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Yes He Did By Christopher Sells
02.5.2009 - Updated on 02.5.2009
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LeBron James told us all that he had no intention of trying to top Kobe Bryant’s 61-point performance earlier this week. He was pretty adamant about it when he said it. The quote I ran yesterday was this one:
"It’s not about individuals in this league— it’s about the basketball game. I’m not trying to out-do Kobe on anybody on their team. I’m just trying to win the game. I just go out and play my game. I’m not a video game where you can expect me to go out there and score 60 or 70. I play the game and I’m not about individual accolades."
Can we all agree that the answer he gave us was pretty much BS?
He said the right thing. I suppose if he had said anything else, he would have given the Knicks some sort of extra motivation to stop him (as if having more records set against you isn’t enough) and none of this may have happened. He probably would have come off as selfish as well, and LeBron cares about LeBron’s image. So I get where he was coming from.
But watch that performance last night and tell me that King James wasn’t out for blood. It was pretty clear from the jump that he was going to give that extra special effort to be better than Kobe. I’ve read an article that claims LeBron casually mentioned Kobe’s assist and rebound totals before the game. Most of us don’t have those memorized. Kobe was clearly saving all of his energy for point-scoring and LeBron is a better all-around player anyway. So it’s not surprising that Kobe scored more but LeBron had more assists and rebounds.
But 52, 11 and 10? Honestly, that’s just really silly.
How silly? 52 points is the most points in a triple double since the ABA and the NBA merged. It puts LeBron ahead of names like Bird and Jordan. It puts him on par with names like Kareem, Wilt and Elgin Baylor.
That’s how silly. And at the ripe old age of 24, LeBron will be pulling off stunts like this for nearly another decade. Then he’ll get older and probably stick around to break a record or two. He’s already the youngest player to reach 12,000 points. I don’t know if he wants to stick around to do it, but he could probably catch Kareem in the scoring column.
So he’s really good. We knew that about LeBron already. But we’re learning that he’s aware of how good he is and he wants his game to prove it. He reportedly looked over at some friends on the sidelines and was visibly bothered that he was one rebound short of the triple double with less than a minute left. He fought for that last rebound and was mobbed by his teammates after he retrieved it. The smile on his face after he was helped from the floor said it all. His postgame comments were those of an individual who has paid attention to the great history of Madison Square Garden and wanted to write his name in the books.
Is there anything wrong with all of this? I’d say no. I don’t have a problem with a player setting a goal and achieving it as long as he doesn’t alienate his teammates or take an L in the process. I just think that we should all be aware of the talent that it takes to want to do something like that and then to go out on the court and make it happen. After all, as LeBron reminded us, this is no video game. These are real, live, flesh and blood players. They think and have pride, which makes them want to keep other players from going crazy against them. It makes them want to not be on the wrong side of the record book.
Well, it should, anyway. I have my doubts now that the Knicks have been taken behind the woodshed twice in one week by an individual player. It’s pretty lamentable, but the Knicks’ new run-and-gun style does lend itself to that sort of thing.
So who else wants to become a legend? Who else wants to be mentioned in the same breath as the legends of the game? Who else thinks they can compete on the same level as Kobe and LeBron? I say no one. Can we all agree that anyone saying otherwise is pretty much BS?
[image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/] |
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Posted by
Mr.Soy
on 02.9.2009 | screw james and kobe, wades better than both of them..suckas . | Posted by
Osmel V
on 02.6.2009 | im sure people who actually KNOW about basketball will agree with me, later . | Posted by
ha
on 02.6.2009 | yea theres also like 30 other players that on a good night can score 50 against the knicks, umm and no toronto is not a better defesnive of team and if they are its by the slimest and thats 40 not 50 against them and the heat dont have the players or shooters like the cavs do so on a night where wade gets 50 its coming with 10 . | Posted by
Osmel V
on 02.5.2009 | then your proving my points... he CAN score 50 on the knicks. and why not 10 assist with 50 points? He already scored 40 with 11 vs toronto, who have a better defense. . | Posted by
ha
on 02.5.2009 | i aint lieing he can score 50 on the knicks only on a good day, he cant just go out like kobe and lebron did on any day and say well here im am and im dropping 50 plus tonite, and no wade never got a 50 pt gm with 10 ast in his career so i dont believe for 1 min he can get 10 ast if he managed to get 50 against the knicks maybe 5 ast at the best . | Posted by
Osmel V
on 02.5.2009 | well then you got a bad a-------memory, you should try youtube. and ok he scored on wade? so what? whats the problem? thats not the points with my statement i said wade can score 50+ on the knicks any day. and along with that he can dish out 10 assist. Look at these past games during this season, vs Tor 40 pts 11 ast 5 blks @ pho 43 pts 6 ast, vs cha 41 pts 8 reb... You gonna tell me wade cant score 50 on the knicks? Dont lie to your self and dont forget to check out that game winner on trevor ariza . | Posted by
ha
on 02.5.2009 | really the only thing i remember from wade Osmel in MSG is the game where crawford nailed 16 consecutive jumpers in wades face and scored 50 . | Posted by
on 02.5.2009 | This is complete bulls---because if he really didn’t care about scoring he wouldn’t score so much. Obviously he didn’t want to say he was trying to catch Kobe because it would’ve showed some sort of weakness . | Posted by
on 02.5.2009 | kobe was guarding chandler while lebron was guarding harrington. also, lebron rebounds and passes, kobe elects to do so only at time and it usually affects his scoring adversely. . | Posted by
Steve
on 02.5.2009 | Poor comment on saying Le-Bron is a better all around player than Kobe is ridiculous. Let’s look at the stats to tell more of the story: -Kobe 61 pts 0 reb 3 ast in 36.48 19-31 fg 20-20 ft - His direct opponents 23pts 8-28 shooting - His team was +19 with him on the floor -10 with him off it.LeBron - 52pts 10reb 11ast in 44.03 mins 17-33 fgs 16-19fts - his direct opponents 46 pts on 19-33 shooting - His team was only +7 with him on the floor and only -2 with him off of it.To me it looks like Le Bron was more worried about getting the triple-double and putting up offensive numbers than playing defense, looks like Kobe was playing at both ends. . | Posted by
Osmel V
on 02.5.2009 | Have you forgotten about dwyane wade? Hes another that can catch or maybe even top kobe and lebron’s numbers at MSG. Have you forgotten the game winner he hit against them? He can do that and much more. I promise you that. I dont know if wade has more heart than Kobe but he sure as hell has more heart than Lebron... He can do what lebron did if he wanted to, like lebron wanted to top kobe. But i highly doubt wade is like that, hes more about getting the W at the end of the game. If to get that W, he needs to score 50 he will. . |
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