Speaker 1: The volume. Can you believe we've had seven months without
Speaker 1: an NFL game? It's crazy right, Well, good thing that
Speaker 1: is over the NFL is here in Draft Kings Sports Book,
Speaker 1: an official sports betting partner of the NFL, is giving
Speaker 1: you a can't missoffer for Week one. This week, new
Speaker 1: customers can get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly
Speaker 1: when you bet just five bucks on an NFL game.
Speaker 1: DraftKings is hooking everyone up with game day greatness. All
Speaker 1: customers can take advantage of two new offers every single
Speaker 1: game day in September. Check the app to see what
Speaker 1: you get. Download now and use code hoops to sign up.
Speaker 1: New customers can take home two hundred dollars in bonus
Speaker 1: bets instantly for betting just five bucks. That's code hoops
Speaker 1: hops only on Draft Kings Sportsbook, an official sports betting
Speaker 1: partner of the NFL. The Crown is Yours gambling problem
Speaker 1: called one eight hundred gambler or visit wd WW dot
Speaker 1: one eight hundred gambler dot net In New York call
Speaker 1: eight seven seven eight hope and Why, or text hope
Speaker 1: and Why to four six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut,
Speaker 1: help is available. For problem gambling call eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG
Speaker 1: dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino
Speaker 1: and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus age varies by
Speaker 1: jurisdiction void in Ontario. See dkang dot co slash football
Speaker 1: for eligibility terms and responsible gambling resources. Bonus bets expire
Speaker 1: seven days after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome to tonight. You're at the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: week so far. We are live on AMPS. If you're
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't
Speaker 1: forget the A is the very first place that you
Speaker 1: guys can get these shows. We are continuing our top
Speaker 1: twenty five players the last twenty five years today with
Speaker 1: number three Kobe Bryant. And then I've got a mail
Speaker 1: back question at the end of the show for you
Speaker 1: guys as well. You guys are the Joe before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels you don't
Speaker 1: miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any
Speaker 1: show announcements, and for whatever reason, you miss one of
Speaker 1: these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube
Speaker 1: to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts Under Hoops Tonight, a couple more quick ones.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to drop mailback questions in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: We're gonna need them for the rest of this week
Speaker 1: and then potentially into the future as well. Bear with
Speaker 1: me today. I'm dealing with a little bit of whatever
Speaker 1: the hell it is I caught at the end of
Speaker 1: last week, and my voice is a rex, So bear
Speaker 1: with me through that. In the last, but not least,
Speaker 1: the start of NBA basketball, we're about what like seven
Speaker 1: weeks away from that, but there's no shortage of events
Speaker 1: to attend now. All summer long, we've been talking about
Speaker 1: baseball and concerts and comedy shows, but now we have
Speaker 1: the return of NFL and college football. The best way
Speaker 1: to get tickets to any of the is on Game Time,
Speaker 1: the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States, for
Speaker 1: amazing last minute deals on tickets to see your favorite
Speaker 1: baseball team, or your favorite football team, or your favorite
Speaker 1: artist or comedian. Download the game Time app. Again, it's
Speaker 1: not just sports. There are several huge concerts and comedy
Speaker 1: shows still on tour in game Time has your tickets there.
Speaker 1: Download the game Time app and redeem code Hoops for
Speaker 1: twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply again. Download
Speaker 1: the game Time app and enter code Hoops. That's Hops
Speaker 1: for twenty dollars off. No matter where you live, get
Speaker 1: out and have some fun this week. Download the game
Speaker 1: Time app. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So Number three Kobe Bryant his accolades.
Speaker 1: Five time NBA champion, best player on two championship team,
Speaker 1: second best player on three championship teams, eleven time first
Speaker 1: Team All NBA, fifteen time All NBA overall. That actually
Speaker 1: is tied with Kareem abdul Jabbar and Tim Dunk for
Speaker 1: the second most All NBA selections of all time. He
Speaker 1: actually has one more First Team All NBA selection than
Speaker 1: both of those guys, So I guess you could say
Speaker 1: Kobe is the second best All NBA winner of all time.
Speaker 1: He also is twelve time All Defense, won the Scoring
Speaker 1: Championship in two thousand and six, and two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: And if you look at just the window of this list,
Speaker 1: so our twenty five year window from nineteen ninety nine
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty three, he is the second leading scorer
Speaker 1: overall over that time, behind Lebron James with thirty one thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred and eighty four points in that span. So
Speaker 1: Kobe's claim to fame, there's two big ones I want
Speaker 1: to hit on. First of all, I think Kobe's the
Speaker 1: thing that he'll be remembered for, like his unique kind
Speaker 1: of trait is. I think that he was the very
Speaker 1: best shot maker in the history of the NBA. So
Speaker 1: where I want to start with that is what is
Speaker 1: shot making? So to me, there are like two different
Speaker 1: types of offense in the NBA. Right, there's offense in
Speaker 1: the flow, and then there's offense as a result of
Speaker 1: shot making. Right, offense in the flow or shots that
Speaker 1: your offense is designed to generate, like your actual sets
Speaker 1: are designed to generate, right or just by virtue of
Speaker 1: playing basketball, you're hoping to get these types of shots.
