Kobe Bryant, Carl Lewis, Jon Drummond and the Olympic Spirit
Kobe Bryant would like to play for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics. Based on Bryant's recent performance level and injury history, you may think that is selfish or just unrealistic; that will most likely be the mainstream media take on the matter. However, Kevin Ding--
a rare NBA commentator who covers the sport insightfully and
treats Bryant fairly--explains
why Bryant deserves the opportunity to play for Team USA in 2016 and why USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo should honor Bryant's request:
Colangelo has already set the precedent that it's not necessarily about the best players: He promised Paul George a spot for 2016
already after George broke his leg in a U.S. uniform in 2014. He
included a 35-year-old Jason Kidd on the 2008 U.S. team for his
experience and past contributions.
Team USA is going to win gold in Rio with or without Bryant, with or
without George, with or without even LeBron James. The team is absurdly
stacked, which is why it becomes thorny to consider what great player
would be left off the squad to accommodate Bryant...
But it's Colangelo's call whether to honor something greater here.
And there is indeed a greater good to be had.
Consider the Olympic creed:
The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight;
the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.
No one has answered that call in his athletic career any better than
Bryant. He has been triumphant at times, but his fight for personal
excellence is what has truly won out.
His fight is why all these fans worldwide see him as their inspiration.
Bryant's proposed candidacy for Team USA's 2016 basketball team reminds me of the controversy surrounding Team USA's 4x100meter relay squad during the 1996 Olympics. Veteran Carl Lewis, participating in the Olympics for the last time, wanted to run anchor for Team USA in the 4x100 meter relay. Lewis previously
anchored two Olympic gold-medal winning teams and five teams that set world records. Maybe he was over the hill by 1996 but--based on his past performance and the capabilities he still possessed at that moment--he had earned the right to compete. Prior to the 4x100 meter relay, Lewis won the gold medal in the long jump, his fourth straight
Olympic gold in that event; no one else has ever defended an Olympic
long jump title even once. He is only the third American to win the same
Olympic event four times. Lewis could have capped off his Olympic career by pursuing a then-unprecedented 10th gold medal. Instead, the Team USA coaching staff went in a different direction and Lewis watched Team USA fail to capture gold for the first time ever in the 4x100 meter relay (not including the boycott year of 1980 and three times that Team USA was disqualified for improper baton passes).
Jon Drummond, one of the members of the 1996 Team USA 4x100 team, publicly declared that Lewis did not belong on the team because Lewis finished "butt-naked last" in the Olympic qualifying trials. Lewis had enough athletic ability left to win the gold medal in the long jump and he had previously anchored gold medal-winning relay teams but Drummond thought that he and Team USA's other young guns deserved their time to shine. Carl Lewis is a legend of the sport. Would you even know Drummond's name if I had not brought it up? Well, maybe you would, because he has been in the news recently: he is currently serving an eight year suspension from track and field for his role, as Tyson Gay's coach, in illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. Drummond has been banned from the sport until December 2022. He was not caught using performance-enhancing drugs during his athletic career but, then again, neither were Lance Armstrong or Barry Bonds, two cheaters who often bragged about never failing a drug test.
Drummond was a loud-mouth nobody who played a role in keeping a legend off of Team USA's 1996 4x100 relay team and, quite possibly, cost Team USA a gold medal. After the race, Drummond admitted that he and his young teammates were "tight." Lewis would not have been tight.
It may be true that Team USA can win the 2016 Olympic gold medal in basketball with just about any conceivable roster of current NBA stars. However, if Bryant wants to play and is able to play then he deserves a spot on the team not only based on his legendary status but also because during the 2012 Olympic games Team USA
needed Bryant's clutch production to survive the gold medal game versus Spain. If Bryant plays for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics he will not lead the team in minutes played or scoring or any other statistical category but he will set the right tone with his work ethic and focus--and he may very well make a key shot or key defensive play that is the difference between Olympic gold and the silver medal that Drummond got in 1996.
Labels: 2016 Team USA, Carl Lewis, Jerry Colangelo, Jon Drummond, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant
posted by David Friedman @ 2:51 PM
Kevin Ding's Take on Kobe Versus Shaq
The conventional, mainstream media perspective in 2004 was that the L.A. Lakers made a big mistake when they chose to build around Kobe Bryant instead of building around Shaquille O'Neal. I offered
a more reasoned and nuanced take that proved to be quite prophetic: as I predicted, the Miami Heat benefited in the short run by acquiring O'Neal but the Lakers made the correct long term decision, ultimately reaching the NBA Finals three straight times and winning back to back titles.
