Quote:
Originally Posted by lcarus
I lost respect for Kobe Bryant last night. I have no dog in this fight. I'm simply watching as a fan of basketball. I'm not a big fan of Kobe or the Lakers anyway, but after what happened in the closing seconds of that game, I just lost respect for him.
Blake gets the wide open 3 in the corner. Fine. He misses. Kobe is under the basket throwing a tantrum. What was Blake supposed to do? Not shoot it? It was a perfect play. Can't ask for a better shot than that. Did Blake or any of Kobe's teammates throw a tantrum after Kobe took an off-balance, fading 20 footer and airballed it with a minute left?
So after the shot misses, Kobe throws his tantrum under the basket. THE GAME IS NOT OVER DUDE! If he would have followed that missed shot, he could have fouled the guy with 2.5-3.0 seconds left. You're only down 1. If you can foul with 2.5 seconds, you have a chance to get the ball up to your half of the court again down by 2 or 3. Instead Gasol (or whoever) had to run over and foul with 1 second. 1-1.5 seconds is precious in a situation like that.
|
And there was literally no talk in the aftermath of the game about this. Kobe didn't even go for the rebound after the Blake miss when there was still three seconds left. He was too focused on his own frustration and questioning Artest/Blake for a perfectly fine shot. Such a disappointing ending.