Kobe will never be good enough on his own to carry a team to a championship. And he'll be just good enough to keep that team floating in mediocrity to stop them from getting the draft picks to build a team around him.

The problem with your statement is that NO PLAYER is good enough on their own to carry a team to a championship. And the lakers aren't another shaq away from being a contender, they're a Kurt Thomas type post player and a brian shaw type guard away. Its really not that hard to think that they'll either add players of that calibur via trade or free agency, or some of their younger current players will develop into that calibur, or more likely some combination of both. They may be 2-3 years away from being legitimate contenders, but they will win a championship again while Kobe's there.

That fake story had a bit of truth to it. The Lakers won't win another championship until Kobe learns to become a team player like Jordan or Shaq.

Again, did you think this up yourself or are you just regurgitating what you've had spewed to you 1000 times. Jordan never played on a team where he wasn't the go to guy. Other than that Jordan won championships as the main guy, you'll have to explain to me how he was automatically more of a team player than Kobe. Kobe is only 27 and he's played one year without shaq, and ended that year on the dl.

And as much as I love Shaq, how is he really a team player other than relying on the team to get him the ball? Did he stay in shape to ensure that he'd be healthy and a factor down the stretch (answer: no), did he really work on his free throws so that he wouldn't be a liability in close games (answer: no). Shaq is a lot more likeable than Kobe, but he's not more of a team player than Kobe by any stretch of the imagination.

I was drunk when I wrote that but you've got a little bit too much man love for Kobe.

Shiv, I agree with you for once. There is a difference between being out of shape cos your hurt (Shaq) and being a complete fucking asshole (Kobe). Read stories on dude, he's worse than Bonds when it comes to socializing, or even being willing to piss in a teammate's mouth if his teeth were on fire.

AND, no matter what, Kobe will always be a piece of shit in my book for putting Shaq under the bus in the bookie bandit incedent. He is an awesome talent, but you think if you think that the Lakers win a championship by adding B. Shaw, I wanna hit off what you smokin.

Did you even read my post? I didn't say I thought they'd win a championship by adding B. Shaw. He's like 82 years old. I said that they were a B. Shaw TYPE guard and a Kurt Thomas TYPE post player away from being a contender. Saying a team is a contender and predicting they'll win a championship are 2 entirely different things.

And I don't disagree at all that Kobe was a piece of shit for throwing Shaq under the bus. I already said he's not likeable (read he's an asshole). I'm really not a big Kobe fan or a big NBA fan in general. I just get tired of hearing people regurgitate the same "he'll never win a championship because he doesn't make his teammates better" bs.

I actually think that the two are not mutually exclusive. And I think you will find that Jordan suffered under much of the same criticism until he started making his teammates better. (H. Grant and S. Pippen, especially)

You can't really deny that dude is doing nothing but inflating his stats at the expense of his teammates right now. You CAN argue that he does not have sufficient talent to elevate, but if your articulated that, I missed it. SO SOLLY.

"see my ring kobe? stop hittin on me"

[img][383:500]http://espn-i.starwave.com/media/apphoto/LAS10801280707.jpg[/img]

Are you going to come and clean up the java all over my coffee table now?

Have you watched many lakers games this year? They play a team game in the first half. When the other players show up, Kobe scores 30 pts or so for the game. Kobe's highest scoring games have been when no one else is playing well with the bulk of the scoring in the 2nd half. In his 81 point game, 55 were in the 2nd half.

You try to make Luke, Sasha, Smush and Kwame better. That's a pretty tall order. Some nights they show up, others they don't. Same is true with Lamar and Mihm but just to a lesser degree. I'm not going to place the blame on Kobe for that.

Anyone want to watch the Lakers get destroyed tonight?

i'm watching it

haha chauncey