Despite suffering from a bone spur in his left foot, Bryant just moved into fourth place on pro basketball's career scoring list, passing Wilt Chamberlain--the man who held the career scoring mark from 1965 until 1984. Although Bryant topping Chamberlain is noteworthy, Kevin Ding points out that the big news is that Bryant has been dealing with this bone spur for several years without publicly mentioning it. That revelation prompted Ding to offer a passionate but also very logical
final verdict regarding Bryant and O'Neal. Ding's article should be read in its entirety but here are some quotes to whet your appetite for the kind of first rate NBA analysis that is all too rarely found in today's media cesspool that is dominated by screaming TV commentators and semiliterate writers who generate much heat but precious little light:
This bone spur in Kobe Bryant's left foot?
He has had it for years.
Years.
He has played through it for years without publicizing it and the
challenges it has prompted him to overcome. Think about that the next
time anyone says Bryant's toughness, focus or drive for greatness is
overdramatized.
Whether Bryant now chooses to detail the specifics of the bone spur, it's incredibly appropriate that on his latest historic night--passing
Wilt Chamberlain for No. 4 on the NBA all-time scoring list Saturday in Sacramento--he played all but 22.6 seconds of the game just two days
after the bone spur prompted a wheelchair to be requested for him to leave Milwaukee's Bradley Center. (He didn't use it.)
Ding was just warming up, though. Bryant's determination to play through injuries markedly contrasts with O'Neal's infamous decision to delay toe surgery by explaining,
"I got hurt on company time, so I’ll heal on company time." Ding understands that Bryant's work ethic--not the soap opera nonsense that fascinated many media members--was the real difference between Bryant and O'Neal and the most valid reason for the Lakers to choose Bryant over O'Neal:
When O'Neal was 34, as old as Bryant is now, he had already fallen off the cliff. O'Neal won his post-Kobe title at age 33 (despite
shooting 37 percent on free throws over the 23-game playoffs; fortunately for Shaq, Dwyane Wade shot 80.8 percent). The next year,
O'Neal played only 40 games while making $20 million from Miami, and the Heat got swept by Chicago in the first round--the first time that
happened to a defending champion in 50 years. Despite vowing never to hang on as a fringe player, O'Neal then bounced around Miami, Phoenix,
Cleveland and Boston over the course of his final five seasons.
O'Neal wound up No. 5 on the all-time scoring list, passed by Bryant last season.
Even with Bryant not yet done playing, this is as good a time as any for the final word on the Shaq-Kobe era.
O'Neal underachieved. Bryant overachieved.
And whatever immature or selfish things Bryant did along the way as he fought for more, O'Neal did even more of them trying to guard his
turf. Anyone who takes O'Neal's side or respects him more for what he has done in this game is simply a fool.
Everyone on the list of the NBA's top scorers besides Michael Jordan and Bryant, both 6-foot-6, is at least 6-9: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl
Malone, Chamberlain, O'Neal, Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon. It's a game geared for big men, and no one else on that list had the
epic confluence of height, power and athleticism that O'Neal did.
Yet by not sweating the details, not taking care of his body, not truly embracing Bryant's rising star when they could've won much more
together, O'Neal left a lot on the table...unclaimed, unearned.
Although Ding should have mentioned that Julius Erving is another
"midsize" player who ranks highly on pro basketball's career scoring list, he is right on target on all other counts, including the blunt conclusion
that Shaq "underachieved," but the sad truth is that there are plenty of so-called experts who are foolish enough to take O'Neal's side--and the even sadder truth is that the fools who propagate such nonsense are often given very high profile positions in the mainstream media.
Labels: Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Shaquille O'Neal
posted by David Friedman @ 6:42 AM
Kobe Bryant and LeBron James Win February Player of the Month Awards
The much anticipated LeBron James-Kobe Bryant NBA Finals showdown may never materialize but the NBA's best player and the NBA's five-time Lord of the Rings are both performing at a very high level. James led the Miami Heat to a 12-1 record in February while averaging 29.7 ppg (first in the league during the month) on .641 field goal shooting (tied for the league lead during the month) and contributing 7.8 apg, a team-high 7.5 rpg and 1.9 spg. He set an NBA record by scoring at least 30 points and shooting at least .600 from the field in six straight games. James has won 24 Eastern Conference Player of the Month awards, including all four this season and seven of the last nine overall. James is without question the 2012-13 NBA MVP, despite attempts by some media members to drum up interest in other candidates; Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and perhaps one or two other players are operating at an MVP-caliber level but no one has been as dominant, productive and efficient as James.
