legalacidity's musings

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Kobe vs. Jordan

I don't understand everyone being "down" on Kobe for being a "ball hog" while praising Jordan for his game and ability to make his teammates better while in Chicago. Consider this stat: in 1992-93, Jordan was 992/2003 from the field over 78 games, for a field goal percentage of 49.5%, points per game of 32.6, and an average of 25.7 field goal attempts per game. Jordan averaged 5.5 assists per game. Kobe, so far this year: 523/1173 through 43 games, field goal percentage of 44.6%, points per game of 35.7, and average field goal attempts per game of 27.3. Kobe's averaging 4.3 assists per game. That's 1.6 more FG attempts per game and 1.2 less assists per game than the last year of Jordan's first threepeat with the Bulls with an admittedly less-skilled cast of characters surrounding him than what Jordan had. Plus, Kobe's putting in three more points per game than Jordan did--so, in effect, they are accounting for the same number of points per game (if Kobe had one more assist and two less shot attempts per game, that might lower his average down to where Jordan was and make their assist totals even).

So, to be on par with Jordan, he needs to pass instead of shoot twice a game. Huh? So he'd average six assists a game instead of four (assuming those passes turned into assists)? Seems to me like he should shoot more, not less, and no matter how you slice the numbers, they still account for about the same number of points per game, and Kobe's definitely got less to work with than what Jordan had in the early 90's.

Lamar Odom is no Pippen, and there is no one on the Lakers who can come close to matching the sharpshooting accuracy of a Steve Kerr or Craig Hodges. Kobe is essentially a one-man show, and instead of criticizing, everyone should just sit back and watch the rest of the season unfold, because we are seeing history in the making.

1:30 p.m. - 2006-01-23

Talk Back: so far, 1 people have taken the plunge

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