I read an article by Scoop Jackson last week that posited that the problem with Kobe is that he's always going to be compared to Michael Jordan and be found lacking. He suggested that if there were no Michael Jordan, we'd be celebrating Kobe Bryant instead of criticizing him. Good try Scoop. No dice.
It's not Michael Jordan that will define Kobe Bryant, it's Shaquille O'Neal. The Lakers and the LA press keep telling themselves that the right choice between Kobe and Shaq was Kobe. The problem is, it should never have come to that. In one of his trademark palaver sessions, Bill Walton made that point last week. He said that Kobe had everything in basketball terms, but he didn't want that. He wanted it to be about him. Bill shook his head as he said it. Damning words from the Big Man. Damning, and accurate.
And so, the Lakers traded O'Neal. Even though he's no longer the Most Dominant Ever, he's responded in Miami by being named 1st team all-NBA each of the past two seasons and is showing in the playoffs why he's still the best big man in the game. As Hubie Brown said, it's amazing how Shaq can simultaneously defer to Dwyane Wade and be the leader of the team. I wonder if Lakers owner Jerry Buss is watching.
The L.A. Times had this beauty this week:
"I thought the deal was fair," said [Pat] Riley, the Heat president and coach, of the July 2004 trade that sent Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant to the Lakers. "Giving up all three of those guys? Dwyane was the one guy that we didn't want to let go. Not that we had a crystal ball, but we felt there was something there that might be better even than what we'd seen."
Those are the words of a man who knows he fleeced his trading partner. Brian Grant and his suffocating contract? Tell me Riley wasn't smiling when he said that.
Update: Miami wins easily and goes up 3-1. I believe Shaq Daddy will be in the finals. Can you dig it?
I tend to think that, as a general rule, whenever you're getting the best player in a given trade, you win out. Especially in the NBA, where one player can make such a huge difference.
Moss can hear Walton now: "That was the most lopsided trade in the HISTORY of bartering."
InternSharkey: also because the salaries have to tie, so you can't even make a lopsided trade to dump salary, you have to make a lopsided trade just because you think that three guys will be better than one.
You can't do a baseball Trade of Pierzynski for Bonser, Liriano, and Nathan, because AJ made way more than the three of the together.
Who said it?
I won't say, I knew that already.
amr: That is true, to some extent. but trading for expiring contracts is basically the same thing as a salary dump, except delayed until the offseason. When the Magic traded Steve Francis, a major part of the deal was Penny Hardaway and his expiring contract (if my memory serves). They didn't necessarily think they were getting "equal value" for Francis, but shedding that huge chunk of salary made the deal a winner (because Orlando is going to be looking at contracts for Nelson, Howard, and possibly Darko). The Giants can just throw in JT Snow or some other high-priced vet at the end of his deal to even things out. It forces creativity, though.
But you do have to screw up pretty badly to butcher a deal like the Shaq one (then they made it worse by swinging Butler, who turned in a very nice year for Washington).
No question, Kobe is the man who had it all and couldn't appreciate it. I'd think that any player should be willing to give up half his career to play the other half with a big man like Shaq--and I say that as a fan who has never liked Shaq.
Who said that, Banjo? That's delicious. That must be Peter King. He's a big enough idiot to say that. He once wrote that his daughter and Derek Jeter were born in the same hospital, so he has to be the guy (and he lives in New Jersey).
Better than Mantle. Mantle had an OPS+ of 172. Jeter's is 121. See folks, this is just plain lunacy.
Update: I was right. It was that moron King.
That trade made Seward's Icebox look like a poor deal for America.
Okay, bad analogy. I'd take Alaska over Shaq any day.