Bryant is playing some of the best and most efficient basketball of his career as he tries to lift the injury-battered and often listless L.A. Lakers into playoff contention; the Lakers went 9-4 in February as Bryant led the team in scoring (23.9 ppg) and assists (6.6 apg) while also averaging 6.7 rpg. He has scored at least 30 points in a game 24 times this season, tied with Durant for the NBA lead in that category. This is the 17th time that Bryant has won the Player of the Month award. He earned his first such honor in December 2000, the last season when the league selected just one Player of the Month; starting with the 2001-02 season, the NBA chose a Player of the Month for each conference.
Bryant has indicated that he might retire when his contract expires after next season but Kevin Ding
eloquently asked Bryant to reconsider:
Game 1,440 was not unlike the others.
The Lakers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night. Counting the playoffs, it was Kobe Bryant's 1,440th NBA game.
And Bryant was great again.
Not just pretty good. Not just flashes of greatness.
Great.
Still great.
Artfully, inspirationally, intensely, winningly great.
So great...and yet not particularly greater than he was in Dallas a few days back, or the game before that with 29 after halftime to beat
Portland, or when he twice had 14 assists in back-to-back victories over Utah and Oklahoma City in late January, or the time his fanatical prep
work and relentless chasing left Brandon Jennings certain no one in the history of the game had ever defended a point guard that well (and also
had 31 on 12-of-19 shooting and six assists), or all of December with Bryant's 33.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists across the board
higher than he has averaged in any month in any year of his career.
The Lakers' day-to-day struggles have obscured the work of art that Bryant has erected over the past four months with those bent and
battered fingers and his usual common-man tools of hard work, fundamentals, dedication and desire...
Retirement should not even be on Kobe Bryant's radar.
Labels: Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Miami Heat
posted by David Friedman @ 6:41 AM
Jerry Buss: Championship or Bust
"Championship or bust." That is how Kobe Bryant describes the mindset of Jerry Buss, who owned the L.A. Lakers for more than 30 years before passing away Monday morning. One could make a strong case that Buss is the most successful team owner in sports history; under his direction the Lakers won 10 championships (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88, 2000-02, 2009-10)--more than any other NBA owner has won--and the organization blossomed into an empire worth more than $1 billion: that combination of on-court success and financial success is rare, if not unprecedented.
As usual,
Kevin Ding provides an informed take:
Buss' 10 NBA championships--while missing the playoffs only twice in 33 seasons--are patently absurd. He blended Hollywood glamour with
great basketball, which is why he could be given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 2006 for television advancements and be inducted into
the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 as a contributor to the sport.
With savvy decisions that played out both inside and outside of the arena, Buss seemed always the smartest and most daring guy in the room.
That includes the high-stakes poker room, his most recent passion that challenged him to match wits with the best professional poker
players in the world. Buss' intelligence was applicable in a variety of realms: He started out a graduate of the University of Wyoming with a
degree in chemistry, believing education would be his springboard to whatever else he could imagine.
The
L.A. Times' Bill Dwyre
eloquently describes a side of Jerry Buss that most people did not see:
We live in an era of soulless corporations and heartless management. People are laid off by email or by discovering the lock changed on their office door.
In Buss' corporation, there was always heart and soul.
(P.R. consultant Bob) Steiner's daughter, Cathy, is developmentally disabled. She is also a huge Lakers fan, of course, and used to sit in Buss' box with her dad at games and keep score. She used the game program to do so.
But somewhere along the line, an order had come to the ushers that the game programs need not be distributed in the boss' box until he arrived. Invariably, Buss would be delayed by pregame duties, and one time, he didn't make it into his box until near halftime. When he arrived, Cathy let him know that she would have no more of these delays, that she needed her program before the game started.
To which Jerry Buss replied meekly: "I will take care of it, Cathy."
And he did.
"Jerry was sensational with her," Steiner says.
He was the same with thousands of other people.
Various people affiliated with the NBA
expressed their love and admiration for Dr. Buss:
- Magic Johnson: "This is a great loss for the Laker Nation--1st the legendary Chick Hearn and now my 2nd dad, the beloved Dr. Jerry Buss. I LOVE you Dr. Buss! All Dr. Buss ever wanted to do was win and he did. Dr. Buss won 10 Championships--5 with me as a player and 5 with me as his partner."
- Derek Fisher: "He forever changed my life. May he rest in peace and my prayers are with his family that he loved so much."
- NBA Commissioner David Stern described Dr. Buss as a "visionary owner whose influence on our league is incalculable and will be felt for decades to come."
- Shaquille O'Neal, who did not always see eye to eye with Dr. Buss, issued this statement: "I'm deeply saddened over the loss of the great Dr. Jerry Buss. He was a dear friend, keen mentor and brilliant businessman. He'll always be remembered for his dedication in bringing the best to the purple and gold and I'm proud to have been part of his honorable legacy. My heart and prayers go out to the Buss family and friends. Dr. Buss will be deeply missed by this big man."
