From ESPN’s Bill Simmons, an excerpt:
Like many NBA junkies, I monitor Laker games since Kobe reached “you always need to make sure Kobe isn’t feeling it” status about two months ago, when it became apparent that his team stunk and Phil Jackson was fine with Kobe gunning 35 to 40 times a game. I don’t like the Lakers, and I definitely don’t like Kobe that much (except for the “Black Mamba” gimmick, which delights me to no end). But I enjoy the nightly potential of an ESPN Classic-caliber scoring explosion. It’s a form of basketball that’s never been seen at this level — as I wrote two weeks ago, it’s like “Teen Wolf” sprung to life. Not only is Mamba hogging the ball to a historic degree, just about everyone else on the Lakers seems OK with it. It’s their only chance to win.
(One player seems to be resisting: Poor Lamar Odom, who’s going to bludgeon himself to death with Phil Jackson’s blank clipboard soon. When they’re running the offense in which Odom sets up Kobe from the top of the key and then stands in place like a third base coach, I keep waiting for Odom to rear back and fire line drive baseball passes at Kobe to try to knock him unconscious. Frankly, there’s still time.)
So this has evolved into a unique situation: A Hall of Fame scorer in his absolute prime, stuck with teammates best described as deferential, playing with a chip on his shoulder after his last two seasons were marred by fallout from the Shaq trade and ongoing legal troubles, working with a permanently green light to hoist an ungodly amount of shots (nearly 28 a game). Again, everyone’s OK with it. Which means it’s impossible to determine a ceiling for Kobe Games right now. After the 62-point game against Dallas, when I bemoaned Kobe’s lost chance to make history, hundreds of Lakers fans disagreed. The common theme of the e-mails: “Dude, are you crazy? He’s shooting the ball 40 times a game! There will be plenty of chances for him to go for 80!”
You know what? Good point.