| "We don't need refs, but I guess white guys need something to do."
- Charles Barkley
The stupidity of the majority has ruined my favorite basketball team. The Lakers (who I am proud of supporting because I grew up watching them in LA and liked them when they sucked) traded Shaq to Miami for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and draft picks. Why? Because the Lakers were put into a position this off season where they had to choose between Shaq and Kobe, and they chose Kobe. Now everyone who follows basketball knows that it was Shaq, not Kobe, who won 3 championships for LA. Laker management certainly knows this. Nor is Shaq so old (he's around 30) as to be ineffective. He proved during this past playoff series that he can still dominate, and most insiders agree that he still has at least 3 more solid years of play. But the Lakers, instead of resigning him, chose to give Kobe an incredible 7 year, $130 million dollar contract. This, mind you, after Kobe underperformed the entire final series, and arguably throughout the playoffs. So why make this decision?
Because of uninformed fans. Fans see his clutch shooting and spectacular acrobatics and think that he's responsible for the Laker's success. They want to win championships, but they'd rather see Kobe do it than Shaq do it. What they don't realize is that without Shaq, the Lakers can't win.
One way of evaluating Kobe and Shaq's contribution to the Lakers is to look at their plus minus differential. This statistic covers how many points the team scores relative to its opponents when a player is on the court and when he's not. When Shaq's on the court, the Lakers are at something like +26; when he's not, around -5. For Kobe, the difference between these two numbers is significantly smaller. In other words, the skills Shaq bring to the table (rebounds, high fg percentage, interior presence) are much more important than the skills Kobe bring (ability to hit tough shots, ability to break down defense, good defense).
I don't mean this as an insult to Kobe. He's my favorite player, and one of the best in the league. But Kobe Bryant is not and can never be as dominant as Shaq. Without Shaq, the Lakers are fucked.
Another thing that I've noticed: every time Shaq plays, some idiot commentator (most likely Bill Walton) will say something like this: "People see Shaq's size and strength. What they don't see is how agile he is." Who the fuck watches basketball and hasn't figured this out already? If all Shaq had was his size, then any 350 pound fat ass could become the most dominant player in the game. Hell, I'd start hitting the Big Macs right now. But there's a reason why you don't see Escalade in the NBA, and it doesn't take a genius (or Bill Walton) to figure it out. |