Labels: Jerry Buss, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal
posted by David Friedman @ 5:28 AM
Kevin Ding Describes Kobe Bryant's Defensive Focus
A columnist's job is to provide a larger context for a news story or a series of related news stories, while a beat writer's job is to do research, conduct interviews and report the facts; few writers are fully competent in either category and it is exceedingly rare to find a writer who is both capable of ascertaining the facts and logically analyzing those facts. Kevin Ding is one such writer; his articles contain facts and quotes that demonstrate that he has done his homework in terms of research and interviewing but he also is more than capable of stepping out of beat writer mode to provide cogent analysis.
Much has been written and said about Kobe Bryant's defense this season but Ding
provides an excellent description of Bryant's dedication at that end of the court:
Just watching Bryant hound Milwaukee point guard Brandon Jennings
into every crevice and corner of the court Tuesday night was proof of
Bryant's uncommon determination. He prides himself in having more of
that dog in him than anyone else, and it's true that he plays one mean
game of fetch.
Put the ball in front of him, and Bryant will do whatever he can to
get it. It's not necessarily ideal for solid team defense, but it can
make setting up an offense pretty impossible.
That's why even in his 17th NBA season, he can play what Jennings viewed as a downright historic game.
"For the whole game, I don't think I've ever seen a guard put that
much pressure on a point guard full-court," Jennings said. "It was a lot
different. It's probably the best defense anybody's played on me since
I've been in the league. He was constantly putting pressure on me,
touching me, hitting me at all time in the game."
Part of it was dedication: With fanatical pregame study of Jennings'
tendencies, Bryant was during breaks in the game actually re-enacting
the precise rhythm and weight shifts of Jennings' pet moves as
self-reminders.
Most of it was relentlessness: Bryant uncharacteristically huffed and
puffed, sweat pouring off him in Shaq-like style, from all the
exertion. He left some of his hand on the wood on the second occasion he
went diving for the ball – the skin coming off via floor burn loudly
enough to sound like a sneaker squeak. Even in a fourth-quarter timeout,
he was still practicing defensive slides outside the huddle.
Labels: Brandon Jennings, defense, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers
posted by David Friedman @ 4:36 PM
Gasol and Howard Must Match Bryant's Aggressiveness
Kevin Ding, the best and most insightful writer on the L.A. Lakers' beat,
explains a major reason why the Lakers have been a mediocre team this season: Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol, the team's twin towers, have not been aggressive enough at either end of the court. Ding notes that Howard's well documented free throw struggles largely stem from Howard's preoccupation with being booed, resulting in him "shrinking under that pressure of everyone's expectations." After the Lakers' 113-103 home loss to the Orlando Magic on Sunday, Kobe Bryant dismissed any excuses about Gasol's health and/or his role in the offense by emphatically stating that Gasol must "put your big-boy pants on" and have a bigger impact on the game. Throughout his career, Bryant has consistently challenged his teammates to be more aggressive and play with more fire--that was the real source of tension between him and the sometimes lackadaisical
Shaquille O'Neal, not the soap opera nonsense propagated by most media members. O'Neal never trained or practiced as hard as Bryant but Phil Jackson's coaching and Bryant's drive brought out the best in O'Neal when the Lakers won three championships in four Finals appearances during the early 2000s. Ding questions whether Howard or Gasol can ever fully develop the fearless attitude that has propelled Bryant to so much success:
Well, Gasol is another player whose basic nature is to worry about
what everyone thinks of him. O'Neal too was deeply insecure, though he
tried to mask it with tenacity and force.
First O'Neal and then Gasol came to respect the quality a certain
teammate who just does not give a bleep about those who doubt him when
he trusts himself--a mindset that makes it much easier to excel.
Orlando coach Jacque Vaughn referred to Bryant as "an extreme winner"
before the game Sunday night--and then proceeded to carry out a game
plan to take the ball out of Bryant's hands late and gamble on hacking
Howard.
But did O'Neal and Gasol ever really learn to be like Bryant?
Could Gasol, splendid and skilled as he was in those title years with
Bryant, have been the lead dog on a title team during that time?
Hardly. And that brings us back to the question about Howard--with his
Shaq-like physical superiority...and mental insecurity.
This is supposed to be the season of shift from Kobe's team to Dwight's team.
In reality, it's far more about Dwight shifting to be more like Kobe.
Ding made similar observations regarding Gasol
near the end of last season and Ding even suggested that the Lakers should trade Gasol in exchange for younger, hungrier and more athletic players.
