Take that, Shaquille (aka, the NBA thread)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Mostly, I wanted to talk about the best sequence of plays of the season last night in the Laker/Heat game.

Lakers rookie Andrew Bynum, the youngest player ever drafted in the NBA at 17, now 18, came in to give Chris Mihm a rest. And who does this 7ft. kid have to guard? Shaq, of course. One of of Miami's fist posessions after he came in, there was a missed shot. Bynum was in position for the rebound, but Shaq made a strong power move over him, knocking Bynum off balance and slamming the ball home. It was an impressive play from an impressive player, the kind of thing that really humbles a kid...right?

Not so fast! On the Lakers' very next possesion, Bynum gets the ball at the to of the key with his back to Shaq...and them makes a spectacular fake to the middle, only to spin around, leaving Shaq glued to his spot, and embarasses him with a dunk of his own!

He was justifiably excited. Unfortunately, he did kinda mar the whole thing by letting his excitement get the best of him. As he came back down on defense, he gave Shaq an uncalled for elbow to the ribs, prompting Shaq to give him a pretty good smack to the shoulder. A double tech was (correctly) called. That kinda took some air out of what he had just done.

But still, one electrifying sequence of events.

You can see it if you go to www.nba.com/lakers and click the "video" link under the summar of last night's game. It starts about 35 seconds into the video.

On another note, I was being driven insane last night by the coverage of Shaq and Kobe. Gotta love the ridiculousness of saying over and over and over and over and over that Shaq shaking Kobe's hand and hugging him should end the constant focus on their feud. Yes, that's why they continued to not shut up about it. And then, they said that at their last game Shaq "refused to even mention Kobe's name in his post game interview." Ummmm, no. Shaq refused to answer an inane question that had nothing to do with basketball. The stupid reporter asked him about why he didn't say hi to Kobe...and Shaq just said nothing. Best post game interview I've ever seen.

[scaeagles]

I remember once watching Sportscenter during Michael Jordan's dominance. Some rookie Jordan was gaurding dunked on Jordan, and pranced down the court, not so much cocky as excited. Well, the next 5 or so highlights were Jordan dunking on the kid. Kind of related, i guess.

I get tired of the NBA more than any other sport. I love basketball. I coach HS basketball. Coaching in the NBA is more about management of egos than the game itself. I'll take college over the NBA anyday because for the most part it comes without the drama of who dissed who and who is the best and whatever. That stuff gets tiresome. Play the game and shut up, which, to his credit, is mostly what Shaq has done in the whole Shaq vs. Kobe thing. It's the media trying to play it up.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I'm sure scakilljoy's gonna point to this as more evidence of selfish play ( ), but Kobe Bryant scored 81 points last night!

Let's put that in perspective.

Kobe had 55 points in the second half. The only player to score that many points in an entire game this season...Kobe Bryant.

The top 5 individual scoring performances in NBA history now look like this:

1. Wilt Chamberlin, 100pts
2. Kobe Bryant, 81 pts
3. Wilt Chamberlin, 78 pts
4. Wilt Chamberlin, 73 pts
5. Wilt Chamberlin, 73 pts

Kobe is only the 4th player to score over 70 in a game, and none of the other three are Michael Jordan (he topped out at 69).

And this isn't exactly a fluke. He had 62 points a month ago...and he didn't play the 4th quarter of that game. Say what you want about NBA egos, blah, blah, blah, Kobe Bryant this season has reached a level in his game that's just awe inspiring.

[scaeagles]

Oh, I won't deny that it was quite a feat.

SCAkilljoy? I like that.

There is plenty of selfish play at all levels. Coaches can control it at the HS and college level, but not so much at the pro level. I won't even say Kobe was playing selfishly. He shot 28-46. That's a great percentage at any level. When Chamberlain scored 100, he shot 63 times (saw that on Sportscenter this morning). And Kobe wasn't taking trash shots. He was hitting good shots, open shots, and the D wasn't stopping him.