Speaker 1: These are your wide open catch and shoot threes or
Speaker 1: wide open catch and shoot mid range jump shots for
Speaker 1: your bigs. These are your driving layups to the basket,
Speaker 1: either off of one driving kick or potentially multiple driving
Speaker 1: kick situations. Drive and drop off to the big man
Speaker 1: in the posts or in the dunker spots so we
Speaker 1: can go up and dunk. Those are your like buckets
Speaker 1: that you get in the flow of your offense. Right.
Speaker 1: Offense from shot making is more about what the defense
Speaker 1: is trying to force. Right, So, like the defense's goal
Speaker 1: is to take away all of those things and to
Speaker 1: force you to make tougher shots within the margins. Right,
Speaker 1: these are your shots on the move. Right, these are
Speaker 1: your shots over contests and so shots on the move
Speaker 1: I look at more like your guys flying off of screens. Right,
Speaker 1: this is your Kyle korver Ray, Aalen type of situation.
Speaker 1: Even Kobe did a little bit of this, especially from
Speaker 1: the mid range. You'd come off of a pin down
Speaker 1: and then rise up from the free throw line extended
Speaker 1: or something along those lines, you know, And maybe if
Speaker 1: you're fast enough over the top of a screen and
Speaker 1: pick and roll, like as a ball handler, you can
Speaker 1: get a floater that's in the mid range, or you
Speaker 1: can get a pull up fifteen foot or that's uncontested.
Speaker 1: If you have a good enough handle and you set
Speaker 1: your man up well enough and you get over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen and you get to a spot
Speaker 1: that to me is like movement shooting. But then there's
Speaker 1: like shots over contests, right. These are like your isolation
Speaker 1: and post move shots where the defender's in front of
Speaker 1: you and he's doing his best to slide his feet
Speaker 1: and contest and you're trying to rise up over the
Speaker 1: top of the defender and knock down that tougher shot.
Speaker 1: These are like everything that we've talked about in terms
Speaker 1: of footwork and dribble combinations and energy transfer and all
Speaker 1: that stuff that we've talked about on the show that
Speaker 1: involves the ability to get a shit off over elite defense. Now,
Speaker 1: this is an incredibly important part of the game of
Speaker 1: basketball that we talk a lot about on this show.
Speaker 1: Why do you guys think shot making is so valuable?
Speaker 1: Because in theory, right, if you run your offense right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get some easier shots, right. But why is
Speaker 1: shot making so valuable? Because when you do get to
Speaker 1: the later rounds of the NBA playoffs, especially against the
Speaker 1: best defenses in the league, they're gonna take away all
Speaker 1: that stuff they scout you relentlessly. So they get in
Speaker 1: front of your sets, they scout your stars, and so
Speaker 1: they identify their tendencies and they like to take away
Speaker 1: the things that they are best at. Right, they have
Speaker 1: higher level defensive personnel just strictly from the standpoint of talent.
Speaker 1: When you get to the later point, later points of
Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs, it's more talented defensive players, better athletes, right,
Speaker 1: and so it's just really hard to get those easy,
Speaker 1: wide open catch and shoot threes, catch and shoot fifteen
Speaker 1: footers driving layups and dunks out of the dunker spot
Speaker 1: than ever to get when you get to the later
Speaker 1: phases of the NBA playoffs, that is where shot making
Speaker 1: comes to the surface. That is where having a guy
Speaker 1: that can fly off of a screen and elevate and
Speaker 1: knock down a shot off the catch is super valuable.
Speaker 1: That is where having a guy that can knock down
Speaker 1: a floater or a pull up jump shot in pick
Speaker 1: and roll is valuable. That is where having a guy
Speaker 1: that can get to a matchup and get to a
Speaker 1: shot in isolation or in a post up situation is
Speaker 1: immensely valuable, especially when we get to Kobe's era, Because
Speaker 1: in Kobe's era, we weren't We didn't have the type
Speaker 1: of spacing that we have today. There are two bigs
Speaker 1: on the floor for just about every team. You had
Speaker 1: your traditional power forward, probably somebody in the two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty two hundred and seventy pounds six y ten
Speaker 1: area that was clogging things up on the inside. The
Speaker 1: pace was slow, the game was stuck in the half court.
Speaker 1: I've shared these stats with you guys before, but the
Speaker 1: three point shooting is monumentally different now than it was
Speaker 1: in that era. In twenty ten, the Orlando Magic led
Speaker 1: the NBA with ten point three men aid three point
Speaker 1: shots per game ten point three. All thirty NBA teams
Speaker 1: this year made more than ten point three threes per game.
Speaker 1: So it's an entirely different era that we're living in now.
Speaker 1: This shot making stuff that I'm talking about is much
Speaker 1: more valuable, especially in that particular era. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of a little breakdown of what shot making is now.
