I'm sure everyone will know tomorrow, but Bryant scored 81 points against the Raptors tonight and had a WHOPPING 2 assists. What a fucking jerk. He almost doubled the rest of his own teammates scoring combined.

And you know what? He'll get praised for this. They'll be articles written about him being an MVP, there'll be articles about what a great player he is, and it will all miss the point: he's a selfish asshole who's putting on a one man show on a mediocre team to take people's minds off the fact that he's the A-Rod of the NBA, never winning, never making teammates better, just putting up big numbers and smiling real big. Well, Kobe, I haven't forgotten the rape charges, the way you got Shaq kicked out of town, or even the way you're considered one of the greatest players in the NBA despite the fact that you can't rebound or pass the damn ball. You're a gunner, a glorified Allan Houston, and I hope eventually people see that.


Fuckin' Kobe.

He can do this ever night for the rest of the year and his team still won't win shit. Stats are only worth so much.

Yeah, I hate the guy too...............but he's the best scorer in basketball. Who's he going to pass it to? Luke Walton?

Sure enough, ESPN's Marc Stein is slobbing Kobe's knob:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/stor...marc&id=2302749

Kobe is my most hated guy in the league. However, I cannot argue with the guy scoring if his team wins and they DID win. This isn't like Jordan scoring 63 in a losing effort, this is the most amazing thing to happen in basketball in any of our lifetimes. All the praise is warranted. Him being a retarded jerk doesn't affect the fact that he is the best player in the game. Period.

I agree 100%. Good call WMD.

I refuse to accept that he is the best player in the game. Best scorer, yes. I will give him that. But as an overall player...he's not even close.

Good point. I still hate Kobe, so fuck him.

Who's better?

You're kidding me, right?


Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, LeBron will be, Allen Iverson when he's not acting like Kobe...I'm talking about players who can rebound, get teammates involved, play smart basketball, and score enough points to keep their team in the game. Just because he scores a lot of points, doesn't mean Kobe is the best player in the league.

I'm gonna have to go ahead and agree too. You're all saying stats don't matter, and he is just playing for his stats. Well they won. Again, the only stat that does matter, as pointed out by all of you.

Lets see: Kobe scores 81, they win. Kobe scores 45, they lose.

Fuck it, score 81.

No, I'm not pointing out just wins. I'm pointing out teamwork...the Lakers have a bunch of young guys who aren't learning how to play the game. If Kobe goes down with an injury, or just plain craps out at some point, they're not going to have any players who can shoot, simply because Kobe doesn't let them now. I won't deny that he is a great scorer, and right now, his displays are sometimes helping them win. But it's not a good idea in the long run, and it's not relaly a good idea in the short run, either.

I will laugh my balls off when the Lakers play again and Kobe does shit because he over shot and everyone else does shit because they're reduced to practice because Kobe took 2 shots to his entire teams 1. Kobe will never be good enough to carry a team to the NBA Championship, so I refuse to accept him as the greatest player either. Go... no one! (huga Michael Jordan poster)

Well, Duncan is a primary focus of his offense and of course he's going to be a better rebounder than a guard. BUT, who do teams fear more over the course of a game?

Garnett is a damn good player, but Kobe has surpassed him this season.

Iverson is damn good too, but not like Kobe.

See one thing everyone seems to forget about Kobe is his defense. That alone makes him better than Lebron.

It's not just because Kobe is the best scorer in the league that makes him the best. It's his killer instinct (something Garnett lacks), his scoring (which he's the best scorer in the NBA), the fact that he's basically unstoppable, and he always gives his team a fighting chance. THAT makes him the best player in the league.

Also, keep in mind I think the guy is a total dick. But I won't let that blind me.

I don't think we're going to agree on this, which is fine. I would put Kobe in the Top 10, but it would probably be 10.

#10 in the NBA today? Please.

I agree there won't be agreement with everyone here, but that is just rediculous.

You've got to be kidding me right?

Ok, I've gotta see this now...........what NINE guys are ahead of him?

Is Popeye Jones still in the league? :D

Just because Kobe is great doesn't mean everyone has to like him. I'm sure anyone can score 81 points though if they controled the ball for 35 minutes of a game and racking up a massive amount of assists in the process. All 2 of them.

I didn't have a list planned out when I said it. Look, he's a great scorer, but he is not a great complete player. If he becomes one, I'll concede it. I refuse to name him the top player in the NBA....because he's not.

Anyone could do it? Then why hasn't anyone EVER scored that much in a game? Besides Wilt's 100?

Why isn't he? If you don't like the guy..........I have no problem with that. But to seriously sit there and say he's not is being kind of blind to the facts. There isn't a single player in the NBA who can match his offense AND defense. That's about as a complete of a player you can be. Before everyone goes all apeshit about his assists.......he's not the point guard, that's not his job.

