Finally, it's time for Jackson and the Lakers to get out of Kobe's way


True to my word, I have not watched games 3 & 4 of the NBA Finals in my own silent protest to the officiating (like anyone cares).

So I turn on my computer the other morning and see that the Lakers blew a 24 point lead in losing to the Celtics in game 4. Of course I'm moderately stunned.

I say moderately because anyone who watches the NBA regularly knows that everybody goes on a run. Even in the horrendously officiated Game 2, the Celtics allowed a 20+ point lead to dwindle to two points in the fourth quarter before closing out Kobe & Co. at home.

So now that the Celtics have all but clinched the 2008 Championship, the series just got interesting.

If I were a betting man (which I would be if I had Charles Barkley's money) I would certainly take the Celtics in five.

I just realized how painful it must be for David Stern to hear the words betting and Finals in the same sentence.

However, since I don't have Barkley, or Donaghy money for that matter, I'm going with the Lakers in seven. Please, stop laughing.

Hey, what do I have to lose? Right?

See, I think right about now, that's what Kobe Bryant is saying to himself.

"What have I got to lose?"

Already, Black Mamba has been knocked off his pedestal by every sportswriter on the web.

Kobe isn't like Mike, Stop the MJ comparisons now, etc. etc. etc.

But as anyone who has ever rooted for KB 24 knows, it is always when his back is against the wall and people are spewing the most venom at him, that he does something to amaze and astound us.

Case(s) in point:

#1. Can anyone tell me what team Smush Parker plays for off the top of your head? If your answer is Miami then you are incorrect. The last roster that featured Parker's name was the L.A. Clippers and there are six point guards listed on the Clippers' roster so his appearance really doesn't say much.

Why is that important?

Because this is the guy who was the starting point guard for the Lakers' two previous post season runs which included a 2005-06 series where the Lake Show (up 3 games to 1 at one point) was one Tim Thomas three pointer away from sending MVP Steve Nash and his fast break offense into an early vacation.

Kobe was heated that he was playing on team that had Kwame Brown and Smush Parker as starters and he willed that team into the post season by himself (twice) and yet Nash, who was playing alongside two other All-Stars (Marion, Stoudamire) was being hailed as the NBA's Most Valuable Player.

By now Kobe was fed up with being blamed for everything that was wrong with L.A. and singlehandedly torched the league for two straight seasons and while many writers still wanted to bury the guy, the other players in the league began to bow down to Kobe, Don Corleone style, lest they be on the receiving end of some thing like....

#2. In December 2005 The Lakers beat the Mavericks 112-90 and Kobe outscored the entire Mavs team over three quarters.

Of course Bryant was blasted in the media, not for scoring 62 in three quarters, but rather for depriving us sports fans of an opportunity to see someone challenge Chamberlain's 100 point game.

Quick note: Kobe scored 42 first half points against the Wizards in Jordan's last game with that team and nobody complained about that because the haterade hadn't started yet. Shows you how fickle sports writers are.

So despite abusing the Mavs, the eventual Western Conference champs that year, in an impressive display of scoring, Bryant had to endure the wrath of a Shaquille O'Neal jock strap riding media who now suggested that Bryant was selfish for not scoring more. So what does Kobe do the quiet the critics who accused him of selfishly sitting out the 4th quarter against Dallas?

#3. Yeah, we all know what happened on January 22, 2006. Barely a month after being slammed for not finishing off the Dallas Mavericks, Bryant exploded for 81 points against the Toronto Raptors scoring 55 points in the second half. Can you imagine if he had been trying to take over in the first two quarters? Did that silence the critics? Of course not. Did Kobe care? of course not, he had proved his point...again. Which brings us to...

#4. The 2007-08 off season is dominated by the fact that Bryant is tired of playing against teams in the post season with multiple All-Stars and he has to play against them with guys named Kwame, Bynum and Smush so he wants out. The Lakers, who are not dumb enough to trade both Shaq and Kobe, hold tight and wait to see if they can get their pal Jerry West to facilitate the second biggest steal of the season (McHale, Garnett, Boston, Al Jefferson and the cast from Seinfeld?..come on now). Of course West does his Monty Hall impersonation and viola! In a season where everyone thought that Kobe would be wearing a Bulls uniform by October, Bryant wins the MVP, makes All-Defensive first team and carries the Lakers to the NBA Finals.