Speaker 1: What made Kobe the best shot maker of all time? Now,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of little details I want to get into,
Speaker 1: but it all starts fundamentally with Kobe's obsessive work ethic.
Speaker 1: This was the thing that he's probably most remembered for.
Speaker 1: Right Like, if you get any NBA player who played
Speaker 1: during his era down into a podcast and talking with
Speaker 1: some hosts, and the host asked him, like, Hey, tell
Speaker 1: me a Kobe Bryant story. What are you probably gonna get?
Speaker 1: You're probably gonna get something along the lines of like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, tm USA in two thousand and eight, Like
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. We were getting back from, you know,
Speaker 1: going out and like Kobe was literally on his way
Speaker 1: to the gym, you know. Or it's like it'll be
Speaker 1: some story about after a game he was mad that
Speaker 1: he didn't shoot well, and so he he went out
Speaker 1: on the court and made a thousand shots. Like there's
Speaker 1: just dozens and dozens of stories that we've all heard
Speaker 1: over the course of the last decade about Kobe's obsessive
Speaker 1: work ethic. The reason why that matters is, like I've
Speaker 1: told you guys so many times on this show. When
Speaker 1: I see improvements from players, especially young players in ball
Speaker 1: handling and shooting and footwork, I always talk about how
Speaker 1: it's incremental improvement. Like you're if you're a college player
Speaker 1: right now and you're freshman or sophomore, and you shot,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty four percent on catch and shoot threes
Speaker 1: last year. If you want to bump that up from
Speaker 1: thirty four to thirty five percent next year, thirty six,
Speaker 1: thirty seven percent next year, you literally have to make
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands and thousands of shots to see that tiny,
Speaker 1: tiny improvement. It is a very incremental thing. And so
Speaker 1: when I look at Kobe Bryant, who I believe was
Speaker 1: the most skilled player of his era, the player that
Speaker 1: had the best footwork of any guard in the league,
Speaker 1: the guy who had the best touch of any guard
Speaker 1: in the league, had different spots on the floor. He
Speaker 1: didn't get that by accident. He got that through obsessive
Speaker 1: work ethic and so as a result of that, he
Speaker 1: built out this incredibly well rounded skill set. Right, So
Speaker 1: I want to I want to use one specific example,
Speaker 1: because we could talk like Kobe's shot making, it was
Speaker 1: so incredibly diverse, his face up, off the dribble shot making,
Speaker 1: his coming off of screen shot making, his post up
Speaker 1: shot making. But I want to focus on the post
Speaker 1: for justin just a quick minute as an example. So
Speaker 1: let's look at a left block post up. So Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant catches the ball ten to twelve feet away from
Speaker 1: the basket on the left block extended, and he's got
Speaker 1: his back to the basket. That's a classic kind of
Speaker 1: back arched look that you saw from Kobe over the years,
Speaker 1: kind of same sort of thing that he stole from MJ. Right,
Speaker 1: that's at least a flair. I actually think Kobe and
Speaker 1: MJ are very different. They have some similarities, but like
Speaker 1: MJ had a quicker release, he was more poppy, vertical,
Speaker 1: like Kobe was legitimately a better shot maker, like tough, tough,
Speaker 1: over the top shot maker than MJ. Like, I kind
Speaker 1: of find them to be different in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways. MJ was a better athlete and it was
Speaker 1: like more dynamic getting to the rim and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So they're very different in my opinion, even though Kobe
Speaker 1: in many ways tried to replicate him. Right, But let's
Speaker 1: imagine that left block post up. Okay, So Kobe's going
Speaker 1: to drop a left handed dribble and back you down
Speaker 1: to try to generate a little bit of separation, right,
Speaker 1: But as he comes out of that pound dribble, he's
Speaker 1: going to hold the ball in a left handed high
Speaker 1: hesitation from there he can literally go either way. And
Speaker 1: this is the important detail. Kobe's go to move is
Speaker 1: going to be that right shoulder fade right that shot
Speaker 1: that he comes back over that right shoulder shoot the
Speaker 1: fade away towards the basket. They hit a million game
Speaker 1: winners like that in his career, right. But the key
Speaker 1: is it's not just the go to move, it's an
Speaker 1: equal counter move from the same situation. You have to
Speaker 1: have the counter move because that's what keeps the defense honest.
Speaker 1: Kobe was just as good with the left shoulder fade
Speaker 1: out of that high hesitation as he was with the
Speaker 1: right shoulder fade. So he could sit in that left
Speaker 1: handed high hesitation out of the post up and he
Speaker 1: could pivot that way into a left shoulder fade, or
Speaker 1: he could pivot this way into a right shoulder fade,
Speaker 1: and so because of that, the defender is guessing. I'll
Speaker 1: give you guys an example. Lebron James, my favorite player,
Speaker 1: second best player of all time, a better player than
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant. But with Lebron, he has a very good
Speaker 1: right shoulder fade shooting over his right shoulder out of
Speaker 1: the post, but he has a bad left shoulder fade,
Speaker 1: and what happens is is defenders sit on his right
Speaker 1: shoulder fade, and so Lebron's right shoulder fade isn't as
Speaker 1: impactful as it should be or as it could be
Speaker 1: because defenders can sit on it, they can lean on
Speaker 1: that shoulder, and they can attack the shooting pocket expecting
Speaker 1: that shot to come. So Lebron has to take these little,
Speaker 1: like really dramatic drifting fade aways over his right shoulder. Right.