Labels: Dwight Howard, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol
posted by David Friedman @ 4:40 PM
Howard-Bynum Trade Would be Good for All Concerned Parties
In his
most recent column, Kevin Ding makes a
point that I have been emphasizing for more than a year: the most likely way for the L.A. Lakers to vault back into legitimate championship contention is to trade Andrew Bynum for Dwight Howard. Ding also notes that such a deal would be good for all concerned parties--not just Howard and Bynum individually but also both the Lakers and the Orlando Magic.
Ding explains why the trade works for Howard and the Lakers:
The Lakers need a healthy dose of gambling's fear to bring out the best in them--and the prospect of trading for Howard and losing him for nothing in a year is certainly plenty scary.
But the reality is that there are benefits awaiting the Lakers even in that worst-case scenario that could easily be explained by Dwight again being a loon who fails to listen to reason: What can you do if the goofy dude walks away from far more money from the Lakers because he wants to dress up like a cowboy in Dallas or curl all the way up into the fetal position in hometown Atlanta?
The Lakers are already absolutely opposed to paying monster salaries to Bryant, Gasol and Bynum in 2014-15, so even if it's just Bryant and Gasol (or whomever Gasol is traded for) left in 2013-14, the Lakers get a head start on major change and their necessary evil of getting under the luxury-tax plateau.Ding notes that Bynum and the Magic also would benefit:
Trading Howard for a bunch of expiring contracts or unspectacular potential, mostly what everyone but the Lakers is offering, is hardly the means to renewing any optimism in Orlando. And it was clear from new Orlando general manager Rob Hennigan's tone during a news conference Monday that he appreciates his community's need to move forward as soon as possible with players who are committed to the cause and understand winning.
For all his quirks, Bynum does know what it takes, has no qualms about leaving the Lakers and is sincerely eager for a team to call his own. He is predisposed to knee injuries, but he is getting his second consecutive healthy summer to build himself up. He already became the bona fide best other center in basketball--and one who happens to be two years younger and in a contract situation to commit right now long-term to Orlando, precisely what Howard would not do.Labels: Dwight Howard, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers
posted by David Friedman @ 1:57 PM
Kevin Ding: Lakers' Biggest Problem is Gasol's Passivity
The Lakers probably have more journalists covering them than any team other than maybe the New York Knicks but the most insightful Lakers' beat writer/commentator is
Kevin Ding. While national media members relentlessly focus on Kobe Bryant's shot selection--
a subject that endlessly fascinates them--Ding cuts straight to the heart of the matter: Pau Gasol has disappeared for the second consecutive postseason. Gasol is averaging 12.4 ppg on .442 field goal shooting during this year's playoffs after averaging 13.1 ppg on .420 field goal shooting during the 2011 playoffs. Gasol attempted 12.7 field goals per game during the 2008 playoffs, 12 field goals per game in the 2009 playoffs, 13.3 field goals per game during the 2010 playoffs, 11.2 field goals per game during the 2011 playoffs and 11.7 field goals per game so far during the 2012 playoffs--so Gasol is not receiving substantially fewer scoring opportunities now than he did during the Lakers' recent championship run (and the slight reduction has as much to do with Gasol's passivity as anything else).
The problem is that Gasol seems to be satisfied with two championship rings and thus does not push himself to play aggressively on a nightly basis. After the Lakers' 103-100 game four loss on Saturday night to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Bryant offered this blunt assessment: "Pau's got to be more assertive. He's the guy that they're leaving. When he catches the ball, he's
looking to pass. He's got to be more aggressive. He's got to shoot the
ball, drive the ball to the basket. And he will be next game." Bryant, who has played through numerous injuries because of his tremendous hunger to win at least one more title, has enjoyed playing with Gasol even though he often has to kick Gasol in the butt to get the laid back Gasol to live up to his potential but Bryant is disgusted by Gasol's lack of effort the past two postseasons. Here is Ding's take not just on game four of the Thunder-Lakers series but also the state of the Lakers in general:
Bryant's postgame criticism was meant to make sure Gasol doesn't make those mistakes again as the Lakers try to rally in this series. But
even as Bryant attempts to push Gasol forward the rest of this season, it's just as obvious that this season should be the last for this
once-great partnership.
Bryant has tired to having to prop Gasol up time and again. Bryant did it often last season in pursuit of a third consecutive title on a
bad knee and before Bynum was ready, offering the compelling Natalie Portman-inspired narrative that Gasol is too often the "white swan"
instead of the "black swan." Like the movie, it didn't end well.
This season, Bryant has still believed that Gasol can come through when it matters most. Bryant's public request that the Lakers stop
dangling Gasol in the trade market was him believing Gasol needed that support to persevere. When I was comparing the very night before the
March trade deadline the emerging Bynum and Bryant to the regular one-two punch of Shaquille O'Neal and Bryant, it was Bryant who
digressed to say: "We still have Pau."