So now Kobe is here, down 3-1 to Boston.

Just like my making this insane prediction, Kobe finally can come into games 5, 6 and 7 and not care whether or not his teammates get their touches. He doesn't have to care about the Jordan comparisons. He couldn't care less what Phil Jackson will have to say during timeouts. Just like when he went for 81 against Toronto, there are times when Phil Jackson knows that even he has to just get out of Kobe's way and let him do what he does best.

Despite Boston being up 3 games to 1, trust me everyone of the Celtics' players in the back of their minds does not want to be the one having to deal with Kobe on Sunday, even Paul Pierce. It's Mamba time.

Don't forget that in 2004, down 3-1 to the Yankees in the ACLS, the Red Sox became the first team in MLB history to rally from that deficit to win a League Championship. That's the thing about 'odds', sooner or later they are bound to reverse course. That's why they are called 'odds' and not inevitabilities.

Sooner or later somebody has to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win it all. The odds say that if has to happen sooner or later.

Well, these Finals feature Kobe Bryant and if I were a betting man....

I'm not watching the Lakers-Celtics game tonight, I'm working on a track for the new Trey Sixes album, that is going to be hot (unless you're a member of law enforcement, but I'll keep you guys posted on that later).

In fact, I watched the first quarter of Sunday's game before turning off the television. I'm done with the NBA this season. If I were a betting man there are two sure bets I see for this season.

The first is that there is no way in hell that tens of millions of white Americans are voting for a black president (see West Virginia), so John McCain is a lock.

The second is that somebody, somewhere has already mandated that neither Phil Jackson nor Kobe Bryant will be adding any hardware to their jewelry cases this year.

Personally I felt that game one was a horribly officiated game, but Pierce's gutty performance alone made the Celtics deserving of that win. Still, the Lakers must have gotten too close to a victory for somebody's liking, because game two was over after the first quarter, which is when I turned the television off. My cousin called me midway through the third quarter to ask how did I like the fact that L.A. was down by 20 points, I told him that after Kobe was called for two off-the-ball fouls in the first quarter, I was done watching this series.

Of course Boston fans and Kobe haters will point to all sorts of rationale to suggest that Lakers aren't playing hard enough, that Boston is playing with more passion...whatever. Anyone who has ever played the game at a high level understands that the refs set the tone for a game early on. Once it is established that one team is not going to be getting calls the whole dynamic of your game plan changes.

We've seen this before, Heat-Mavs - Suns-Spurs - Jordan-Byron Russell...Barry-Fisher.

What has upset me was that I don't believe that Boston needed any help from the zebras in order to make this a competitive series. Without question, Boston's bench has out performed the Lakers subs...far and away. Kobe has been Kobe, he puts up a lot of shots unless his team has the lead, there's nothing new about that. He's still the leading scorer of the series. So what he's not getting to the line? He didn't get to line against the Spurs. He doesn't have to get to the line to score 30 points, he's Kobe.

People talk about Garnett's energy, but his stat line doesn't suggest that he's doing very much more than Gasol is doing for L.A. KG is getting a rebound or two more, but again, the refs have called three fouls on Gasol in the first two games that were clean blocks, all were supported by replay.

In game two, Odom went 5-11 from the field, Ray Allen, Mr. resurgence, went 6-11.

The Lakers went 10-21 from behind the arc, the Celtics...9-14.

The Celtics shot 52% from the field on Sunday the Lakers 49%.

Boston had 37 rebounds to L.A.'s 36

The only place in the box score that was glaringly lopsided was in fact the only aspect of the game controlled by the referees, free throw attempts, where as everybody knows the Lakers shot a paltry 10 free throws against the Celtic's 38. If the Celtics were playing that much harder than L.A. it would've shown up in more places in the box score.

I said months ago that when the other shoe dropped from the Tim Donaghy case, the league was going to be exposed for some serious issues. Scoop Jackson brought up some of those issues in one of his columns during Donaghy's trial. Now, the first revelation by Donaghy's attorney's that a referee crew had been used by "league executives" to ensure that a 2002 playoff series was extended to seven games.