Because no one has hogged the ball that much. Not even Michael Jordan, who lead his team (Bulls) to 6 Championships in 6 consecutive (full) seasons, while Kobe has lead them to dick. Shaq was a key part in the Lakers recent success, and without him, they're nothing more than an above-average team.

He's not much of a rebounder, either. He has nights where he can pull them down well, but on a consistent basis, he's at best extremely average. As for defense....above average, definitely. A great defender? No way. If anything, my point is that he was a better player with Shaq than he is now, because he's become so one dimensional. If I was building a team, I'd build it around Duncan or LeBron before I would around Kobe. And yes, I don't like the guy, and I think he's a total dick, but no, I'm not letting that cloud my judgment. I just honestly don't think he's the best player in the NBA.

I will concede that that was a great performance.

Yes, for the record, that's an incredible accomplishment that won't happen anytime soon that people will remember for a long time (unless Kobe or some other guy plays 1-man ball for 48 minutes again).

Dude, you argument is a joke. Kobe having 81 now is more impressive when Wilt had his 100. Plain and simple.

He's not much of a rebounder? What 2 guard in the NBA is a CONSISTANT rebounder? NONE. Not a great defender? He's better at defense than other 2 guard in the NBA that's on the superstar level. By that I mean that there maybe better 2 guard defenders..............but they are on their teams STRICTLY for defense. I wouldn't build a team around Duncan............he's never proven he can lead a team on his own.....and I fucking love the guy. He's GREAT. Labron? Maybe, but only if he steps up his D......and he has yet to do that in his career. Only time will tell if he will or not.

For the record again, I've always hated the stat for individual scoring in this kind of situation. Usually it just shows how much of a hog the player is, but there's the rare case of a Triple OT where 1 team has 160 points and a top player probably will have 50+ on his own.

There's no excuse for 1 player to score 70% of his teams points in regulation.

You know, if he did this against the Spurs or the Pistons, I'd think it's amazing. But Toronto? Who's gonna stop him? Jalen Rose? Chris Bosh?

And seriously, if someone scores 80, their team should win by 70.

But you would build a team around Kobe? I don't know if you're arguing that or not, but if you are, why?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/060124


Simmons has a good article here about Kobe, which has perspective from both sides of our discussion.

He makes good points for each side. Here's the one most absolute true comment though, which exactly what I was thinking....

My first reaction: 81 points?! HOLY SHIT! Oh my God, how the hell did that happen!?

Then I read his entire stats and read "2 assists" Oh... haha. What a ball hog.

What about guys who score 8 points and get 2 assists? It happens every night. Say he got 40 points and 20 assists. It still wouldn't equal the offensuve output that he did by himself.

Some of you guys seem to think the point of an NBA game is to get your team involved. Wrong. That is the point of a little league game. The point of an NBA game is to win. If Kobe scores 81 and I'm on his team, I'm just counting my money.

20 assists is at least a 40 point put-out (depending on 3PT's), so 40 points yourself while dishing out 20 scoring situations is great. Scoring 81 points and puttng out a MAXIMUM of 6 points is the most selfish playing ever.

I realize the point of the game is to win. But let's face up to something right now: Kobe's Lakers may make it to the playoffs as the 6th or 7th seed, but they aren't going anywhere. Kobe's one man show isn't going to do jack in the playoffs, where the competition is tough and teams can afford to rotate capable defenders on him. If you're looking for him to be the Peyton Manning of the NBA and put up killer numbers and have regular season success, then sure, I'll buy that. Just don't expect it in the playoffs unless they pick up Artest.

There is nobody in the league that can do it alone. Who could win with Kobe's supporting cast? Nobody. Shaq didn't win last year on a stacked team. Garnett is an awesome player.....in December. Come May he can't win with the Dream Team around him. Iverson...honestly shouldn't be in the discussion. Let's face it, he's Kobe-lite. Lebron is better than he should be at 20 years old, but does anybody think the Cavs are winning a championship anytime soon? No. Duncan, I will concede is a better player than Kobe. He delivers MVP performances every year while keeping his team around the championship regardless of ho else comes or goes. But, it is either Kobe or Duncan, and that is pretty much the only logical discussion.

And that's all true. None of those players you mentioned are leading their teams to championships, and while I would argue that they're better overall players than Kobe, they're not doing anything more than him. And I agree with that. I also agree that Duncan is the better player. My point here is that Kobe is a great player and probably the best scorer in the entire NBA. He is also a selfish asshole who has other flaws in his game that get overlooked because he's such an amazing gunner. That still leaves him as one of the best players in the NBA, but I would start a team around LeBron or Duncan before I took him. Simple as that.

I was just going to add my 2 cents since it seemed relevent.

If I had the choice between signing Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash as the first player of a brand new team I'd take Nash over Kobe every single time. While Nash doesn't have the stats he makes everyone around him better. Just look at what he did for the Suns last year. Kobe will never be able to do that for a team that doesn't already have another superstar on there.

It's the difference between "I want to win" and "I want my team to win"