Alright bud, so I"m reading this article, Quddus, and this is what I"m seeing...
"We begin with the April 11 game in Sacramento. With Kobe refusing to shoot, attempting just one shot the entire first half With an unnamed Lakers player telling the Los Angeles Times, \'I don\'t know how we can forgive him.\' With a ballistic Kobe going locker to locker the next day, growling, \'Are you the Mother ****er who said that?\' None of them told Kobe yes, of course, not with those fangs sprouting from his mouth. In fact, most of th em essentially said, "Get out of my face." Eventually, the team laughed it off, with Shaq approaching a Times columnist to pry, "Come on, who was it - a guard or a forward?\'"
That doesn\'t sound too good for Kobe. Do like his compassion for his teammates, don\'t you?
This entire article basically jumps on Kobe...how can you call this article bad for Shaq? How about this classic exchange between Coach and Player:
"...It was Kobe\'s first game in Colorado since the arrest, and to keep the media circus to a minimum, Jackson cancelled the morning shootaround. But in the first quarter, when Kobe threw one of his rare passes out of bounds, Jackson shouted, "You\'ve gotta make a better pass than that." Kobe\'s reaction, according to witnesses, was, "Well, you need to teach these Mother ****ers how to run the offense." So Jackson yanked him."
Again, there\'s that compassionate Kobe again. All of his adoring teammates, OH, excuse me, "Mother ****ers" seem to be held in high regard by Kobe. Quote me, my man!
"By the All-Star Game, Jackson was boiling over. In his first game back from injury, Kobe played soft defense on Cuttino Mobley in a 102-87 loss to Houston right before the break, so on that Monday, the coach called him in. He implored his star to embrace basketball again. \'I said, Let\'s tighten this up a big because it\'s gotten too loose and out of joint between you and the rest of the team\', Jackson says. \'The convesation went well -- or as well as they go with Kobe."
Why must the man be forced to embrace basketball and get in-joint with his teammates? Wow, what a tremendous team player. How about some more from the article...
"Now if He\'d just pass the ball to Shaq. Make No mistake: This is still Shaquille O\'Neal\'s team. Laker fans may cheer louder for Kobe than for Shaq ("The City likes child stars, like Drew Barrymore," Jackson says), but they haven\'t set foot in the locker room. They haven\'t seen the way Shaq runs the place, or keeps his teammates in stitches. When he won Game 1 of the playoff series against the Rockets with a last-minute dunk, Shaq\'s quote was, "I\'m no hero. A hero ain\'t nothing but a sandwich, and I"m tying to cut down on my carbohydrates." Or when teammates were comparing Vince Carter\'s dunks to Michael Jordan\'s one day, Shaq\'s quote was, "That\'s like comparing apples and pumpkins." The guys adore him."
Do they say that about Kobe?
Alright, here\'s the thing you keep pointing out. Quddus, you keep talking about how in the article, Shaq says that he should get the ball all the time. Nowhere in this article to I read that.
"So imagine what happens to them when the games start...and Kobe won\'t hadn the ball over. "People can say it\'s a Kobe town, but I don\'t really care, because the world knows if The Diesel ain\'t flowing, nothing\'s flowing," Shaq says. "That\'s why I don\'t understand how they don\'t keep The Diesel involved sometimes. It\'s an insult to me to run down the court 10 times in a row and not touch the ball. A lot of people say, \'Well, you\'ve got to demand it.\' I don\'t see Tim Duncan demanding the ball when we play them. He runs down and turns, and as soon as he puts his hand out, it\'s there. We\'ve done that in the past, and look what we got. Three gold balls. When you have different agendas, that\'s when things get messed up. But see, the powers that be need to handle that."
Now, nowhere in that do I see Shaq saying that he should get the ball all the time. He\'s stating that he\'s frustrated when he goes down the court 10 times in a row, and he DOESN\'T touch it. Basically, your entire argument just got thrown in the tubes with that one quote. There\'s more, of course...
"(Kobe\'s) Teammates bit their lip afterard, never bashing him. His closest friend on the squad, Derek Fisher, who hugs him before tipoff, says Kobe deserves the benefit of the doubt. "I mean, to battle these personal things and still perform at a high level is impressive," Fisher says. The three other Lakers superstars are trying to toe the line too. Believe it or not, Shaq admires Kobe\'s pure ability (" a courageous little brother", he says), and doesn\'t believe Kobe tanked in Sacramento. As for Malone and Payton, they have enough to worry about just staying healthy and mastering Jackson\'s triangle offense. But they\'re grateful Kobe hasn\'t quit because of Kobe\'s legal entanglement, and they tolerate the drama because they just want a ring. After Sunday\'s game, Malone even kissed Kobe on the temple. "
Well, that\'s really nice, Kobe\'s teammates did learn to TOLERATE him....
"By all appearances, it\'s a congenial Lakers locker room. But that doesn\'t mean any of his teammates, except maybe Fisher, has broken through the facade. Even part-owner Magic Johnson has failed to get Kobe to warm up to him this year. A friend of Magic\'s says, "No one gets in with Kobe."
Sad. Your main argument was this article, yet, I don\'t see anything in here that says that Shaq always wants the ball, and that Kobe\'s so innocent after all. Couldn\'t be further from the truth.
By the way, Tony isn\'t 18. I am, however.
See Yuz.