Ding believes that the Lakers should trade Gasol for a big man who matches Bryant's fire and desire plus some young, energetic perimeter players (Ding suggests a Pau Gasol for Kevin Garnett swap but I doubt that the Celtics would go for that). Ding concludes:
Championship teams find a way to win because they aren't afraid to lose.
And in that regard, the sweet-hearted, good-intending Gasol is unfortunately the Lakers' No. 1 problem.Labels: Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Pau Gasol
posted by David Friedman @ 2:42 PM
Kevin Ding Once Again Hits the Ball out of the Park
Kevin Ding is one of the few NBA beat writers who not only can write a basic game recap but also uses his close access to the NBA to provide
genuine insight about the sport. Ding's
latest column explains the major difference between an all-time great like Kobe Bryant and Bryant's talented but not elite big men Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol:
It's precisely what the Lakers' brass feared after the humiliating
end to last season: Gasol and Bynum--along with Lamar Odom--having
made their safe deposits of multiple championship-ring boxes ... and
just not wanting it enough anymore.
It's why the Lakers were so right and so ready to trade Gasol and
Odom for ringless Chris Paul before the season and plotted the follow-up
trade-deadline swap of Bynum for ringless Dwight Howard.
As wrong as it seems to condemn people for having proved themselves
already, it's human nature to let up after difficult accomplishments. In
this regard far more than even the mental toughness of playing hurt,
Bryant is superhuman. Frustrated by a second consecutive game of missing
killer instinct from his teammates, Bryant lifted his flame up to the
light Thursday night for a rare moment of full disclosure about his
drive.
"Psychologically, you have to put yourself in a predicament, in a
position, where you have no other option but to perform," Bryant said.
"You have to emotionally put yourself with your back against the wall
and kind of trick yourself to feel that there's no other option but to
perform and to battle. When you have that, when you put yourself in that
mind state, then your performance shines through."
Ding also makes the same observation that Jeff Van Gundy repeatedly stated last season and that I have mentioned as well: the Lakers' bigs "have jogged slower instead of racing faster to get back on defense," something that Ding attributes to the flagging motivation levels alluded to in the preceding paragraphs. Ding concludes with words that must alarm any Lakers' fan:
A better effort back home should be enough to win Saturday night, but
how many mind games and magic rabbits can Bryant pull if Gasol and
Bynum already have hats in hand and Oklahoma City truly wants it more?
Here in the first round, Bryant is already down to his final trick.
He has to take one must-win game ... and make all the complacency of Gasol and Bynum suddenly disappear.Labels: Andrew Bynum, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Pau Gasol
posted by David Friedman @ 3:21 PM
Why Do the Lakers Squander so Many Leads and Why do They Play Poorly on the Road?
The reflexive, mainstream media answer to the title question of this article is that Kobe Bryant "is not clutch" or at least that he has "not been clutch" this season. There are two problems with that kind of thinking:
1) "Clutch" statistics inherently involve a small sample size of data that contains a variety of kinds of plays and shots that cannot just be mixed together to produce any kind of rational, coherent analysis.
2) While it is true that Kobe Bryant's overall performance on the road--which comprises a much larger sample size than just his "clutch" statistics--this season has been much worse than his overall performance at home, the Lakers' problems go deeper than Bryant's road field goal percentage.
Kevin Ding, a rare NBA beat writer who actually provides excellent analysis instead of just filing by the numbers postgame reports,
recently offered his take on the Lakers' road problems:
The Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder flat-out have the speed and bounce to win without refined execution--and to win for sure when they indeed do execute. We now know even better than three months ago how badly the Lakers needed at least an infusion of offensive creativity from Paul at point guard.Lakers coach Mike Brown did craft this plan to play through big men Andrew Bynum and Gasol in the post, but Brown will admit the limitations of that approach."The post is the easiest place in basketball to double," Brown said.That's why Brown is so often looking like a one-man bowling team with those constant underhand waves at Derek Fisher and Steve Blake to hurry the ball across halfcourt. The Lakers need every precious shot-clock second to set up the proper spacing, get Bryant a touch, throw the ball into the post, draw the double team, pass it back out, set up and fight for the re-post, swing the ball to the weak side to look for something there and ideally reach a fourth option on offense before the 24-second clock expires.Doing all that is not a particularly fun way to play the game, which is a basic reason the Lakers do not do it when they're messing around instead of approaching the game in the most businesslike manner. (And if you've got a lead, is it human nature to stay businesslike or try to have some fun? Yeah, now you know why the Lakers blow so many leads.)That cavalier attitude is what bit the Lakers in Washington, with Bynum piling up seven turnovers and Bryant jacking tough shots up before double teams arrived instead of everyone making patient passes, cutting toward space and doing the work.Bryant has played a major role on five championship teams and he has been the Lakers' primary playmaker for the vast majority of his career. Is it logical to leap to the conclusion that his subpar road performance this season "proves" that he is a selfish gunner who is simply trying to move up the all-time scoring list or does it make more sense--based on Bryant's track record and the Lakers' anemic offense overall, as documented by Ding above--to give Bryant the benefit of the doubt and assume that Bryant is trying to do whatever he can to help the Lakers win?
