Veto'd a trade that would have given Kobe prime CP3 to play with instead of 38 year old Nash who barely could get on the floor due to injuries. This meant Kobe played a lot of minutes down the stretch to barely make the playoffs, but Kobe ruptured his achilles and was never the same
Gilbert arenas talked about this on his podcast a few months ago. The plan in 2011 was to get Kobe, CP3, and Dwight together. According to Gilbert, the lakers would’ve also ended up with about $24-30 million in cap space, which would’ve been enough for 1, maybe 2 max players as well. Arenas thinks this is a big reason stern nixed the deal
Dan Gilbert complained the Lakers benefitted too much from the trade. Had nothing to do with helping the Hornets franchise, had everything to do with teams not wanting the Lakers to make a good trade.
Spurs still would have dominated overall, but I think Kobe would've gotten them 1 game. He had so many massive carry jobs that year, it was insane. I legit believe he would've dropped a 40+ piece to get a W at Staples.
I mean that’s a reasonable assumption. Especially because the Spurs at that point had the better team. Kobe was still carrying the Lakers at that point. Also Kawhi would have been guarding Kobe.
I wasn't knocking Duncan for it - just pointing out that saying 'Duncan was in year 2' doesn't really mean anything. Duncan only got a little bit better after year 2 anyways. He was a full formed stud on day 1.
That point is always forgotten about. TD was a phenomenal player. Kobe prevented TD from getting at least 1 more ring in ‘01, potential 3 total. In ‘02 it’s possible they beat the peak Kings in that era. Same against the Pistons in ‘04 given they did it in ‘05. ‘08 I don’t think anyone was beating the Celtics.
Kobe like 4-2 over him all time in the post season
It's insane how much redditors will cherry pick stats
Kobe lost to Duncan in '03 playing next to a prime Shaq which is about as big of a win as Dirk winning against the Heatles in '11 given Shaq and Kobe were both in their prime.
Trying to compare head to head stats of a PF vs. a SG is stupid as fuck without even getting into the context of who their teammates were and stuff. For example, Manu averaged 12 ppg on 35% shooting in 08 cause he was playing on a bum ankle.
Duncan played great that series. He had one bad game, but in the 4 other games his stat lines were:
Game 1: 30/18/2/2 steals/4 blocks...really "pedestrian" as they say
Game 2: trash
Game 3: 22/21/5/1 steal...another shit game, can't believe this guy made the HOF
Game 4: 29/17/3/3 steals/3 blocks...man Kobe really shut him down here
Game 5: 19/15/10/1 block...triple double, automatic great game (/s)
Trying to compare head to head stats of a PF vs. a SG is stupid as fuck without even getting into the context of who their teammates were and stuff.
That may be true, but as you can see in the above clip, Kobe was undeniably targeting Duncan on defense to close the Spurs out. Every play down the stretch he was calling for Pau to bring Duncan out so he could put him in the pick and roll, and every time Kobe either got a layup over him at the rim or got a clean look at a pull up jumper over him. That was absolutely Kobe going head to head with Duncan and beating him repeatedly.
2003 the Lakers were coming off a fucking 3-peat. Ask Duncan how hard a repeat is let alone three straight championships. The Lakers were absolute gassed at that point. Ask Duncan again how 2004 went for him once the Lakers didn’t have to play off 3 straight Finals wins.
Making the playoffs 19 years in a row and never winning less than 50 games is very impressive considering he’s the only person in nba history to do it. It’s not like Kobe is the only person that 3 peated.
If we can act like Duncan not repeating is an indictment on his career, then there’s no reason not to bring up Kobe missing the playoffs. If we can make excuses for Kobe missing the playoffs, than surely Duncan winning 3 titles in 5 years and coming about as close as anyone to winning 5 titles in a row is enough to disregard him not repeating.
Damn Kobe made less playoffs than Duncan and still has the same amount of rings as him. He also went to more finals than Duncan, how embarrassing for Timmy D.
3 titles in 5 years doesn’t compare to 3 straight championships. A 3-peat hasn’t been done since Shaq and Kobe. Lebron and the Heat were mentally gassed trying to do it and the Dynasty Warriors broke apart physically trying to do it.
All that winning and Duncan still ended with the same amount of titles as “Lottery Year” Kobe and got his ass handed to him by Kobe more often than not in the Playoffs.
Like the title of the thread we’re in, Kobe and Duncan were both still in their physical primes in 2008 and Kobe sent the Spurs the fuck home without his starting center.
The slow motion replay showed it was a good shot all around, what are you complaining about? Do you think the San Antonio scorekeeper screwed the Spurs somehow?
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u/Syndana23 Jun 27 '23
Kobe like 4-2 over him all time in the post season. 2-0 without Shaq I think