Lakers: Kirby peaked in 2001-2002, tbh.

[AchillesHeel]

He was only 22-23 years old but he was at his absolute best on both ends, actually shot 38% from 3 for a year and had 2.2 steals per game + the Kings & Spurs series in 2001, and him being efficient once in his career in the 2002 Finals.

Back then you might have thought this kid would end up being a top 10 all-time great and that he might one day be mentioned with the likes of Magic,Bird,Hakeem...Not so fast! Not only did he rape, he isolated himself from his teammates, stopped playing team ball, jacked up 20-30 shots a game and snitched on his big brother Shaq. If those things had not happened I might not be here in front of you on this day, but unfortunately he ruined what could have ultimately had one of the greatest basketball careers since MJ himself.

Here's a tribute to pre-rape/snitching Kirby, tbh.

[Arnold Toht]

Boiled down

Kobe 3
Duncan 1

[ElNono]

^ Boiled down

Spurs 4
Lakers 0

Swept

[Katherine Robinson]

Kobe Bryant did not have as much defensive pressure because of a more dangerous team and Shaq. His skills improved, but he was never able to consistently handle extensive defensive pressure.

[AchillesHeel]

Kobe Bryant did not have as much defensive pressure because of a more dangerous team and Shaq. His skills improved, but he was never able to consistently handle extensive defensive pressure.

Problem is that Kobe now has so much mileage on his body that in order to still look good on the stat sheet he sacrifices on D, he doesn't bother running back on transition when he misses/turns the ball over and he constantly doesn't rotate/switch and he's caught watching the ball and leaving 3pt shooters wide open.

He's still a skilled defender when guarding the ballhandler and one of the best at that but in order to jack up 30 shots a game he can't afford taking the assignment every game like he used to in the past, tbh. One stretch during the regular season he faced the top PGs and always took on the challenge and did good but then came in CP3 and he got burned in crunch time:

[Arnold Toht]

Problem is that Kobe now has so much mileage on his body that in order to still look good on the stat sheet he sacrifices on D, he doesn't bother running back on transition when he misses/turns the ball over and he constantly doesn't rotate/switch and he's caught watching the ball and leaving 3pt shooters wide open.

He's still a skilled defender when guarding the ballhandler and one of the best at that but in order to jack up 30 shots a game he can't afford taking the assignment every game like he used to in the past, tbh. One stretch during the regular season he faced the top PGs and always took on the challenge and did good but then came in CP3 and he got burned in crunch time:

Heel... always serious with his posts. Always so ty.

[AchillesHeel]

Heel... always serious with his posts. Always so ty.

ty? I talk basketball not your troll bs

[Katherine Robinson]

Problem is that Kobe now has so much mileage on his body that in order to still look good on the stat sheet he sacrifices on D, he doesn't bother running back on transition when he misses/turns the ball over and he constantly doesn't rotate/switch and he's caught watching the ball and leaving 3pt shooters wide open.

He's still a skilled defender when guarding the ballhandler and one of the best at that but in order to jack up 30 shots a game he can't afford taking the assignment every game like he used to in the past, tbh. One stretch during the regular season he faced the top PGs and always took on the challenge and did good but then came in CP3 and he got burned in crunch time:

He is in his twilight years, I see no reason to try and argue that when it's evident.

[AchillesHeel]

He is in his twilight years, I see no reason to try and argue that when it's evident.

Yeah well if more Lakerfans were like you I'd have much less work to do.

[RsxPiimp]

Heel... always serious with his posts. Always so ty.

[whitemamba]

Yeah well if more Lakerfans were like you I'd have much less work to do.