Labels: Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Mike Brown
posted by David Friedman @ 2:26 PM
Kevin Ding Provides Insight Regarding the Challenges that Kobe Bryant has Overcome
After scoring 20 points on 6-13 field goal shooting in the first half versus Washington on Wednesday night and helping the L.A. Lakers build a 64-49 halftime lead, Kobe Bryant lost his shooting touch in the second half; Bryant shot just 3-18 from the field and the hapless Wizards stormed back to post just their ninth win in 38 games this season. The Lakers are currently in fifth place in the Western Conference standings, which may surprise the oddsmakers who ranked the Lakers as one of the league's top five teams but it does not surprise anyone who read my
Western Conference Preview: I picked the Lakers to finish sixth in the West and predicted that they would be more reliant than ever on Bryant's scoring and playmaking even though a player of Bryant's age who has logged so much mileage should be having his role reduced (to preserve him for the postseason) instead of being relentlessly driven at top speed until his wheels fall off. Bryant is leading the NBA in scoring, ranks among the league leaders in minutes played and he has produced some sizzling performances this season but he is also an aging player who has not missed a game despite suffering a torn ligament in his shooting wrist, a broken nose and a concussion.
If Bryant were not showing some signs of fatigue by this point in the lockout-compressed season then he would be superhuman--but instead of focusing on what Bryant has overcome and how his efforts have kept a mediocre Lakers team afloat, many members of the media choose instead to
endlessly critique his shot selection; they are apparently unwilling or unable to realize that you cannot run a championship caliber offense through a soft Pau Gasol or an Andrew Bynum who still has a limited post game. However, it is refreshing that at least one person who watches Bryant up close on a regular basis is capable of providing an objective perspective about Bryant's performance this season. Do yourself a favor and check out Kevin Ding's article titled
Masked Kobe's clearest message: persevere. Ding describes not just what Bryant has accomplished this season but also how Bryant's determination to play through injuries fueled the Lakers' run to the 2008 Finals and thus set up their back to back championships in 2009 and 2010.
Labels: Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers
posted by David Friedman @ 5:47 AM
Kevin Ding Provides Excellent Lakers Coverage
A large percentage of what is reported about the NBA in general--and the Lakers in particular--consists of various kinds of nonsense: biased commentary, statistics that are either irrelevant and/or based on insignificant sample sizes, gossip, etc. One shining light amidst this darkness is Kevin Ding, the beat writer for the
Orange County Register. His
most recent article contains solid reporting with excellent insight. Here is Ding's coverage of how Kobe Bryant is dealing with the torn ligament in his right wrist:
Bryant has been taking a numbing injection to that wrist before every game in hopes of performing normally. Yes, it's that bad.
He does not want to publicize all the details of his wrist, which is usable only because the bones were not moved permanently out of alignment without the ligament to hold them in place. But it's now clear just how problematic the wrist is, and it's fair to wonder where all this will take Bryant.
Bryant walked out of Staples Center on Tuesday night with something that looked like an oven mitten over his right hand and wrist. He wears an immobilizing brace over the wrist when off the court, meaning take-for-granted parts of life such as texting on his phone or zipping his fly become rather challenging.
It was much the same aggravation in 2009-10, when Bryant played through the avulsion fracture in his right index finger--another rather useful body part for everyday activities apart from handling a basketball, too...
In 2009-10 Bryant paid a price for overextending himself, with the fracture in the top knuckle of that finger eventually healing, but the main middle knuckle so beaten down by the abuse that it wound up with arthritis.
That finger today remains, well, quite deformed. Actually, the most accurate way to describe the finger? Lumpy.
The
L.A. Times, ESPN and other media outlets will try to convince you that Mike Brown is not a very good coach and that Kobe Bryant does not respect him. Ding has a much different take:
Days before Brown and Bryant reviewed video side-by-side on the flight home from Denver after Bryant's brutal 6-for-28 game Sunday night, Bryant shared with me the depth of his respect for Brown.
"I really want to win for him in the worst way, because I see how much he works and I see how much he wants it," Bryant said. "I hear the criticism he takes, and I believe it to be unwarranted. It makes me want to work even harder than I already am."
Brown and Bryant came out of their video study together with a mandate: Rededicate themselves to getting Bryant the ball in his favorite spots right off the free-throw line or in the short post.
