God I hate ESPN: Cowherd - Kobe PEDs too much!

therealdeal wrote:Some people are just not listening well enough apparently.

You can be complimentary while still being a hater. EVERYTHING that I posted in here from him happened. It came out of his mouth on his show. I'm not sure how my direct quoting makes me too sensitive.

Yep, but really what it boils down to is some people like Cowherd, some of us (or atleast I do) think he sucks, different tastes is all. I dont really listen to him enough to know how often he is complimentary of Kobe, nor do I care.

I generally really enjoy reading and listening to Bill Simmons' commentary (creepy voice aside), and he's an unapologetic, die-hard Boston fan who makes it no secret that he dislikes Kobe.

I had to go to ESPNLA to see anything about Kobe's game that was highlighted. Regular ESPN, had Miami (of course), Stan Van supports Dwight, Scouting report on trade deadline, Melo/Amare might be out but no "Damn, Kobe did it again" or nothing like that.

Steve Smith had a moment on NBA TV where he let his guard down, and said that although he still believes that the Lakers won't make the playoffs, that Kobe's performances were speaking to him. His words still don't quite say it, but his face showed that he was a believer.

It's obvious that they're coached to downplay the Lakers, but if you look carefully at their deliveries you can see that they're impressed. Even guys like Brent Barry impressed, you can tell by the added resentment in his voice.

Tobias Funke wrote:

therealdeal wrote:Some people are just not listening well enough apparently.

You can be complimentary while still being a hater. EVERYTHING that I posted in here from him happened. It came out of his mouth on his show. I'm not sure how my direct quoting makes me too sensitive.

Yep, but really what it boils down to is some people like Cowherd, some of us (or atleast I do) think he sucks, different tastes is all. I dont really listen to him enough to know how often he is complimentary of Kobe, nor do I care.

I generally really enjoy reading and listening to Bill Simmons' commentary (creepy voice aside), and he's an unapologetic, die-hard Boston fan who makes it no secret that he dislikes Kobe.

I hear you. I think the main reason is that Simmons has a wealth of knowledge and Cowherd just thinks he does.

^Yep, listening to him, Jalen and Jacoby on their Grantland podcasts is really as far as I delve into sports talk nowadays.

Weezy wrote:LeBron makes a "game winner" layup with 4 seconds left on the clock after it goes in, it's shown for days for being so awesome...apparently. Kobe makes ridiculous shots and comebacks 2 games in a row, no big deal, it's just Kobe, he's only done it his whole career I guess. It's nice that LeBron could make a game winning layup, but seeing as how it was his first game winner since 2009(?), it's not that special. I think Joe Johnson has more game winners this season than LeBron has his whole career, so yeah. Not trying to dump on LeBron, I just think a guy doing what Kobe is doing in his 17th season at age 34 should be celebrated a little more. Also watching that "Kobe Untouchable" video I saw linked on LG today, give me prime Kobe over prime LeBron, Kobe had every move you can think of

Has Kobe ever been celebrated appropriately? Other players are praised and celebrated until their sneakers are taken off for good. When the GOAT was still playing, the media and fans didn't want people giving Kobe the unwarranted attention yet until he was actually done. Remember how Kobe outlasted all of those placed ahead of him, oh wait he's still doing that now

, people just "choose" forget too quickly.

Fixed...

SportsCenter ‏@SportsCenter 40m
JORDAN > KOBE ... @PhilJackson11's book touts MJ as better leader, defender. How close is Kobe? Weigh in at 7:45 ET: https://sc.espnvote.com/
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Thank you ESPN for your neutral views on reporting sports. Remember way back when, when you actually reported sports and did highlights longer than 30 seconds?

Garbage.

(And it's not the fact that it's Jordan over Kobe, it's the fact that this is why Kobe gets a negative image. He's being used as a stepping stone to talk someone else up)

But they are being fair....you are just being a kobe homer Doc

puffyusaf#2 wrote:But they are being fair....you are just being a kobe homer Doc

I must be knee deep in the Kool-Aid....

SportsCenter ‏@SportsCenter 1h
On a scale of 1 to Michael Jordan (10), our fans think Kobe Bryant is a 7.

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Apparently Kobe is only 70% the player MJ was.

Ofcourse ESPN probably wouldn't point it out, and it seems like naybe Phil didn't do the best job of conveying it, but it looks to me like alot of his "negative" impressions of Kobe's leadership skills and personality on a whole actually came during his first stint as the coach of the Lakers.

When Phil first coached Jordan, MJ was in his mid-20s and had gone from being the leader of his team in college before coming to the NBA and immediately playing starter minutes and being the man on the Bulls. P

Compare to Kobe coming in from HS, the Shaq conflict with many teammates actually siding against him, only becoming a starter in his third season, and most importantly his age and experience was no where near to MJ's when Phil first coached him.

If you consider the circumstances for both guys where when he first met them, its no surprise at all that Jordan was the better leader all along and Kobe had to catch up.

