my awaited reading of simmons on kobe (how's that for a title?)

"On his 666th regular season game (seriously), Kobe scored 66 percent of his team's points. For the first time in the post-Shaq Era, Kobe has an identity beyond "Selfish gunner who destroyed a potential dynasty." He's the most exciting player in any professional sport."

hmm, maybe kobe's real name is damien, and the endless seas referred to in the omen is professional sports. could he be the antichrist?


"Not only is Mamba hogging the ball to a historic degree, just about everyone else on the Lakers seems OK with it. It's their only chance to win.

(One player seems to be resisting: Poor Lamar Odom, who's going to bludgeon himself to death with Phil Jackson's blank clipboard soon. When they're running the offense in which Odom sets up Kobe from the top of the key and then stands in place like a third base coach, I keep waiting for Odom to rear back and fire line drive baseball passes at Kobe to try to knock him unconscious. Frankly, there's still time.)"


poor lamar. he got his career on track, moved back to l.a., onto a team that has such great history. he was given a chance to play in a great market for a great franchise. unfortunately, he plays with a guy that won't give him the ball.


"The game made me feel the same way I felt while watching "March of the Penguins." I had always wondered what a penguin's life was like; once I knew how depressing it was, I wanted to sit in my garage with the car running. Sometimes it's almost better not to know these things. And Kobe's 81-point game was a little like that. For a perimeter player to score that many points, you have to hog the ball to a degree that's almost disarming to watch; it almost stops resembling a basketball game. More than Kobe's rising point total, Dad and I found ourselves fascinated by his icy demeanor, the lack of excitement by the guys on the Lakers bench, even the dysfunctional way that his teammates were killing themselves going for rebounds and steals to get him more shots."


i wish i'd seen the game, because i'd like to have seen how his team reacts to him. and really, is the game plan by chief triangle, "just get the ball to kobe, or you're on the bench,"?



"The best reaction belonged to Jackson, who seemed amused, supportive and somewhat horrified, like how Halle Berry's husband probably looked after sitting through his first screening of "Monster's Ball.""


that's a great line.


"...when I was watching ESPNEWS, and the graphic from the Lakers game popped up on the bottom of the screen. They flashed the Lakers final score, followed by something like, "BRYANT: 81 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists."

And I remember thinking two things:

1. "Holy crap! 81 points! 81 freaking points! Wait, that's a lot of points!"
2. "Two assists ... now that's comedy."

Maybe this was Mamba's ultimate destiny: One-man scoring machine, gunner for the ages, the real-life "Teen Wolf." Future generations will remember him for the 81-point game and his awesome 2005-06 scoring binge, not for being the second-best player on three championship teams. Hey, that's what they should remember. After all, plenty of NBA players have three rings. Only two NBA players have ever scored 81 points in a game. One is dead. The other lives on."


second best player...awesome. wait and see if he can do more.