Watching a Great One Fade Away
First things first: I do not like Kobe Bryant. For starters, he made Todd Fuller look really bad. Lqtm.
But seriously, for many, many reasons, I don’t like him.
Yesterday I called him delusional and here were some of his comments after the game last night:
“I could have scored 80 tonight, it wouldn’t have made a damn difference….I could be out there averaging 35 a game and we’d be what, 3-11?”
Listen up cry baby: you COULD NOT have scored 80 and you CAN’T average 35 a game anymore. You are done. Retire already……
“Everything ends badly or else it would never end…..”
____________________
If you’re someone who likes to plan ahead, if the Warriors keep winning they will TIE the all time win streak record of 33 (Lakers, ’71) on Christmas Day vs Cleveland. Wow, think any ABC execs are rooting for that to happen?
____________________
Barry hit 28 bombs with an OPS of 1.045 in his final season. Imagine if he had been allowed to keep playing. You KNOW it would have gotten ugly for him, the same way it’s falling apart for Kobe…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Well, I got my wish. I had said “I hope the Warriors kick the living dog shit out of the lakers.” Uh, yeah, mission accomplished, IN SPADES. What a beat-down!
I didn’t pick-up the game until the beginning of the 2nd half (Dubs up 16) and the game was already over, but it was still satisfying as hell to see the Warriors set the record for best all-time start. And not just set the record, but to do so against the fucking fakers. I have always hated that franchise…almost as much as the bums, and so that was one satisfying win!
So, the Warriors are being the Warriors, and the Sharks have awaken and ran off a six win streak on the road, but fuck, I MISS BASEBALL.
85 days until pitchers and catchers report!
Watching Kobe reminds me of Jerry Rice trying to play in Seattle and Denver. Hanging on just a little too long.
Great read on Curry from the NYT (previous thread) snarkk. Thanks for the share.
Dude, I thought I gave the NYT article link. 😉
You did…and I gave you credit. 😉
Thanks. I thought that was really a cool article. Especially after I told the younger Snarkkette (she’s into ballet and modern dancing) earlier last night that I thought Curry was like a great dancer — with all his moves and jumps and floaters — and then I got linked to that article. Barring injury, we are witnessing something in Curry and this Dubs team that is unique, we should just enjoy it. Stuff like this doesn’t come along often — like the Niners of the ’80s — and the recent Giants — so it should be savored while it happens…
Agreed Flav, just retire and be a “consultant” or whatev. This is like Ichiro hitting .260—sure he could do it for 10 more years, but it’s just sad to watch the guy put up those numbers.
Lakers should have a Dodgers cable deal where no one can actually see them.
3rd Q when Thompson came out with 3 or 4 minutes left, Curry knew he wasn’t seeing 4th so he decided to leave Lakers with a little send off. Put a couple moves on the kid PG and buried couple more 3s and GS continued to push the lead up.
Since garbage time was only time I got in during HS I can usually watch it but could only handle couple minutes of 4th. Lakers are just plain awful—look at contrast of shots warriors got, layups dunks wide open Js vs. Lakers 1 on 1 or shot clock running out heaves.
Hibbert is useless, MWP (why bring this nut job back?) and Kobe need to be put out to pasture and Watch Me Shoot Nick Young needs to be exiled to b-ball oblivion somewhere. Lou Williams can play so put him out there with the kids and fight it out with Philly for the top lotto slot.
“Lakers should have a Dodgers cable deal where no one can actually see them.”
Cracked me up.
Beautiful
Xoot, I’m surprised more NBA teams don’t play a zone,either 1-2-2 to guard vs. 3s on top/wing or 2-3 to clog middle vs.bigger inside players and athletes. I’d have zoned Cavs last year and made LeBron shoot 3s.
League I coach in where we only practice 1-2 times a week lot of teams play zone (easier to teach than man) so you have to be able to teach kids how to attack them with proper spacing ball and player movement and patience to make zone move and attack gaps. Often frustrates the playground types trying to go 1 on 1,
Wooden ran a zone press, his famous 2-2-1, and Boeheim at Cuse has run an excellent 2-3 for a long time. You can trap and double team at wing, sidelines or corners and wreak havoc with good athletes that can cover lot of ground in a hurry. Or you can play it like sagging man where you don’t follow players through and block driving lanes and slow down tempo. You can be aggressive as you want out of zone.
