OTHER SPORTS DISCUSSION Thread

lol boston
no racism there...

 

Damnnnn. Jahil got his first W of the season.

 

Wow. "We got money"

 

The dude he hit is going to have money too lol

 

there's only one person left who needs to come to this realization...
​

League executives, players wince watching this Kobe Bryant

by Kurt Helin | NBC Sports Pro Basketball Talk — 78 minutes ago

Over the last few days, we’ve written in more detail about Kobe Bryant‘s shooting troubles. He’s jacking up threes his fastest pace ever, he can’t create space to get off clean shots, he’s hitting 31.1 percent overall and 19.5 percent from three. There are flashes of vintage Kobe, but they are fleeting (and mostly because poor shot choices are falling). Byron Scott is still in Kobe’s corner, saying they just need to get the veteran better looks.

However, talk to people around the league about Kobe and you hear some variation of the phrase “hard to watch.” After 20 seasons, more than 55,000 minutes on the court, and coming off two major injuries, Kobe clearly is not the same player everyone admired for so long.

Over at the Los Angeles Times Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner got a number of sources to wince about Kobe for a story — except nobody wanted their name attached to attacking a legend of the game.
​

“Man, I don’t want to see Kobe go out like this, looking this bad and not able to do what he once could do,” said a retired guard who faced Bryant. “He doesn’t have anything else to prove to anybody. He was one of the greatest. I know he’s owed that $25 million, but he should just walk away now. He ain’t got it anymore.”

“He’s one of the few players in NBA history to have gotten everything possible out of his body. Now his body has nothing left to give,” (an Eastern Conference executive) said. “But that’s life in the NBA, in professional sports. At some point, the body just can’t do it anymore and Kobe’s body can’t do it anymore.”

One West scout said Bryant looked “disinterested” at times. A current player in the West went a step further.

“Yeah, I’ve seen him play and it’s disgusting,” he said. “He’s one of the best of all time. But he really hasn’t played that much in the last two or three years. He’s got nothing left. It’s sad to watch because he used to be so great, and I mean great.”​

Kobe is not going to walk away mid-season, and nobody wants an injury to force him out of the game.

But it’s hard to see how anything is going to dramatically change. Kobe may shoot a little better than his current but it’s not likely going to change in a meaningful way. Which will just make things hard to watch for a full season.​

 

more...

The humbling of Kobe Bryant has been shocking to witness
by The Great Mambino | SB Nation — 90 minutes ago

While poor play and bad statistics in the face of modest expectations are
jarring developments, it's Kobe's humility that's been truly surprising

Kobe Bryant has rarely looked this mortal.

Even as an 18-year-old, No. 8 didn't flinch when asked to throw down in a dunk contest with just two career starts under his belt.

Even as a slightly-older 18-year-old, the soon-to-be Black Mamba kept shooting despite air ball after air ball versus the Utah Jazz in the playoffs.

Even as a precocious 20-something, Kobe didn't fear the backlash of criticizing his superstar teammate Shaquille O'Neal, nor the demands to share the ball more from his six-time champion coach Phil Jackson.

Even after allegations of sexual assault, breaking a championship contender up and chasing a future Hall of Fame coach out of town, Bryant apologized for nothing and kept playing his way.

Even when the Boston Celtics physically abused his team into title submission, the newly minted No. 24 acknowledged his shortcomings, but defiantly promised to toughen up his squad.

And even as the dream team with Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol saw their shaky foundations crumbling beneath them, KB pushed his body to the breaking point and even as he faltered, vowed that this wouldn't be the end.

And now, here we are. On the precipice of what could be -- what should be -- his final season, the Lakers icon is facing adversity once again.

Kobe has never looked this out of sorts. Even as a teenage rookie, Bryant was unpolished and foolhardy, but his explosive athleticism could propel him past his youthful limitations. He overcame rolled ankles, broken fingers and balky knees, compensating with unbelievable footwork, excellent ball-handling and uncanny dexterity as the years piled on. He modified his game as his quickness and agility faded, becoming one of the deadliest post players in the league as well as a marksman of a mid-range shooter. Bryant took what would could only be considered lottery-bound teams and transformed them into playoff contenders, then those playoff contenders into championship hopefuls and then finally mere NBA Finalists to two-time titlists.

