Kobe Bryant & the Lakers: Getting The Monkey Off Their Backs

I haven't plugged into my GoogleReader yet, and I've only watched/caught the post-game interviews and sound bites a few times so far. I've only just switched on the Mike&Mike. So I want to take this opportunity to toss in my two pennies before I'm inundated with other voices, other flux&flows. Don't get me wrong here, don't twist your pre-conceived. I'm a Lakers fan live and die. I don't even know what syntax that is, but it seems a part of me. Syntax, semantics, and fanboy joy aside, this post is a call out. This is me, telling the Lakers, this better not be it.

Let me link to Doctor LawyerInidanChief talking tired fire about Hip-Hop is Dead (not the album, the truth). One, because I want to read more stuff like this. Two, because I agree and feel it being said by Dr. LIC makes the tie-in he doesn't, that basketball is losing heat, losing steam, and getting refined beyond its theLove's benefit. But mostly because, three, Joey at Straight Bangin' pulled this piece out as an opening to close the decade. Hold up. It's only June. The Tens/Teens aren't even six months from us yet. Can Epochryphal eyes turn, already, to such a shedding of water? (dry your f*ckin' eyes, friends, we got catchin' up to do) Yes. The next NBA title will read 2010. Adjust your paradigms and checkbooks accordingly.

Look, I'm not about to bring back talks of a faux-Golden Age or starting and ending with purple and gold parades, because I want to look ahead, and I've already gone there. I'm not going to talk about the historical significance, cuz it's been ably done by others (Thanks, BC). But, let's look at the significance of the historical sig, 'kay? Mike&Mike speakin' sumpin' 'bout them all's footnotes, 'cept for some "immortals." Kobe's 4th, or 1st, whatever. Phil's Xth. Yeah, more than any other coach in the majors. That stands tall like Russell Crowe. But no one can live in theInfinite. Athletes less so than fans, in fact, and luckily they know that. (sound bite from Mamba: "Phil coaches in the moment.") Let us not forget. We are the ones that live in the now. And now means we've just said good-bye to the NBA 'Aughts.

You want historical significance? 15 vs. 17. That's the one I'm watching, and that's the one that moved from 15 vs. 16 last Finals. By 30 points. Maybe that was a trumped up trophy, but what's not? All I'm saying is, this victory wasn't about just winning a championship, it was about getting the monkey off. His back. Their backs. Our backs. It's time to move on. And this was the perfect purge to move us forward. It exorcised everything. The clinging, cloying claims (and claims against) Kobe and Phil's "immortality." The ShaqKobeNonsense. The loss last year to KG's moment. ChrisWallaceGate. Lamar's craziness. And pain. Fisher's move from the Jazz. The 2002 curse of robbing the Kings. I swear, this Finals, in post-partum, was littered with rhetoric that had built up, and hopefully has now been expelled. Maybe next year we can actually focus on basketball.

Okay, forget I said that. Because we'll always want the stories. The things that crop up around the game. That's what we here at OTB thrive on, isn't it? I'm just ready for a new batch. And I'm ready for these Lakers to lead us there. Can't wait to see what happens. That's right, you and me both Lebron (and Gil, if I'm lucky.)

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The Call Out: Dwight Howard

So I was listening to the Brian Kenny show on the drive home today, and he was asking the question: If you had to start an all-USA team, or even an all-world team, who would you start with? If we’re talking draft scenario, who do you take with the first pick? It’s not a new question, but it was prompted by comments from Phil Jackson that he’d go with Dwight. My first thought is that such comments cannot be taken at face value. I’m sure more important for Phil was the psychological weight his comments might carry to potential (at the time) finals opponent James. We know Phil plays a wicked game. But it doesn’t keep us from evaluating the question and resultant (no matter how tongue-in-cheek) statement as they relate to our own opinions.

Thus, who you got? The second thought that comes to mind re: BK’s ponderance is, uh, there already are all-USA teams and, at least, all-NBA teams selected, which ideally equates to all-world but we won’t get into that. So where does Dwight stand in these listings? (list n. An inclination to one side, as of a ship; a tilt.intr. & tr.v. list·ed, list·ing, lists To lean or cause to lean to the side) He made all-NBA for the 2nd year in a row. Okay. And he was on Team USA. But what transpired therein? Going into the Olympics, Dwight figured to stand head and shoulders above the comp in Beijing. What really happened, though, was that Dwight, athlete though he is, couldn’t keep up with little gnats flying about him in China. Bosh came to play a more significant role.