Speaker 1: Kobe understood the fundamental basketball principle when it comes to
Speaker 1: scoring and shot making that every single move has to
Speaker 1: have an e equal and opposite counter move. If you
Speaker 1: have that equal and opposite counter move, then you always
Speaker 1: can make a read base on the defender. That's what
Speaker 1: allowed Kobe to when he would do that back down
Speaker 1: dribble if the defender was overplaying his right shoulder. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: I'm going to the left shoulder. That's a shot I
Speaker 1: can make just as well as I do that right
Speaker 1: shoulder fade. And look, I'm just using the post up
Speaker 1: as an example, but you see this from just about
Speaker 1: every spot on the floor. Like among guards, there wasn't
Speaker 1: anybody you had a better left handed hook or a
Speaker 1: left handed floater in the league, because he could get
Speaker 1: into that he could dribble into the lane and spin
Speaker 1: back over that right shoulder on a dribble drive and
Speaker 1: go to a left handed floater or a left handed hook.
Speaker 1: How many guards could do that in the NBA. And
Speaker 1: what's important about that is a lot of times when
Speaker 1: you're spinning over that right shoulder, you need to use
Speaker 1: this right arm to shield off the defender to create
Speaker 1: extra space. And again, like, I look at it, and
Speaker 1: it's the work ethic that juts out to me because
Speaker 1: it's like, do you understand how hard you have to
Speaker 1: work to build from the ground up a left handed
Speaker 1: hook as a right handed dominant player, especially as a guard, Like,
Speaker 1: think about how crazy that is. Kobe probably only took
Speaker 1: maybe a dozen left handed hooks per season. But Kobe
Speaker 1: wanted to make that shot not just so that he
Speaker 1: could have that in his pocket, but so that it
Speaker 1: could keep defenders honest for his go to moves. That
Speaker 1: balance was something I think Kobe had mastered, and that's
Speaker 1: what I think made him the most skilled player in
Speaker 1: the late two thousands and the most gifted shot maker
Speaker 1: of all time. Now, a lot of people are going
Speaker 1: to talk about efficiency. I'm gonna save that for later
Speaker 1: because I have an important kind of context I want
Speaker 1: to provide as it pertains to Kobe's efficiency. So kobe
Speaker 1: second claim to fame. I think Kobe is arguably the
Speaker 1: most obsessively competitive basketball player to ever touch a basketball court.
Speaker 1: He wanted to win so badly that he was willing
Speaker 1: to do all of the things that his peers weren't
Speaker 1: willing to. Kobe was a high volume ISO and post
Speaker 1: scoring guard. If you look at his peers around the league,
Speaker 1: guys like Vince Carter and Alan Iverson and Ray Allen
Speaker 1: and t Mack and Gilbert Arnis and those guys, none
Speaker 1: of them gave a shit about playing defense. All those
Speaker 1: guys that just listed, none of them managed to log
Speaker 1: even one all defense selection. Kobe made twelve. Kobe made
Speaker 1: twelve all defense teams. He was obsessed with finding ways
Speaker 1: to impact winning even when his shot wasn't falling. You
Speaker 1: guys might remember Game seven of the twenty ten NBA
Speaker 1: Finals where Kobe goes six for twenty four from the field.
Speaker 1: That stat gets thrown around all the time. Do you
Speaker 1: guys remember, by any chance, that Kobe had fifteen rebounds
Speaker 1: in that game. Do you guys remember by any chance
Speaker 1: that Kobe got to the foul line fifteen times in
Speaker 1: that game? Do you guys remember by any chance that
Speaker 1: Kobe was guarding Rayjon Rondo, or rather not guarding him
Speaker 1: and roaming around the floor and wrecking havoc on the
Speaker 1: Boston offense, which only managed seventy nine points in that game.
Speaker 1: Kobe was so obsessed with winning. His competitiveness drove him
Speaker 1: to the point where he was willing to do what
Speaker 1: his peers were not, And I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that that led to as much winning as you
Speaker 1: saw in his career. There were downsides to his competitiveness, right,
Speaker 1: Like it caused him to be tough on his teammates,
Speaker 1: kind of like Michael Jordan was. It caused him to
Speaker 1: play hero ball sometimes. There were some shots that Kobe
Speaker 1: took that he probably shouldn't have. But it also has
Speaker 1: him going down as the third best perimeter player in
Speaker 1: NBA history in my opinion, behind mj and Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: and coming down as the third best player overall over
Speaker 1: the course of the last twenty five years. So like,
Speaker 1: I don't think those are I don't think that's a coincidence.