New shot clock for college might bring back more zone traps and more pressure. Also might frustrate better players into leaving early more, one thing imo that has watered down overall quality of NBA these days and college ball too. Hope the Cal guys stick around and learn the game, themselves and what it means to be a team.
I might be wrong about this, but I don’t think the Lakers got their first assist until halfway through 2nd Q.
I heard on radio the Lakers had zero assists in the 1st Q. That is astounding, well, until you realize Kobe is on the floor. Seriously, Kobe would do his legacy some good by retiring in mid season. Just give a few days notice before a home game, and get it done. Playing a season out stinking up the joint to pull down the next $25 million — that’s just bad form…
and then blather on about being this mentor, passing the torch, all that bullshit. He is completely full of shit and I’m tired of hearing about all these points he *could* still put up…..
25 mil is 25 mil I don’t care who you are, that’s a lot of coin to walk away from. I don’t blame him for stinking up the joint with one last horrendous hurrah.
Agree on Kobe retiring at mid-point of the season, and then give the remaining salary to some charity to help those less fortunate in the cesspool that is LA.
Agreed Sarge that 25 million is tough to walk away from, that’s about $300K per game. But, if he really needs that extra dough at this point at the expense of his career reputation, that’s pretty sad. Mays looked terrible at the end with the Mets, everybody at the time cringed about that, as I remember. It’s a minor blemish on Mays’ career, but it’s still there…
Thanks. After last night I suspect I’ll be seeing quite a few good teams employing zones against the Cats.
Yeah it is sad to see great players play past when they should have retired, I got so tired of Bret Farve and that circus in GB!! The really sad part is that they think they can help the team. Barry Bonds was a complete and udder ass at the end of his career
Jerry West was interviewed on KNBR this morning….man, I’ve been in awe of that guy over the years. There’s a handful of former athletes that I’m still in awe of. West, Kareem, Montana, Lott, and a few others. I have huge admiration for LOTS of former players, but the list that I’m in awe of is much shorter.
And it was clear in the interview, as he was dissecting what’s happening with the Warriors, that West has been no mere “figure head” in the building of this Warriors team. West wasn’t tooting his own horn at all in the interview, he was just clinically evaluating the team with razor sharpness. He’s still very sharp regarding building a basketball team.
Because the game wasn’t close last night, the TNT broadcasters had lots of time to kick back and heap praise on the Warriors and Curry, talking about all their positive qualities. That was very cool.
Watching Mays toss the ball to George ‘The Stork’ Theodore, to throw it in from the outfield in the ’73 WS. The most painful memory of an athlete past his prime. Happy Dankesgiving, girls!
A lot of bandwagon Lakers fans here in the east, so, yeah, it’s always good to see the Lakers get humiliated, even better when they’re at the other end of something historical. As for Kobe — great player, selfish jerk. What a great thing the Lakers had with Shaq and Kobe — three straight titles, but it could have been more. While both have massive egos, given Shaq’s happy-go-lucky demeanor and Kobe’s insistence on being the center of everything, it’s likely the latter that caused their rift and ruined what could have been a true dynasty. And yes, Kobe did win two more titles, but only because he was fortunate to play with another terrific player, Pau Gasol — and now he’s gone. My fear now is that the lottery-bound Lakers will again get a major player — I’m still shocked the NBA didn’t fix things to get Karl-Anthony Towns in L.A. It’s hard to imagine the NBA will allow the Lakers to remain irrelevant for too long.
Kobe doesn’t need the 25 mil. It just continues to reinforce what we already know—that he’s a pompous jerk. The 25 mil justifies him still being a super star. Something that he apparently still believes he is. The money is validation, that’s it……
Back to baseball for a bit of true refreshment. Appears SF is nosing around John Lackey, a 37 Y.O. innings eater ~ according to UPI sports. If so, that would indicate a lessening interest in Leake. So after taking a wee Leake, they go for the Lackey of Yankee imperialism. Well, maybe not NY, anyway. Seriously, what this would indicate would be a very solid #4 or maybe even a year of an adequate #3 who would help keep the Bullies fresh by going 7 most of the time and keeping the team in the game generally.
He should not be too expensive OR looking for more than a two-year deal. In a year or two SF should be looking at more than one young arm coming up from the pipeline.