Which isn’t really a slam on Dwight. It’s just a big memorandum on the style-direction the game’s been taking for some time now. Big men are out. Point gods are back en vogue. Id est, I would actually go with Chris Paul over Dwight if I was starting a team, drafting from the entire world. Brian Kenny went with the obvious Lebron pick, and callers agreed with the obligatory Kobe name drop, which Kenny quickly refuted (and I would too). The point at the heart of the question, though, was the comparative singularity of Dwight’s talents to the relatively replaceable skill set of Lebron. Kenny, though going with Lebron, made the point that you could make up for his production more easily with a handful of substitutes or composites, but you couldn’t make up for the post presence that Dwight provides. Thus the illuminative quality given to Phil Jackson’s perhaps, in reality, throw-away comments.

So let’s really look at Dwight. That’s what I really wanted to do here, anyway. First off, that Team USA showing really concerned me. He’s been great in NBA play, so what was it, an exposure? A big fish in a wide-angle lens? The hitch before the growth spike? But after the Olympics, guys like Wade and Lebron showed immediate improvement. Dwight had always been solid defensively, though, so it wasn’t like he HAD to learn the lessons those guys picked up. And then Bosh faded. What was that MVP talk Chris? And the Magic kept coming and coming. Waves across a gulf.

See the line-up, Lebron? Yeah, you just might be called out next...

The lag that followed Dwight from that experience was the criticism of his growth. Pundits said he wasn’t anywhere near where he needed to be. He had been the only Olympian to suffer from losing a summer, because he had failed to pick up new moves. And there was the early fade only weeks ago, when he looked like he was pulling a Ewing (on several levels I won’t get into). And then came another wave. Dwight nailed a few free throws. He nailed a few more. He went mythical on our asses in the Conference Finals. This is the stuff legends are supposed to be made of. And Dwight’s been showing himself capable of attaining that. Superman was always a deflatable hero. In my mind, D-Ho fits more into the Captain American mold. The humble beginnings look all wrong for this strapping young lad, but if you talk refinement and skill, then yes.

Remember when Tim Duncan looked terrible in his first ever summer camp? It was all a careful scheme by Popovich, getting him to learn things rather than dominate when it didn’t mean anything. It looks as if Dwight and SVG have pulled the same kind of veil trick. (sidebar: dismantling the COY MB in the CF was totally SVG’s Dream knocking off the Admiral moment…and by the way, don’t hold it against Mike Brown. Deconstruction at the hands of a Dream isn’t REALLY any kind of diminishment.) Anyway, it seems that all this has been gestational. That Dwight has turned the corner. However, there are too many red flags. Downhill only goes so long. What happens when the Lakers really test this Magic team? What happens when Hedo leaves in free agency this summer? Okay, Jameer comes back, but still. What happens when Superman comes back to earth? Hopefully he’ll be able to remold himself, become not an impossibility but rather an ideal.

This is all rhetoric, and I’m getting tired. What I’m really saying is, there are a lot of people who look great in the one playoffs and then gutter out in the grind of another NBA season. Here’s hoping Dwight’s not one of them. Here’s hoping he doesn’t cave to the irresistible narrative of the Mamba. Actually, it’s not that overpowering when you really take some Derrida to it. Flex those deconstructive muscles, Dwight. Let’s see ‘em. Here’s calling you out, kid. Go get ‘em.

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The Call Out: Tayshaun Prince

The Call Out is a sporadic cross section taken from the pulsing vein of the sports world. When the heartbeat skips, we look at why.

There are a lot of underachievers and goats (not the kind with the periods in between) in tonight's pitiful pairing of the Pistons and Bulls. A lot to not like. One of these TNT games is not like the other, eh boys? But in the end, there's only one participant deserving of tonight's (and the first ever) call out. Is it Tyrus Thomas? The Bulls almost got KG, they almost got Pau, they even drafted Lamarcus Aldridge and signed Ben Wallace, but all they have in the post to show for the last three years (the three years since they swept the Miami Heat) is Thomas and Joakim Noah. Speaking of Noah, he's looked decent of late, but isn't the emotional leader of two championship Gators teams drafted 9th supposed to account for more than a lot of hair? But forget the Bulls. They're a sad testament to how even the best of fanbases can be summarily shat upon (here's looking at you too, Sacramento). They're also exhibit A in the case against using stop-gaps to keep your team competitive but not for a championship. Ben Wallace? Scott Skiles? You know you're going to be making the playoffs with those guys just as much as you know you're going to flame out and need to rebuild in two years.

