Bill Simmons take on the 09 Finals

Simmons absolutely nails what I'm sure most of us were feeling watching the coverage of the Finals (and most all of the playoffs where K*be was involved).

over 2 years ago Montavilla Steve 13 comments 1 recs |

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I loved how during the season and first two rounds of the playoffs

LeBron was the best player in the world
then suddenly during the finals Kobe becomes the best in the world

The NBA: Where Amazingly Bad Officiating Happens.

by The Roybot on Jun 16, 2009 12:04 AM PDT reply actions

Remember how utterly amazing D Howard was a few short weeks ago?

Now he’s just another guy

Also I never understood wanting to equate dribbling a basketball with being a high quality person. Kobe’s a great hoopster and a mediocre person. He can be both… I don’t understand the constantly evolving quest to make him into something he’s not.

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jun 16, 2009 9:00 AM PDT up reply actions

+1

Jordan is the best ball player of the modern era, but probably the biggest jerk.
When writer’s try and mythologize the things like “Jordan was so amazingly competitive he would cheat his grandmother at cards”, I don’t really feel the love. Add in the part about being banned from basketball for a year, massive cheating on his wife, getting his father murdered for his gambling debts, and he’s not a real role model.

Kobe’s a great player. He’s also probably insufferable to be around.
I loved Stockton growing up. He’s also a boring jerk in real life. Who cares, they’re fun to watch on the tv.

dinasour type of guys choir boys

by mittsabishy on Jun 16, 2009 9:58 AM PDT up reply actions

that was a good read

He was fair, not a Kobe kissbutter, but not a hater either. Thanks for the link. It will be really interesting to see what happens to the lakers next year, do the other players say, ok this is my year to be the hero, you had your year Kobe. We all gave up something to be good teamates so kobe could have his glory, now Kobe you give us one year where you are not the number one option, or at least less so. I can’t imagine that, but it will be fun to watch what happens. Ariza and Gasol say, it’s our team this year! Yeah right.

by twggyy on Jun 16, 2009 8:02 AM PDT reply actions

I agree good read

This is funny though:

You would not call them great, just very good. I would compare them to the 2003 Spurs, 2005 Spurs or 2006 Heat — the cream of a flawed crop of contenders.

Err…how about the 2008 Celtics? :p

After all they beat a team in the NBA Finals Simmons just spent 50 paragraphs describing as mediocre.

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jun 16, 2009 9:07 AM PDT up reply actions

i thought the same thing when he was talking about how it manufactured the lakers’ celebration seemed. what about garnett’s, “anything is possible” nonsense?

by kdfloc on Jun 16, 2009 12:41 PM PDT up reply actions

This is why Simmons is so awesome

When he is not blinded by his Celtic love or Blazer hate.

I will read this guys stuff if it’s about 28 of the 30 teams in the NBA.

by Zaig on Jun 16, 2009 9:12 AM PDT reply actions

Ha I was thinking the same thing,...when he doesn't write about the Celts he's not bad at all

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jun 16, 2009 3:11 PM PDT up reply actions

I've quit reading his Portland stuff too.

Well, his Oden stuff. He doesn’t write about Portland anymore. We’re just the team that drafted Oden now.

The Princess of Blazersedge

by Zaig on Jun 16, 2009 3:49 PM PDT up reply actions

What a tremendous read.

He hit everything on the head that I couldn’t. I knew this team bothered me beyond just being the Lakers. It’s how lonely the whole team seemed to be. How political it all was. Very, very interesting article.

Life is hilarious.

by SolGoode on Jun 16, 2009 1:24 PM PDT reply actions

Good article, but like the folks he criticized,

too focused on Kobe.

He’s right that the finals taught us nothing about Kobe – he’s still the same selfish gunner who can shoot you to a win and shoot you to a loss, sometimes in the same game.

But the finals did show me some new things. I already thought highly of Pau, but nothing like I do now – that defense he played on Dwight without getting into foul trouble was very impressive. Odom also really redeemed himself.

I thought it was funny that just a couple of weeks after the sports blogosphere was caught up in Malcolm Gladwell’s piece about how underdog coaches should pull out all kinds of weird tactics to try to alter the predictable outcomes of series (underdogs lose), we just saw Stan Van Gundy just absolutely killed by the chattering classes for doing exactly that, even though he led his team in a huge upset past the lebroniacs.

by howlingfantods on Jun 16, 2009 2:19 PM PDT reply actions