Kobe Bryant full highlights vs GSW (HD)

[CarlosBoozer]

Top 5 alltime

[DCL]

that was really ugly

[Real Men Wear Green]

He's still an all-time great player (Top 5 is debatable) he's just continued to play after injuries and age have pushed his body to a point where most guys would have retired. Using his current play as a reason to say his legacy is being damaged reminds me of how some people thought Wizards MJ was legacy damage. Really shouldn't be.

[AirFederer]

GodBe

[DCL]

He's still an all-time great player (Top 5 is debatable) he's just continued to play after injuries and age have pushed his body to a point where most guys would have retired. Using his current play as a reason to say his legacy is being damaged reminds me of how some people thought Wizards MJ was legacy damage. Really shouldn't be.

comparing it to jordan is a pretty lousy example.

40yo jordan was still amazing to a lot of people.

this kobe is amazing to nobody.

[AirFederer]

He's still an all-time great player (Top 5 is debatable) he's just continued to play after injuries and age have pushed his body to a point where most guys would have retired. Using his current play as a reason to say his legacy is being damaged reminds me of how some people thought Wizards MJ was legacy damage. Really shouldn't be.

Wiz MJ was, to me, hurting his legacy somewhat. He had lost his trademark quickness, dunking etc, but he still played at a high level, competed, used his old man strengt and knowledge and generally played a high BBIQ game.

Very much unlike Kobe. Here we are talking about "legacy damage" on another level.

I frankly don`t think it would be possible to play any worse; calling out team mates, extremely low FG%, no D, no real team play etc.

[SexSymbol]

I'm sorry, but 9 or 10 of those shots are with 5 seconds or less.
This performance isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

[Dragonyeuw]

I don't see how MJ in any way damaged his legacy. He was still very competitive at 40 against a new generation of stars. Let's not forget, back in 2002 and 2003 you had guys like Kobe, Tmac, Dirk, Duncan, Garnett, Iverson, Pierce, Shaq etc in their primes. There's plenty of highlights out there lighting up guys like Garnett, widely considered an ATG defensive player, multiple gamewinners over other great defenders like Shawn Marion. Yeah, his efficiency wasn't great, his 3point shot was gone and he pretty much had to remake his jumpshot to account for his messed up finger. I bet you outside of guys like Rip Hamilton, Stackhouse, and Kwame Brown( notable for not so great reasons), most people couldn't name 2-3 other guys on those Wizards without looking it up.

[Real Men Wear Green]

comparing it to jordan is a pretty lousy example.

40yo jordan was still amazing to a lot of people.

this kobe is amazing to nobody.

He was playing at a much higher level than Bryant is but if you were posting on message boards back then you would have seen a lot of criticism. He was vastly inferior to his prime level and people had no problem saying that. An example of a common sentiment:

Wiz MJ was, to me, hurting his legacy somewhat. He had lost his trademark quickness, dunking etc, but he still played at a high level, competed, used his old man strengt and knowledge and generally played a high BBIQ game.

Very much unlike Kobe. Here we are talking about "legacy damage" on another level.

I frankly don`t think it would be possible to play any worse; calling out team mates, extremely low FG%, no D, no real team play etc.

[navy]

He's still an all-time great player (Top 5 is debatable) he's just continued to play after injuries and age have pushed his body to a point where most guys would have retired. Using his current play as a reason to say his legacy is being damaged reminds me of how some people thought Wizards MJ was legacy damage. Really shouldn't be.

True, however the one knock I would say is that he is playing retarded and selfish like he often did in his younger days. I get the late shotclock attempts, but some of the shots he takes are bad and always have been bad. Obviously he use to make them at an all time much better rate but still, it shows now that he cant.

[Dragonyeuw]

I'm sorry, but 9 or 10 of those shots are with 5 seconds or less.
This performance isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

That vid demonstrated how shitty the Lakers offense is as much, if not more, than it did Kobe's diminished ability to hit the crazy bail-out shots he's known for.

[Dragonyeuw]

True, however the one knock I would say is that he is playing retarded and selfish like he often did in his younger days. I get the late shotclock attempts, but some of the shots he takes are bad and always have been bad. Obviously he use to make them at an all time much better rate but still, it shows now that he cant.

MJ was playing within the limitations of his body at that point, Kobe isn't due to an inability mentally to adapt, but also because the Lakers really have shit else on their squad to carry the offense. So it's being put on a guy no longer capable of doing it. It's a bad situation all-around.

[Real Men Wear Green]

True, however the one knock I would say is that he is playing retarded and selfish like he often did in his younger days. I get the late shotclock attempts, but some of the shots he takes are bad and always have been bad. Obviously he use to make them at an all time much better rate but still, it shows now that he cant.

Not being knowledgeable about horse racing I'm in danger of saying something a little ignorant but I'd compare it to how a horse is put down when they have a certain level of leg injury. I'm given to understand that part of why they are killed is because they have certain behaviors that they just can't change. Bryant is a human, not a horse, so even though he should be retired (the putting down of his career if you will) he's being allowed to limp around out there even though his game is gone. Or what may be an even better comparison would be to go pauk with the Old Lion. The animal go to the top of the pride by being aggressive and dominant, just like how Bryant became one of the greats of NBA history. Now that the lion's old the young lions are killing him, just like how now that Bryant is old these younger players are killing him.

He is terrible right now, that's a fact. But that shouldn't take away from how great he used to be. He's still a 5-time Champion with tons of All-NBA and All-Star awards.Might be the second-best SG to ever play. Nothing that will happen this year can change that.

[3ball]

He's still an all-time great player (Top 5 is debatable) he's just continued to play after injuries and age have pushed his body to a point where most guys would have retired. Using his current play as a reason to say his legacy is being damaged reminds me of how some people thought Wizards MJ was legacy damage. Really shouldn't be.

I agree with your overall point - this version of kobe shouldn't be used to diminish his career in any way..

This is why it hurts to MJ's overall stats, because they're tarnished by his Wizard years, albiet still goat - but I'd much prefer to post his Bulls stats everytime, since they show a very distinct, comfortable gap between him and everyone else.

Btw, it isn't beneficial to compare this version of Kobe to Wizard Jordan - Wizard Jordan shot a full 10-15 percentage points better and was a legit all-star, 20/5/5 player.. He scored over 40 many times and even hit for 51.. Heck, 4 years after he retired (at 45 years old), he destroyed OJ Mayo, the #1 high school player at the time.. Otoh, numerous HS players would have Kobe's lunch right now.

[ArbitraryWater]

He's still an all-time great player (Top 5 is debatable) he's just continued to play after injuries and age have pushed his body to a point where most guys would have retired. Using his current play as a reason to say his legacy is being damaged reminds me of how some people thought Wizards MJ was legacy damage. Really shouldn't be.

no its not