Glory Days

How quickly we forget greatness? We are always looking to hype the next great thing and push aside anyone that was great before this one. The Lakers winning another title and Kobe getting his fifth is a prime example. I will try to be kind in this blog because it wasn't my intent to write about Kobe. I wrote a little bit about him before the finals and how we can't compare him to Jordan. Now that Kobe won, not only is he being compared to MJ but the greatest Laker of all time.

I am so sick and tired of the hype machines out there propping Kobe on the mountain of greatest. I admit I am a hater because I am a Spurs fan. I can also admit that Kobe is the best player of the decade. Yes even over my boy Timmy Duncan. Kobe has been a fantastic player and has won 5 ring in a decade. That is certainly impressive. So, some hype is fine, but calling him the greatest Laker over Magic Johnson is absurd. Magic may have had more talent around him for his five rings. Magic played every position on the court at sometime or another. Magic lifted his teammates to new heights when he played the point. He had to be the Center, THE CENTER, in the Finals clincher in his rookie season. Kobe wasn't doing squat his first few years. Kobe needed Shaq for his first 3 titles and the Finals MVP for this year is tainted. Gasol was the man for LA in every game. Kobe crapped the bed in game 7 and needed Ron Artest, the biggest headcase, to hit the game's biggest shot. Even with that shot, Gasol had to grab the most important offensive rebound to make sure they didn't piss away the lead that Boston gave them.

Kobe is a great player and is a top ten talent. But if you are ever going to tell me that he is better than Michael or Magic, I will seriously punch you in your uninformed ass. I watched the NBA in the glory days of Jordan and Magic. The defense was much tougher back then, you know hand checking was allowed then. I'll take the bet that Jordan would score over 80 in one night with the weak defenses we see in today's NBA. I know throw the "would, could and should's" out the window. Ok I can do that. MJ had 6 Finals MVP, 2 Three peat and to many scoring titles to count. Kobe played Pippen in the first 3 titles while Shaq was the alpha male. MJ never had an inside scoring presents and I refused to count Bill Cartwright since it took him 10 seconds to put up a shot. The league was tougher, the talent was better and the rules made it harder to score. Michael played in the era I so desperately miss. I love the NBA and I love the Spurs. However the NBA isn't the same NBA.

While we are here, this series absolutely sucked. The refs sucked and played it way to tight or they would swallow the whistle and call it to loosely. There was no consistency. I heard fans say how great game 7 was. The intensity was there, to bad both teams played like it was October. I don't tune into a game to watch Joey Crawford run across the court to make a call and I don't want to see an NBA finals game turn into a Free Throw contest. Sheriff Stern even thanked both teams for making this Finals special. I couldn't stop laughing. This Finals pushed to the point I was making comparisons to the 05 Finals with the Pistons and Spurs. No one remembers it because it was bowling shoe ugly.

This NBA Finals stunk. The ultimate hype machine (insert 4 letters) will tell you that it was the greatest and how Kobe is too. Forget all the crap you hear from now on when it comes to "biggest event" "best ever" and make your own opinion. We, the fans, should not have to put up with bull crap hype and how the next big thing will be over taken by the next biggest thing. I believe Bruce Springsteen can sum it up the best, "Glory Days, they'll pass you bye."

J Call