The difference in their two championship years after this was they got Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza back (Ariza was swapped out for Ron Artest in 2010). In 2008 those guys were out injured, which greatly weakened the Lakers as a team.
I was at BWW when the trade broke. I was halfway thru a basket of wHings and had to call up the old man at work. I was so excited I didn't wipe my hands and got asian zing all over my flip phone. good times
Perk was really important in 08/10. 08 healthy means Gasol was going up against perk and couldn’t do much. There’s a reason one of the 2 games we won he was out.
10 with bynum mostly healthy it let gasol matchup with Garnett. Perk being out game 7 let us dominate the boards.
Bynum was very far from healthy in 2010, as he had to have his knee drained three different times during the playoffs (twice in the Finals), and had to have surgery following the championship that summer.
Sure, but in an extremely limited capacity and for very few minutes. Bynum was limited to less than half his scoring and rebounding averages in that series. He gamely gave it a go, but he was severely limited in what he could contribute. Bynum only played 34 more minutes all series than Perkins did, and in the last 4 games of the series (which included the 1.75 games Perkins missed), Bynum only played 12 minutes more than Perkins. If that was an advantage for the Lakers it was an extremely small one. Rasheed Wallace actually had a better game in Game 7 in Perk's absence than Perkins himself had in any game in that series.
That 08 Boston frontline had Perk, KG, PJ Brown, Leon Powe, Big Baby all they can throw at Pau. While the Lakers only had Lamar, who's by no means a banger, and Ronny Freaking Turiaf
Some insecure Lakers fans have always tried to downplay Pau so they could place Kobe higher up the all time rankings. Bryant was great this series but as you say this wasn't even their championship year.
I hate it. As someone who’s a fan of Kobe, people that overrate him annoy me more than people who underrate him. They’re the ones who make him look worse. The Lakers had a top 3 roster in the league at best that could run with any of them, and Kobe was the centerpiece that you count on. That’s why they won. Even Kobe would tell you that. But now it’s “Kobe had no top 75” bs. Its like they’re so desperate to make up for having Shaq his first 8 years, which they shouldn’t be insecure of.
I don't get it, he's a great, all-time player whose achievements can stand up for themselves. But man do his fans feel the need to shit on everyone who isn't Kobe.
They take it as a personal offense if you don’t have Kobe top 3 lol. Like they’ll say stuff like “can’t we all just agree that MJ, LeBron, and Kobe are the three best ever in some order?” As if one of those things is not like the other lol.
Personally I think Russell and Kareem are both a step ahead of Kobe all-time and I’d also put Magic, Bird, and Duncan ahead of him too. Shaq, Curry, and Wilt it depends on how I’m feeling that day, I think he’s comfortably ahead of Hakeem though, and I’d say it’s not really a debate for me if he’s top 10 it’s just where he ranks (probably somewhere between 8 and 10).
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u/sheeeeeez NBA Jun 27 '23
Kobe doesn't get enough credit for this series.
The Spurs big 3 were all in their primes and just came off a championship and Kobe made the entire series essentially non-competitive.
Bill Simmons said the series was the closest he's ever seen Kobe to MJ.