Injuries over the past three years have brought us to this, his 20th year in the league. And it hasn't been great.

This has been Kobe's worst season, there's no doubt about that. Statistically, he's registering career lows across the board, and laughably so. Defensively, he's a shadow of even the player of the past several seasons, when Bryant had been jokingly referred to as a "designated hitter-type" on that end of the floor. He provides less value to his team than almost any guard in the league, detracting from the aforementioned defense, but also as an offensive player taking up valuable usage with abysmal shooting. However, nothing feels as shocking as simply watching him play.

Bryant looks like a slow motion version of himself, but it's not the laws of both space and time that are being violated, but rather the memories of the former assassin we've seen for most of the past two decades. The Mamba is so physically depleted just about all of his shots are falling flat and short. It's a combination of a complete lack of lift and an inability to create any separation from his defender. There's no explosion in his first step, resulting in what could be his worst free-throw rate over a whole season since his rookie year.

In short? Kobe doesn't look like an NBA player on most possessions.

Watching such a historically great player degrade so severely has been sad and stunning, but not surprising. Bryant has been through so many injuries over the past three seasons and has played an unprecedented amount of minutes for a man at his position. Through his twenty-year career, Kobe has never let franchise-changing maneuvers, physical limitations or outside critics bring him to his knees. No matter how bad his teams looked on paper or how dire the injuries appeared, Bryant was never humbled before the naysayers and skeptics.

Until now.

The only thing that could ever humble Bryant is here. It's time.

Never before has Kobe seemed so resigned to his injuries getting the better of him. He's never sounded so downtrodden with the inexperience of his teammates and the abject hopelessness of the season. He has never played this poorly, ever, for this length of time, but conversely he's never been so placid in his frustration. But most shockingly, he's never seemed so at peace with the prospect that it could be over so very soon.

This Kobe Bryant -- this player that we're seeing haphazardly stumble through the first dozen games -- looks and sounds like a man who has finally met his match. The words out of his mouth are filled with the tones of defeat and resignation. We've said a lot about the Black Mamba over the past two decades. Those sentiments have never been amongst them.

It's been a sad, shockingly turn of events for one of the greatest players in league history. But nothing's been more surprising than a humbled Kobe Bryant.​

 

and still more...

Charles Barkley says Kobe should retire
by Harrison Faigen | SB Nation — 16 hours ago

Kobe Bryant's struggles this season have been sad to watch for fans of the Los Angles Lakers and Golden State Warriors players alike. Bryant's field goal percentage (31.1%) and three-point percentage(19.5%) are career-lows but Bryant and Lakers head coach Byron Scott have remained confident that the 17-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer will be able to regain his rhythm. Others around the league are far less certain.

"Oh, yeah, this definitely should be it [for Bryant]," former Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, and Houston Rockets forward and current "Inside the NBA" analyst Charles Barkley told Mike Breshnahan of the Los Angeles Times . "To me, this is like a farewell tour," Barkley said. "Just go and play 25 minutes a night and let the NBA fans say, 'Thank you for an amazing career.'"

An anonymous Western Conference guard also interviewed by Bresnahan was far less charitable in his assessment of Bryant's play than even the notoriously outspoken Barkley:

"Yeah, I've seen him play and it's disgusting," the guard told Bresnahan. "He's one of the best of all time. But he really hasn't played that much in the last two or three years. He's got nothing left. It's sad to watch because he used to be so great, and I mean great."

Bryant's high usage and low-efficiency play has been difficult to watch for all Lakers fans, and most basketball fans in general. The aging process of former greats is almost never pretty, but Bryant's has been especially graceless because of how he is being allowed to play as if he is still in his prime and this is just a slump he has to bust out of.

After three consecutive season ending injuries, it's hard for even the most optimistic Lakers fans to believe the scoring displays Bryant is best known for are anything more than memories at this point, highlights to be played at his Hall of Fame induction and Staples Center statue unveiling. That Bryant is gone, and it remains to be seen when and if this Bryant is going to realize it.​

 

anybody going to tomorrow's ucla/usc game?

 

The Cornfuckers need to take out Iowa. Do not want to see them in the playoff.

 

Typical Cornfuckers.