duncan228
06-11-2009, 06:51 PM
Didn't see this posted, apologies if I missed it.
Does Kobe rule the decade? (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/Does_Kobe_rule_the_decade.html)
Mike Monroe
In the final minute of Tuesday's NBA Finals Game 3, televised close-ups of Kobe Bryant revealed a player mouthing curses, anger directed inward.
The Lakers superstar had missed a critical, late free throw, which made him 5 for 10 on free-throw attempts, incredulous at temporary frailty under duress.
Could it be Bryant now understands how dominant Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal have been over the past 10 seasons, during which each managed to anchor a team that won four NBA titles while simultaneously fearing the foul line?
Depending on your geography or personal bias, the Lakers are either a few Bryant free-throw conversions from an unbeatable 3-0 advantage or one Courtney Lee lob-layup miss shy of a 1-2 deficit in a best-of-7 series that will remain in central Florida for two more games.
Fact is, L.A. holds home-court advantage even if the Magic win Games 4 and 5. That makes Bryant the favorite to earn his fourth championship, his first without O'Neal as a teammate.
When, and if, this happens, expect plenty of experts to declare Bryant the most dominant player of the past 10 years.
Will a fourth title really affirm his ascendancy as the defining player of this era?
Your opinion may depend on the span of your memory.
Wasn't it just two years ago that the Spurs won their fourth championship behind Duncan's play?
Can we be just three years removed from O'Neal's fourth title run, after he became the piece Dwyane Wade and the Heat needed to secure a championship?
Some NBA eras have been simple to define:
The early years belonged to George Mikan, who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five titles, from 1949-54.
Bill Russell dominated from his rookie season, 1956-57, until he retired, with 11 rings, after serving as Celtics player-coach on the 1969 title team.
Michael Jordan dominated from 1990-98, when he led the Bulls to two three-peats that were sandwiched around his stepping away from the game to dabble at baseball.
Duncan's championship run began in 1999, which puts a neat, 10-year punctuation mark on the latest era. But it is an era akin to the 1980s, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson shared dominance.
Steve Kerr won three titles as a teammate of Jordan's, in 1996, '97 and '98; then two more alongside Duncan, in 1999 and 2003. As general manager of the Suns, he traded for O'Neal. This gives him a unique perspective to judge this latest, arbitrarily assigned stretch of NBA history.
Kerr, though, swatted the opportunity like an overhead smash on the tennis court.
The Suns' GM said he passed some time during a recent trans-Atlantic flight by reading a newspaper article that compared tennis star Roger Federer, whose French Open men's singles championship was his 14th Grand Slam title, to all-time greats Pete Sampras and Rod Laver.
“I finished the article,” Kerr said, “and thought: This is impossible. Whether it's comparing eras or players, the obvious answer is: They're all great players.
“So: Tim, Shaq, Kobe? They're all dominant. Who's more dominant? It's impossible to say.”
Perhaps there is an alternate answer in the debate. A Lakers championship will give Derek Fisher his fourth title, too. Had Fisher not hit the infamous zero-point-four shot that beat the Spurs in Game 5 of the 2004 Western semifinals, Duncan and the Spurs may have gone on to a second straight title, then a three-peat, in 2005.
Then, there would be no debate at all. The years from 1999-2009 would be the Duncan era, plain and simple.
Maybe Fisher, with one clutch basket, changed the decade as much as the players involved in this debate have.
Does Kobe rule the decade? (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/Does_Kobe_rule_the_decade.html)
Mike Monroe
In the final minute of Tuesday's NBA Finals Game 3, televised close-ups of Kobe Bryant revealed a player mouthing curses, anger directed inward.
The Lakers superstar had missed a critical, late free throw, which made him 5 for 10 on free-throw attempts, incredulous at temporary frailty under duress.
Could it be Bryant now understands how dominant Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal have been over the past 10 seasons, during which each managed to anchor a team that won four NBA titles while simultaneously fearing the foul line?
Depending on your geography or personal bias, the Lakers are either a few Bryant free-throw conversions from an unbeatable 3-0 advantage or one Courtney Lee lob-layup miss shy of a 1-2 deficit in a best-of-7 series that will remain in central Florida for two more games.
Fact is, L.A. holds home-court advantage even if the Magic win Games 4 and 5. That makes Bryant the favorite to earn his fourth championship, his first without O'Neal as a teammate.
When, and if, this happens, expect plenty of experts to declare Bryant the most dominant player of the past 10 years.
Will a fourth title really affirm his ascendancy as the defining player of this era?
Your opinion may depend on the span of your memory.
Wasn't it just two years ago that the Spurs won their fourth championship behind Duncan's play?
Can we be just three years removed from O'Neal's fourth title run, after he became the piece Dwyane Wade and the Heat needed to secure a championship?
Some NBA eras have been simple to define:
The early years belonged to George Mikan, who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five titles, from 1949-54.
Bill Russell dominated from his rookie season, 1956-57, until he retired, with 11 rings, after serving as Celtics player-coach on the 1969 title team.
Michael Jordan dominated from 1990-98, when he led the Bulls to two three-peats that were sandwiched around his stepping away from the game to dabble at baseball.
Duncan's championship run began in 1999, which puts a neat, 10-year punctuation mark on the latest era. But it is an era akin to the 1980s, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson shared dominance.
Steve Kerr won three titles as a teammate of Jordan's, in 1996, '97 and '98; then two more alongside Duncan, in 1999 and 2003. As general manager of the Suns, he traded for O'Neal. This gives him a unique perspective to judge this latest, arbitrarily assigned stretch of NBA history.
Kerr, though, swatted the opportunity like an overhead smash on the tennis court.
The Suns' GM said he passed some time during a recent trans-Atlantic flight by reading a newspaper article that compared tennis star Roger Federer, whose French Open men's singles championship was his 14th Grand Slam title, to all-time greats Pete Sampras and Rod Laver.
“I finished the article,” Kerr said, “and thought: This is impossible. Whether it's comparing eras or players, the obvious answer is: They're all great players.
“So: Tim, Shaq, Kobe? They're all dominant. Who's more dominant? It's impossible to say.”
Perhaps there is an alternate answer in the debate. A Lakers championship will give Derek Fisher his fourth title, too. Had Fisher not hit the infamous zero-point-four shot that beat the Spurs in Game 5 of the 2004 Western semifinals, Duncan and the Spurs may have gone on to a second straight title, then a three-peat, in 2005.
Then, there would be no debate at all. The years from 1999-2009 would be the Duncan era, plain and simple.
Maybe Fisher, with one clutch basket, changed the decade as much as the players involved in this debate have.