According to Donaghy:

"Personal fouls...were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the referees," the document says of the unnamed series. "Conversely, the referees called made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities to Team 6."

Sounds eerily familiar to Sunday's game. What was astonishing to me was that the calls were obviously worse in the quarters that I didn't watch. Like I told my cousin after watching the two fouls on Kobe, "If the refs are going to make those kinds of calls in the NBA Finals, then it's obvious that they have decided to interject themselves into the outcome".

For those of you who want to discount Donaghy's testimony, I refer you to Jose Canseco who was also treated like a pariah in the media until he was found to be correct.

Maybe the league just wants a seven game series. Maybe Kobe and Co. will pull a Miami Heat act and win this thing after all. Either way I don't care.

Tonight, after the Lakers win and shoot 50 free throws to Boston's 5, everyone will be talking about how everything balances out.

Of course they do, just like WWF and I don't watch that either.

Originally posted on Bleacher Report - June 3, 2008

About two months ago on my FOX Sports blog, I suggested that the Miami should entertain a trade scenario with the Bulls that would send Dwayne Wade and Shawn Marion to Chicago. Of course I was ripped to shreds by many readers for even insinuating such blashphemy.

Now, several news outlets have reported that the Bulls are not only open to trading their #1 draft pick to the Heat for Wade, but they have already made the proposal public knowledge (unofficially of course).

Wade's response to the rumors: "This is a business, any thing can happen and we as players have no control over that type of thing".

Hmmmm.

Couple that with the fact that the Heat superstar has already given his stamp of approval for new Bulls skipper Doug Colins and I say the writing is already on the wall.

While many casual NBA fans can't seem to fathom the Heat trading the guard, who many thought would be the cornerstone of Miami's franchise for years to come, not only does it make sense to me, but any such trade could, and should, be beneficial for both teams in their efforts to reclaim repsectability and move back into the realm of playoff contenders.

The trade scenario I proposed was as follows:

Chicago gets: Wade, Marion and the Heat's #2 pick.

Miami gets: Gordon, Deng, Duhon, Thebolosha, Gooden and Chicago's #1 pick.

Don't get it?

Let me explain.

The Bulls are faced with the fact that both Gordon and Deng decided not to sign contract extensions last season and the team eventually tuned out former coach Scott Skiles.

When Wade and LeBron James signed their extensions two seasons ago, both made it a point to not include the extra year that fellow 2003 draftee Carmelo Anthony signed to explicitly to be in a position to test the free agent market in five years instead of six.

I think most people in the know are already resigned to the fact that in two seasons King James will be joining his pal Jay Z in the new Brooklyn arena (sporting the new Rocawear uniforms no less). So where would Wade be trying to get to? Why home to Chicago of course.

Why should the Heat wait two uneventful seasons to begin shopping Wade and lose leverage in any trade discussions?

Wade is scheduled to be playing for his third coach in four seasons with the Heat, who mortgaged their immediate future with the Shaquille O'Neal trade, and now that Shaq has bailed out on them, there are no titles in sight. Especially with Boston vaulting to the top of the pecking order in the Eastern Conference.

Much like the Pau Gasol trade spurred a flurry of hasty trade moves by other Western Conference teams to keep pace with the Lakers, teams in the East must now figure out a way to join the Celtics and Pistons in the hunt for a trip the NBA Finals.

Even if the Heat stayed pat, drafted Beasley and re-signed Marion, the rest of their roster doesn't have enough parts to challenge the top dogs in their conference.

if Chicago were to sign Gordon and Deng with the intent of trading them to Miami, both teams would then have enough pieces to crack the upper tier of the Eastern Conference.

The Cavs are a flawed team, the Wizards are about to spiral out of control, especially if Arenas bolts this summer and Orlando still hasn't shown the kind of moxie to actually challenge for the Eastern Conference crown.

The trade I proposed would give the Bulls a starting lineup of:

Hinrich - Wade - Bealey - Marion - Thomas and a bench of Noah, Nocioni and Hughes.