Speaker 1: I think it's directly tied to his overall competitiveness. All Right,
Speaker 1: Kobe's crowning achievement. Now, Kobe accomplished a ton in his career.
Speaker 1: I want to briefly kind of touch on that early
Speaker 1: stretch because they're one of the most common talking points
Speaker 1: he'll hear, is like, oh, like, you know, Kobe wasn't
Speaker 1: that good with the first three peat? You know, like
Speaker 1: she was riding shacks co tails. And now here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Was Kobe the best player in the league on that
Speaker 1: first repeat? No? Was Kobe as good as Shaq No was? Like,
Speaker 1: was Kobe as good as he eventually became. No, But
Speaker 1: he was deeply impactful and made several huge plays on
Speaker 1: the way to the Lakers winning those three championships. I
Speaker 1: want I want to zoom in on the year, the
Speaker 1: two thousand playoff run to demonstrate this example. Now, Kobe
Speaker 1: was twenty one years old in this particular season. He
Speaker 1: only averaged twenty one points per game in that playoff run,
Speaker 1: and that is frequently pointed to as like Kobe's coat
Speaker 1: tail riding championship. Right, I want to look at the
Speaker 1: two thousand Western Conference Finals at first against the Portland
Speaker 1: Trail Blazers. It's Game three, the series is tied at one.
Speaker 1: The game is tied at ninety one with less than
Speaker 1: a minute left. Scottie Pippen is in a post up
Speaker 1: and he tries to throw a pass to the weakside corner,
Speaker 1: and he turns it over. Kobe gets the ball one
Speaker 1: years old, Western Conference Finals, series tied at one, not
Speaker 1: even the best player on his team. Dribbles the ball
Speaker 1: up the floor and says, I got this. Goes on
Speaker 1: the right wing. Portland throws a double team at him.
Speaker 1: Rather than forcing a stupid shot, He identifies Ron Harper
Speaker 1: in the left corner wide open, elevates over the top,
Speaker 1: throws a rope two handed pass to Ron Harper in
Speaker 1: the corner, who knocks down the shot. It was basically
Speaker 1: the game winner, game winning play in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: Finals from Kobe Bryant over a double team as a
Speaker 1: twenty one year old in the year two thousand, Game seven.
Speaker 1: They're down by fifteen points early in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Looks like this series is over. Kobe scores nine points
Speaker 1: in the quarter, including in the basically when the game
Speaker 1: was in the balance seventy nine to seventy nine with
Speaker 1: less than two minutes left. Kobe drives hard to the
Speaker 1: rim off of a kickout from Shaq and the post
Speaker 1: draws a foul. Gets to the line, makes both free throws.
Speaker 1: Then she'd g gets fouled. A Rashid Wallace gets fouled
Speaker 1: on the other side of the court. He misses both
Speaker 1: free throws, but still Lakers by two. This game is
Speaker 1: still hanging in the balance. Kobe goes down, isolates Scottie Pippen,
Speaker 1: hits him with this like nasty in and out dribble,
Speaker 1: and knocks down a pull up jump shot. Now they're
Speaker 1: up by four. Scotty Pippen goes down and misses a
Speaker 1: three on the left wing. Kobe gets it back and
Speaker 1: just buckles Scottie Pippen with his right to left crossover,
Speaker 1: literally like he's out of the frame, and he goes
Speaker 1: downhill and again, rather than forcing up something stupid, throws
Speaker 1: a perfect lob pass to Shaquille O'Neil, who dunks it.
Speaker 1: Now they're up six. Now the series is over and
Speaker 1: the Lakers are going to the NBA Finals. Does that
Speaker 1: sound like coat tail riding to you? It doesn't. That's
Speaker 1: revisionist history. That's looking at box scores and acting like
Speaker 1: Kobe wasn't making championship level plays. He was. We're not
Speaker 1: even done. Game four of the NBA Finals. Shack fouls
Speaker 1: out in ot on, a loose ball, foul along the baseline,
Speaker 1: A bad foul. Nowby's in there by himself. He scores
Speaker 1: eight points in overtime to carry them to the win. Anyway,
Speaker 1: this ridiculous pound dribble between the legs, step back jump
Speaker 1: shot over Reggie Miller. Another off the dribble, pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot over Mark Jackson. Then up by one with
Speaker 1: I think there's like ten seconds left ish and only
Speaker 1: like four seconds on the shot clock. He gets an
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back, doesn't have the ball, stays invested
Speaker 1: in the play, gets good position under the basket. I
Speaker 1: think he got position on Reggie Miller if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: Just elevates over the top of him and grabs the
Speaker 1: ball and guides it into the basket. Puts him up
Speaker 1: three with a few seconds left. That literally changed the
Speaker 1: entire NBA Finals. Flakers up two games to one. Shack
Speaker 1: fouls out. Kobe doesn't make those plays. It's two to
Speaker 1: two series looks completely different. But no, twenty one year
Speaker 1: old Kobe Bryant took the damn game over. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna go through every single Oneobe's playoff moments because
Speaker 1: it would literally take forever. But that was the first
Speaker 1: title in his three pet at twenty one years old.
