspaper in Madrid). He's Spanish so ups on some spelling mistakes.