But forget the Bulls (and Vinny Del Negro, if you can). Look at the pitiful state of the once proud Pistons franchise. Tonight they started Aaron Aflalo and Kwame Brown for crying out loud! Don't get me started on Kwame. Please do get me started on Michael Curry and Allen Iverson's "bad" back. I had such high hopes for Curry coming in to the season. Hand picked by the flawless Joe Dumars. Single-handedly saving a season (I forget which one) from lockout. Leaping tall buildings in a...well, you get the hyperbolic idea. But he hasn't been able to do anything with this team. Iverson's back? Just a weak turn towards Samsonism by the Answer. But I'm not here merely to dog on guys. Or teams. There's a lot to be happy about even in this kind of game. Like Rodney Stuckey Will Bynum. The point is there are reasons for games and whole seasons lacking the kind of luster that gets us fans going. These are two teams fighting for their postseason lives. They should be scratching and sniffing at each like cats in heat. Or something. Instead, it's a game of whiffs. Airball after airball. Dropped passes. "Saving" taps over players' own heads that more often than not volley out of bounds. And the culprit? Who's to blame for all of this? Tayshaun Prince. I'm calling you out!

When I used to rip on the Pistons for being overrated (their one championship came at the expense of my Lakers, what do you expect?), I would always pick on Chauncey Billups. Obviously, I was wrong with that one. But Tayshaun? I'm not going to call him underrated or overrated, because at this point that's more played out than the Kobe vs. Lebron debate. What I will do, however, is spout you a bit of potential and then tell you what we know seven seasons in.

Tayshaun was and has been the poster boy for "doing it right." He came out of Kentucky after four years, a few "blistering" performances, and the usual conference awards (SEC MVP). He didn't start that first year out of Kentucky, coming off the bench behind Clifford Robinson and (hold the phone!) Michael Curry, but he did come on strong in the playoffs. That postseason, he became the only NBA player ever to score more points in the playoffs than in the regular season. Such an emergence, went the rationale, made the possibility of drafting Carmello unimportant to Dumars' '03 eternal sunshine and spotless mind. In '03-'04, Detroit won the NBA finals and the rest, as they say, is history. They won doing it "the right way," with no certifiable star and lots of guys who looked like glue. The ultimate glue guy on that glueiest of teams? Tayshaun. He did it all. Solid game at mid-range, long, and even post play. Moved the ball well. Defensive stopper. Length like no one's business. Pulled down a good number of caroms. Blocked Reggie Miller lay-ups for breakfast. He wouldn't score 30, but if you needed him to he'd put the chairs on the tables before you closed down for the night.

What next for the Prince of the Palace? Better stats. All-Defensive Second teams and Most Improved Player votes. A spot on the Redeem Team. Not bad right? Wrong. Tayshaun was supposed to be the harbinger of the next generation. All this talk of revolutionizing positions? The new forward bearing the KG-Dirk comparisons? Tayshaun was supposed to fulfill that. Look at the list of skills. Sounds pretty good. Or that Olympic team bid. Shane Battier was on that team for similar reasons, and Battier's game has recently been elevated to a whole new level or respect. But Battier's always had that kind of intelligent flare to his game. Here's the thing about a glue guy in the Tayshaun mold, they never break free. KG, like Tayshaun, has been accused of not having that killer instinct, that come-through in the clutch. Karl Malone had that problem too. But these guys, legendary forwards, they may lack the last minute heroics that guards like Kobe and MJ bear (that's another story), but at least they're intense. Tayshaun? Not so much.

Now let's not get carried away. The Pistons don't suck. They haven't sucked for a long time. But they haven't etched their names onto the echelons of history either. Tayshaun looks as if this will be his legacy too. And it didn't have to be that way. The Pistons slowly got rid of a host of the elements that took them to that single title, and at each point of attrition, I thought, "Here's Tayshaun's chance! This is his season! He's going to go Vesuvial on their Pompeii asses!" Alas, it doesn't look like he's erupting any time soon. Half way through a career, it looks like the window's staying open and Prince is staying perpetually on the same side of it. Looking at the boxscore tonight, you might think Prince held it down on a inevitably sinking ship. But what good is a glue guy when everything's falling apart? There's a reason we here go Outside the Boxscore. Prince may look like he's putting up a fine effort, but really he's taking these expressions and normalizing them. Holding it down? Yes, he's holding his team down. Killing it? Yes, he killed it tonight. Yes, he's a bad mother-shut-your-mouth. And by bad, we don't mean good.

Tayshaun? You could've done better. You should be doing better. Tayshaun, you've been called out.

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