Speaker 1: That's not tagging along that is that is one of
Speaker 1: the game's all time greatest players finding a way to
Speaker 1: help his team win on his way to his first
Speaker 1: of his five NBA championships. Now, the next two titles
Speaker 1: much more in line with what we expect from Kobe Bryant.
Speaker 1: Right twenty eight, seven and five. In those two playoff
Speaker 1: runs on fifty five percent true shooting, No one's saying
Speaker 1: shit about those two right now. After that, there was
Speaker 1: an extended draft of playoff success, right, they didn't win
Speaker 1: an O three. That was the season where Shaq got
Speaker 1: surgery at the start of the season, didn't win an
Speaker 1: O four. Basically the story of those two years Shack
Speaker 1: got fat. That's that's basically the story. Like Shack, I
Speaker 1: believe he was up to like three hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: five pounds at that point. I think he's personally admitted that.
Speaker 1: So he was big at that point. But then Shaq
Speaker 1: leaves and things don't go well. Kobe doesn't win a
Speaker 1: single playoff series for three years. Then Shaq wins a
Speaker 1: title in O six with the Heat and kind of
Speaker 1: like we talked about was Steph yesterday, Now a narrative
Speaker 1: starts to form. Right, Kobe's a ballhawk. He can't win
Speaker 1: without Shack. Right, we get the trade request on local
Speaker 1: Los Angeles radio, right like, it gets ugly there for
Speaker 1: a minute. Then power Gasol comes in and they end
Speaker 1: up losing to Boston. They get kind of back into relevance,
Speaker 1: but they lose to Boston. Right, So things were not great.
Speaker 1: But this is where Kobe's crowning achievement came in. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start it with the two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: Olympics on the redeemed team before he won his two
Speaker 1: titles with the Lakers. You gotta remember when the shit
Speaker 1: hit the fan against Spain. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: young players on that team, Young Dwayne Wade, young Lebron
Speaker 1: James right, young Carmelo Anthony the like. In that situation
Speaker 1: when everybody had sweaty palms and was wondering what the
Speaker 1: hell to do? Kobe stepped up and clearly asserted himself
Speaker 1: as the best basketball player alive in secuted the Spain
Speaker 1: national team. That was like that first kind of step
Speaker 1: into that crowning achievement, and then he follows that up
Speaker 1: with back to back titles with the Lakers in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine and twenty ten. In those playoff runs,
Speaker 1: averages thirty points, six rebounds, and six assists on fifty
Speaker 1: five percent true shooting, and wins the first two finals
Speaker 1: MVPs of his career. It went from all of the
Speaker 1: question marks surrounding Shack's departure and everything about Kobe and
Speaker 1: whether or not he was a winning player to you
Speaker 1: could not deny it. He was the best player in
Speaker 1: the world. Now, there was a debate at the time,
Speaker 1: was it Lebron or Kobe? Lebron or Kobe? Right, And
Speaker 1: that was the Orlando Magic ruin to the Lebron Kobe Finals.
Speaker 1: And to be clear, I think the Lakers would have
Speaker 1: beat that Calves team one. That Calves team had a
Speaker 1: lot of shortcomings, but Lebron wasn't ready. Lebron wasn't ready yet.
Speaker 1: I mean, the twenty eleven series tells you all you
Speaker 1: need to know about that. That debate is interesting to
Speaker 1: me because, like it reminds me a lot of Yannis
Speaker 1: Lebron circa twenty twenty, where everyone's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: Yannis the best player in the world. Look at this,
Speaker 1: He's kicking everybody's ass. And don't get me wrong, I
Speaker 1: think Giannis was the best regular season player potentially, although
Speaker 1: I think Lebron deserved to win MVP that you're in
Speaker 1: a very good season, but like Jiannis was a very
Speaker 1: very good regular season player that was at Lebron's level,
Speaker 1: But then you got into the playoffs and Lebron's just
Speaker 1: clearly way better than him because with his age and
Speaker 1: his experience and having been through all those playoff wars
Speaker 1: and having grounded out his skill set a little bit
Speaker 1: more feeling the pain and suffering of loss. I talk
Speaker 1: to you guys about that a lot. The pain and
Speaker 1: suffering of loss is the carrot that drives a competitor
Speaker 1: to that next level, and in that playoff run, Lebron
Speaker 1: clearly demonstrated he was the better player. That's kind of
Speaker 1: the way I feel about Kobe in that era with Lebron,
Speaker 1: Like Lebron wins back to back MVP's two sixty plus
Speaker 1: win seasons with the Kaz probably the best regular season
Speaker 1: player in the league, but like Kobe was the guy
Speaker 1: that was most confident on the biggest stages and knew
Speaker 1: how to win high leverage basketball games. That's what led
Speaker 1: him to lead TSA in two thousand and eight, and
Speaker 1: that's what led him to get the job done in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine and in twenty ten. If I'm
Speaker 1: like breaking down your best player in the world eras right,
Speaker 1: you got like MJ in the nineties, right, and then
Speaker 1: you got like Shack from nineteen ninety nine to two
Speaker 1: thousand and two, Duncan from like two thousand and three
Speaker 1: to two thousand and seven, and then it's Kobe from
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight to twenty eleven or so until
Speaker 1: Lebron took over in twenty twelve. Once twenty twelve came,
Speaker 1: Lebron had experienced enough pain from loss that he addressed
Speaker 1: a lot of his big weaknesses that were exposed in
Speaker 1: the Dallas Maverick series. And then suddenly from twenty twelve
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty, Lebron took over as like that definitive
Speaker 1: best player in the world. But I thought Kobe had
Speaker 1: that title there in the late two thousands. I thought
Speaker 1: he was better than Lebron in that period. Now, what
Speaker 1: is the biggest what if of Kobe's career? What if
Speaker 1: Kobe had played in the modern era? Talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about this a few days ago or a week
Speaker 1: ago or so. But Kobe is a victim, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: of the modern day obsession with efficiency. We draw lines,
Speaker 1: we compare apples to apples eras here, when really the
Speaker 1: eras could not be more different, Like I broke down earlier,
Speaker 1: but it even goes deeper than that. The scoring, like
Speaker 1: the shot selection. The guys are taking more threes, guys
Speaker 1: are getting easier shots. In the spacing of the game.