"I think Kobe learned something when we sat down and watched tape," said Brown, staying typically humble by adding: "I know I learned something, too."
Brown also mentioned to Bryant the need to follow through properly with his wrist on jump shots. Well, when Bryant does that, the wrist howls in pain. It wasn't fatigue from six games in eight days that left so many of Bryant's shots in Denver on the front rim as much as the wrist failing.
Ding concludes:
Bryant is always the same but is never the same. Whether he's missing 22 shots or making 14, he's analyzing every one. He will travel to the ends of the earth for any possible edge, yet his nose will never leave the grindstone.
What he doesn't understand is why everyone doesn't get it by now:
This is what he does. This is who he is.
Bryant pounded away with that busted finger for six months of the 2009-10 season.
He got up only after he had what he calls the most satisfying of his five NBA championships.
For several years I have
emphasized that Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum benefit immensely from the extra defensive attention that Kobe Bryant attracts. People who say that Bryant should have a smaller offensive role for the Lakers because Gasol and Bynum's shooting percentages are better than Bryant's shooting percentage do not understand the cause-effect relationship between how Bryant plays and the opportunities that Gasol and Bynum get--but, unlike many media members, Ding
knows the difference between putting up numbers and being an elite player:
We said Andrew Bynum was going to be a beast this season.
Now that everyone has seen the 22.3 points, 15.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, let's be clear about something else:
Bynum is not an elite offensive player in this league yet. Not even close.
He has an awful lot to learn before he gets there, and the second half of the Lakers' loss in Portland on Thursday night was an early pop quiz he flunked.
No doubt Bynum has plenty of moves, via both power and footwork, but what he lacks is the ability to handle double teams. He struggled when presented with that challenge late last season, and he will struggle again with it much of this season--probably more so than even Lakers coach Mike Brown suspects.
Some commenters at this site have disputed my contention that Bryant, not Gasol or Bynum, is the main Laker who draws double teams. Ding provides a quote from Coach Brown about Bynum that supports my case:
That's new for him. Not only new for him, but if you think about it, it's kind of new for our team in terms of having a post-up guy who gets doubled. That's something we have to work on, so it was great for Andrew to have to go through that and our team to have to go through it.
Now we just have to work on it, because we know Andrew can score on the front side of plays and in a one-on-one environment. Now he has to understand that when they come to double, it's OK--but we've got to make 'em pay, whether it's on the backside or it's with the re-post.
Before deciding to run the offense through a particular player, that player must prove that he can deal with trapping defenses. Bryant has proven that he is highly proficient in that regard. As Coach Brown noted, it is "new" for the Lakers to put a post player in position to be regularly doubled and it remains to be seen how Bynum will react to this role. If Bynum is capable of performing well in this role then this will make the Lakers a better team and possibly extend Kobe Bryant's career--but it is premature to just automatically say that Bynum should be the focal point of the offense. The Lakers should definitely still be willing to trade the injury-prone Bynum to the Orlando Magic for Dwight Howard if possible; Howard is a better rebounder and defender than Bynum, Howard is more durable than Bynum and, even though his post footwork is a bit less polished than Bynum's, Howard is a more explosive athlete. Howard has improved his post game recently and if he played alongside Bryant then Howard's effectiveness and field goal percentage would improve much like Gasol's did after joining the Lakers.
Labels: Andrew Bynum, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Mike Brown
posted by David Friedman @ 4:02 PM
Unlike Hoop Magazine, ESPN Does Not Tolerate Plagiarism
Kevin Ding, the L.A. Lakers' beat writer for the
Orange County Register, experienced a very disconcerting kind of deja vu when he watched ESPN's "Highlight Express" show a couple weeks ago: anchor Will Selva used the first several sentences of a recent Ding column to introduce the Lakers-Spurs highlights. Ding rightly called out Selva publicly and ESPN promptly responded by
suspending Selva indefinitely.It is still not too late for Hoop magazine to do the right thing regarding the way that editor
Ming Wong blatantly allowed one of his writers to rip off my story about Jim O'Brien, basketball and chess; after all, Selva "only" lifted a few sentences but Hoop essentially recapitulated an entire article. It is worth noting that when Selva apologized for his actions he said that while researching the Lakers-Spurs game he had copied down Ding's words intending to rephrase them but then had forgotten to do so. This is basically what Wong told me his writer had done with my
Chess and Basketball article. ESPN properly did not accept Selva's weak excuse and the publisher of Hoop should take the same approach regarding not only their plagiarist but also Wong, the editor who allowed the plagiarism to take place and did nothing to redress this matter even after I pointed it out to him.
Labels: ESPN, Hoop, Kevin Ding, Ming Wong, Will Selva
posted by David Friedman @ 4:08 PM