I’m diggin’ all the media pundits talking about what a great fit Greinke would be for the Giants. I’m hoping the Giants’ front office is watching some MLB Network, and catching the vision…. 🙂
Lincecum will be doing a “showcase” work-out for interested teams. I love the guy, but I hope the Giants don’t re-sign him, for the reasons in Sarge’s POTD. I don’t want to see that happen anymore to Lincecum in a Giants uniform. If he revives his career with somebody else, that’s cool, and I’ll be happy for him; but let some other team roll the dice on that.
At some point, Timmy will be invited back for a big “Lincecum appreciation day,” and that will be real cool. Plus all the Giants’ championship reunions that will start happening in 2020. And 2020 ain’t all that far away suddenly. This century is chugging along.
Reportedly, Lincecum’s hip surgery went well. I don’t know the history of pitchers returning from hip surgery, and what the success rate is on their return to the ball field. I hope he’s totally healthy. But I just think that it would be pretty hard to make a judgment on all that from a showcase work-out. And I don’t want to see him signed by the Giants at some bottom-feeder contract. Or even worse, a contract that’s too optimistic.
If anyone gets the benefit of the doubt, it’ll be Tim.
God I hope their not pursuing Lackey!!
Can’t stand that guy!!
And his face looks like the Alien in Predator when Arnold rips his mask off!!
Agreed. Hate that guy.
Lackey, Blanks, and Leake have nothing on Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe
there’s an insurance defense firm in SF I bump into once in a while named Low, Ball & Lynch. Always makes me laugh.
Now that’s fucked up! Too funny.
one of my “esteemed colleagues” seems to agree with me
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14222749/kobe-bryant-possible-farewell-tour-hits-new-low
I saw this curious Kobe quote on the Warriors in an AP story on the streak:
Bryant figures Golden State might need something to happen to keep things going at some point.
“You’ve got to have some kind of internal conflict thing, keeps the team on edge,” Bryant said. “Because if not it becomes so easy you just kind of coast, you kind of fall into a malaise.”
I guess team harmony isn’t part of Kobe’s vocabulary.
Kobe’s a fool and an asshole and nothing he says is worth a shit. (Great player, of course, but an asswipe.) That break from last night being replayed ad infinitum today says the story for the Dubs: Curry stole and broke free down the side and could’ve finished with a layup, but instead passed back to Andre for an easier, more certain layup because he was charging straight down the lane (with a bunch of tardy lackers chasing them both). Do you think either considered their own stats when they made that play? The Dubs are a great team — and it’s not easy to assemble a good, compatible, true team. The Warriors are such a team. The lackers? uh, no.
If Timmy ends up with another team without having a farewell game in a Giants uniform as a player, I’ll be pissed. Especially since they gave Huddy a final send off like he was some all-time Giant, when he was a barely serviceable mercenary for half a season out of 2…
With family few hours drive away and busy work sched for Fri/Sat, I hit up godson’s family (he and little woman are up here from SD for a few days) for T-day.
“Tradition” there involves stepdad airing Godfather (all 3) all day. We’re usually sitting down to eat around time Sonny is stopped at the tollgate.
Oneliners never end tho: “leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
Kuip the other AM was talking up Lackey. Card70 blog Daniel gives good write up on his year with STL, best lately. He is 37 and I do believe turned down the QO of $15.8 for 1 yr., so there you are.
Zum, dunno if you read it but the West auto-bio is pretty good read. Very driven guy and I’d agree still great b-ball mind.
Haven’t read that yet, Willie. I want to read it eventually. My local library has it.
Speaking of Thanksgiving….I’m thankful for having such a great local library.
I’ve read the West book, fascinating man, quite the tortured genius. Also read it after I had visited West Virginia near where he grew up, from what I could tell, not a whole lot has changed since his childhood days.
new turkey.
It’s disgusting how the talking heads credit the NFL for their concussion “protocol”. They fought tooth and nail -against overwhelming medical evidence- to deny any long term effects of repeated head trauma. The news of Frank Gifford’s CTE might help further expose Goodell and his sleazy cohorts for the scumbags that they are. I hope the judge shuts them down.
From a piece in 2013- “The (NFL) committee, led by a rheumatologist rather than a neurologist and packed with NFL insiders, proceeded to publish studies over the following years that suggested that concussions were not harmful, including claims that players could return to games if they were concussed, or that a repeat concussion soon after the first head injury would not cause more damage. The NFL also included phrasing that flat-out denied links between playing football and long-term brain damage.”
http://tinyurl.com/o2xs47o