Speaker 1: There's more pace, which pushes up the volume of scoring
Speaker 1: to a certain degree. Right, There are a lot of
Speaker 1: things that influence that, but here's this is the best
Speaker 1: case for the fact that if Kobe played today, he'd
Speaker 1: be far more efficient than he was in the late
Speaker 1: two thousands. In the twenty thirteen season on a janky
Speaker 1: as Lakers team with dwy Howard and Pagasol Steve Nashen
Speaker 1: out of the lineup, you guys, remember he average twenty
Speaker 1: seven six and six, it was a fifty. He shot
Speaker 1: fifty point four percent in effective field goal percentage, which
Speaker 1: was the highest mark of his career, his entire career.
Speaker 1: So literally he was peaking in terms of his efficiency
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, right before he got hurt. As the
Speaker 1: league was changing. He was like thirty four. So like obviously,
Speaker 1: like he wasn't close to the athlete he was when
Speaker 1: he was younger, and so again like that to me
Speaker 1: is the dead giveaway, like Kobe was, like many players
Speaker 1: from that era, like Carmelo Anthony, right, like Alan Iverson,
Speaker 1: Like even if you look at Lebron James's efficiency in
Speaker 1: the era, it's lower everybody that played in the late
Speaker 1: two thousands and in the mid two thousands and early
Speaker 1: two thousands. It was an ISO heavy league with very
Speaker 1: poor spacing, very slow pace, and guys just had to
Speaker 1: take a lot of really tough shots. Now, I want you,
Speaker 1: guys to envision Kobe Bryant playing in the Devin Booker
Speaker 1: role with the Phoenix Suns over the last few years. Okay,
Speaker 1: I want you to imagine a really good pick and
Speaker 1: roll threat with good hands like DeAndre Ayden, outstanding backside
Speaker 1: shooting with Mikhale Bridges and Cam Johnson and Chris paul
Speaker 1: As like this guy that could you could throw the
Speaker 1: ball to and he could take possessions off so that
Speaker 1: you don't have to do it too much over the
Speaker 1: course of a game and fatigue and then just spamming
Speaker 1: high pick and roll in Spain pick and roll like
Speaker 1: Devin Booker does. You don't think Kobe Bryant is going
Speaker 1: to have a sixty two percent true shooting percentage in
Speaker 1: that situation. Of course he is. He was like the
Speaker 1: best pull up jump shooter in the league when he
Speaker 1: was playing. He was literally the most skilled player in
Speaker 1: the league when he was playing. If you picked him
Speaker 1: up and you dropped him off on the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two Sons in the regular season, he's averaging thirty two
Speaker 1: thirty three points per game. He's shooting sixty two sixty
Speaker 1: three percent in true shooting percentage. He's lighting these guys up.
Speaker 1: He is, So don't compare apples to oranges. Don't compare
Speaker 1: a completely different game of basketball from fifteen years ago
Speaker 1: to what these guys have today. It's not the same.
Speaker 1: And I think that that I think when we talk
Speaker 1: because I think Kobe's the third best perimeter player of
Speaker 1: all time, behind Lebron and MJ. I've talked about this,
Speaker 1: right most. A lot of people have Kobe. My guy
Speaker 1: Carson has him further back at guys have him closer
Speaker 1: to ten. A lot some people have him like twelve thirteen.
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you kidding me? Twelve time All Defense,
Speaker 1: eleven time first Team All NBA most skilled player in
Speaker 1: the league, five time NBA champion, victim of some of
Speaker 1: the like Literally, I think people saw James Harden scoring totals,
Speaker 1: intro shooting percentages and just decided Kobe was overrated. It's
Speaker 1: the dumbest thing. I really don't understand. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the biggest one if of Kobe's career, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is what if he had played in the modern era?