Eliminate Phil's Shaq-Era experiences with Kobe (and focus on his time with Kobe when he wasn no longer boy amongst men) however and the picture he paints of Kobe is much, much brighter. And lets be real, from a leadership standpoint Shaq, Kobe and Phil as well would love to do alot of things from that time period differently.

Matter of fact, Phil even commented that Kobe's case basically made him hate Kobe since his daughter was once sexually assaulted. It says alot about their relationship early on that it seems like Kobe was guilty until proven innocent in his mind.

Doc Brown wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:But they are being fair....you are just being a kobe homer Doc

I must be knee deep in the Kool-Aid....

SportsCenter ‏@SportsCenter 1h
On a scale of 1 to Michael Jordan (10), our fans think Kobe Bryant is a 7.

Weigh in here: http://on.fb.me/YPr999 .
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Apparently Kobe is only 70% the player MJ was.

Lbj is a 14.8 I suspect

Doc Brown wrote:

puffyusaf#2 wrote:But they are being fair....you are just being a kobe homer Doc

I must be knee deep in the Kool-Aid....

SportsCenter ‏@SportsCenter 1h
On a scale of 1 to Michael Jordan (10), our fans think Kobe Bryant is a 7.

Weigh in here: http://on.fb.me/YPr999 .
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Apparently Kobe is only 70% the player MJ was.

That's just ignorance..
Seriously, the more I read and talk to other people, the more obvious it becomes that I should not concern myself too much with this stuff. Most people don't really know enough about the game, don't take enough things into account, have short memories, lack objectivity, and many have a lot of conscious and unconsious bias.
In the end, true greatness stands on itself. It doesn't need validation from others, especially the kind of people that vote on ESPN polls based on a few highlights and a couple of simplistic stats.
Just be grateful that you get to watch a unique basketball player, and that you, unlike apparently many, are able to truly appreciate his ability.

(BTW, I'm not trying to diminish MJ or saying Kobe's better than him or whatever. MJ is probably the GOAT, but Kobe is NOT just 70% of what he was. That's just stupid).

Do you all see the difference in the basketball universe, you have one discussion going on with Scottie Pippen and Alonzo Mourning say how a certain Miami player is better than MJ, while you have several discussions going on with Kobe about how Kobe can never compare to MJ. A several months back, MJ was being called a old bitter S.O.B. because he said he said a certain Miami player's game is missing some things after people said he was better. The same people who called him a bitter old S.O.B. were the same people applauding him for telling Kobe off when the Olympics were going on and Kobe said he think they could beat the Dream Team.

People never wanted Kobe to mirror MJ, until this day and close to retirement they're still making sure he's to to forever be historically the anti-Jordan, despite the man himself saying Kobe's game is the only one that's a mirror image of his. Even though MJ is irrelevant to everyone this day and age according to some old NBA players and fans. Soon as Kobe's name is brought up and compared to him, he then becomes important and relevant again.

The discrepancy is right there lol.

I don't know how or why ESPN is playing the underdog card for Miami.

Toolbag on ESPN talking about, "How are the Heat supposed to play with a big two (Lebron/Wade) vs. a team that has a big 5 (Pacers starters)."

Let's just forget about Bosh, who is by far the most under appreciated player on that roster.

Let's just forget about all the shooters they have around them that makes the big 3 unguardable errr big 2, forget Bosh isn't involved in that.

Just putting a built in excuse there already, just in case they need to break the emergency glass if Miami loses. The Heat are the best team in the playoffs until proven otherwise, how they get an excuse, "Pacers big 5", is beyond laughable.

Pacers big 5. <----- What are you smoking to have to utter those words?

Jordan mentioned ring counts, "5 > 1". So by this, Horry is better than Jordan since 7 > 6!

kingjsun wrote:Jordan mentioned ring counts, "5 > 1". So by this, Horry is better than Jordan since 7 > 6!

Apples to oranges.

Doc Brown wrote:I don't know how or why ESPN is playing the underdog card for Miami.

Toolbag on ESPN talking about, "How are the Heat supposed to play with a big two (Lebron/Wade) vs. a team that has a big 5 (Pacers starters)."

Let's just forget about Bosh, who is by far the most under appreciated player on that roster.

Let's just forget about all the shooters they have around them that makes the big 3 unguardable errr big 2, forget Bosh isn't involved in that.

Just putting a built in excuse there already, just in case they need to break the emergency glass if Miami loses. The Heat are the best team in the playoffs until proven otherwise, how they get an excuse, "Pacers big 5", is beyond laughable.

Pacers big 5. <----- What are you smoking to have to utter those words?

the ESPN machine works very well at making the Heat the best team ever when it suits them. Then the most courageous team ever when they are facing a formidable foe. When the team is playing great it is Lebron has lead them. Yet when they are not it is because Lebron doesn't have enough around him. They play both sides of the coin and fans eat it up. They actually have a survey now asking if the Pacers coach was disrespectful to Lebron and the Heat by saying the Heat was another team in their way. Disrespect? Only ESPN.