Speaker 1: All right? Only one? Only time for one male back
Speaker 1: question today? This is from Ali At least, if I'm
Speaker 1: interpreting the YouTube handle correctly, I believe your name is Ali.
Speaker 1: Having started watching the NBA for the past two to
Speaker 1: three years, Why don't most teams use zone defense in
Speaker 1: the playoffs like Miami did? And why did Miami use
Speaker 1: it sparingly like Spo didn't even use it all the time, Like,
Speaker 1: I know the personnel and coaching have to be immaculate
Speaker 1: to pull it off, and I get reserving it for
Speaker 1: the surprise element, But even still, having seen how effectively
Speaker 1: the Heat deployed it against the Bucks and Celtics, I
Speaker 1: don't get why Miami or other teams are who I
Speaker 1: am sure have better personnel than Miami can't seem to
Speaker 1: want to employ it. Very good question. I find this
Speaker 1: one very interesting because this is kind of like a
Speaker 1: tactical thing with the game of basketball. So there's a
Speaker 1: very specific reason, in my opinion, why teams don't use
Speaker 1: zone more frequently in the NBA. Zone has baked in
Speaker 1: weaknesses in a man demand's scheme. When the personnel run
Speaker 1: it correctly, there are no holes, right, Like, let's just
Speaker 1: talk about a drop coverage scheme where you defend pick
Speaker 1: and roll two on two with typical week side help,
Speaker 1: where guys have a foot in the paint, but they're
Speaker 1: in a position where they can rotate out. Okay, In
Speaker 1: that situation, if the guard chases over the top of
Speaker 1: the screen properly and stays attached, the offensive guard has
Speaker 1: no choice but to continue to go downhill. If he
Speaker 1: continues to go downhill, he going to run into the
Speaker 1: center who's in drop coverage, and the roleman's rolling directly
Speaker 1: into it. Right, even if you talk about like specific openings,
Speaker 1: like let's say it's a pick and pop play where
Speaker 1: the big man's in drop coverage and the guy stays
Speaker 1: attached over the top, and now the pass to the
Speaker 1: to the big man popping to the top of the
Speaker 1: key is open in theory, if the defender on the
Speaker 1: weak side rotates to the top to the shooter, the
Speaker 1: big man can rotate out and you're matched up again. Right,
Speaker 1: The man demand principles, when executed properly, don't have openings.
Speaker 1: When you see guys score or make shots against man defense,
Speaker 1: it's either they made a contested shot or someone didn't
Speaker 1: do their job. There's a breakdown. Zone defense is entirely different.
Speaker 1: There are literally gaps in it like it is because
Speaker 1: of the nature of the zone when teams run overload sets,
Speaker 1: or they run high low, or they run ball screens
Speaker 1: at the top like there are automatic baked in openings
Speaker 1: in zone defense, and so as a result for that
Speaker 1: of that, when you run zone defense in large doses
Speaker 1: against professional basketball players, they will solve it, they will
Speaker 1: consistently get great shots and they will beat you. That's
Speaker 1: why zone defense in the NBA is best used in
Speaker 1: very small bursts because it's a rhythm disruptor. Because in
Speaker 1: a small sample size, an NBA offense is gonna be like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, they're running zone. The first time they see it.
Speaker 1: They might not identify its zone until there's ten seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock, and then they don't have time
Speaker 1: to run anything and someone jacks up a bad shot.
Speaker 1: Then they go down again and they have to remember
Speaker 1: what their zone offense was, which in the NBA regular season,
Speaker 1: they don't practice, so like they're like then their head,
Speaker 1: they're like, okay, we need yeah, you know, ad go
Speaker 1: to the high post or no, no, go to the baseline.
Speaker 1: We'll have Lebron play the high post. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And then and then they start doing it, but they
Speaker 1: it just it's yank because they haven't practiced it. But
Speaker 1: then if you run it seven possessions in a row
Speaker 1: and there's a timeout mixed in there, they drop their
Speaker 1: set really quick. They run in a few times. They're
Speaker 1: professional basketball players. They're gonna find those baked in holes
Speaker 1: and they're gonna exploit them. It's not just holes in
Speaker 1: the defense's holes in rebounding by virtue of five players
Speaker 1: guarding spots on the floor versus guarding players. When offensive
Speaker 1: players move around, rebounding matchups get confused, and so usually
Speaker 1: someone's going to miss a box out and you'll give
Speaker 1: up an offensive rebound. The zone defenses are inherently flawed,
Speaker 1: and that's why they are best used as rhythm disruptors.
Speaker 1: And the only reason it made sense for Miami to
Speaker 1: use and any sort of sample size is the fact
Speaker 1: that Denver was barbecuing their man and man defense so
Speaker 1: badly that they had no choice but to try something different. Right.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so that's very good question from Ali. We
Speaker 1: have two more players this week and then we're going
Speaker 1: to get into twenty season previews starting next week. Don't
Speaker 1: forget to drop mailback questions in the YouTube comments. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys, and I will see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The volume