The Heat could start:

Rose - Gordon - Deng - Haslem - Blount and a bench of Davis, Duhon, Gooden, Cook and possible Mourning.

Each team would field much better teams than they would if they stayed pat.

Many times as fans, we fail to see our teams with the big picture in mind, choosing rather to hold on to our favorites in the hopes of some miraculous resurrection by a star player, like Minnesota holding on to Garnett for two season's too long, when THEY could've gotten Gordon, Deng and Tyrus Thomas for KG.

Or when the Bulls could've gotten Pau Gasol for Gordon and Deng at the start of last season.

Maybe the Bulls have learned from the mistake of being trigger shy and as we've already seen, Pat Riley understands the business of the league as well as anyone.

Neither team should force their new coaches to come in and not only have to coach disgruntled players, but figure out how to keep peace in the locker rooms. Give the new coaches a fresh start and if this trade goes down any shape form or fashion, new hope as well.

I hate to say I told you so...BUT I TOLD YOU SO!!

Wade to bulls? It is said that Chicago is shopping their no. 1 pick and Dwayne Wade is one of their top list. Wade likes Chicago cause he grew in Chicago and Miami wants the no. 1 so bad. Will it be Wade for Rose?

Wade gives Bulls stamp of approval for Collins
June 3, 2008 if (SITELIFE_ENABLED == true){ gSiteLife.Recommend("ExternalResource", "984351,3_2_EL03_B1BULLS_S1", "http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/sports/984351,3_2_EL03_B1BULLS_S1.article"); }//if true Recommend (6)
By JOHN JACKSON Sun-Times News Group

Reaction has been mixed to the reports of the Bulls bringing back Doug Collins for a second stint as coach, but count Dwyane Wade solidly in the positive camp.

''I love Doug as a human being, first of all,'' the Miami Heat guard said Monday. ''He seems like he's so happy and content in life and unstressed. If he goes to the Bulls, I'm sure the city of Chicago will be happy with that hire.''

The Bulls are expected to announce the hiring today or Wednesday. Then the issue will become whether Collins, 56, can remain ''unstressed'' in the job -- something he wasn't able to do two decades ago as the Bulls' coach.

''If I was a coach, I'd go crazy, too; I know we drive these coaches crazy,'' Wade said. ''I'm sure he's learned from his mistakes, from his past. But at the same time, you don't want to take his passion away. He just has to have a balance, and I'm sure he knows that. I'm sure if he comes back to coaching, he's ready to take on that challenge.''

Wade's focus has been on the Bulls a lot lately because the decision they make with the No. 1 draft pick -- Memphis point guard Derrick Rose or Kansas State forward Michael Beasley -- will determine whom the Heat gets at No. 2.

''It's a win-win situation for the Bulls and the Heat,'' Wade said. ''Whoever they take, we can take the other one.''

When the trade talks start this early in the summer you know it's going down!

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/52614

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/CurlyMo/2008/05/21/I_still_say_Heat_Bulls_should_pull_big_trade



http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-080602-dwyane-wade-chicago-bulls-trade,0,4546461.column

..That San Antonio hasn't already done?

What is Kevin Garnett going to do to the Lakers...

That Tim Duncan hasn't already done?

What is Rajan Rondo going to do to Derek Fisher...

That Tony Parker hasn't already done?

What is Ray Allen going to do against Kobe...

That Bruce Bowen hasn't already done?

What is James Posey going to do...

That Brent Barry hasn't already done?

What are Kendrick Perkins and Leon Powe going to do...

That Kurt Thomas and Oberto haven't done?

I just don't see how the Celtics present any more problem to the Lakers than the Spurs did, and we see what happened to them.

If Boston loses game one they'll get swept. Regardless, once this series goes to L.A., it's not coming back.

1st Round: The Lakers swept the 50 win Nuggets - Boston struggled against the 37 win Hawks.

2nd Round: The Lakers closed out the team with the best home record in the NBA...on the road.
The Celtics went seven games against a team with a one dimensional superstar
who can't shoot jumpers and has no teammates to speak of.

3rd Round: The Lakers sent the defending champs, with the greatest PF of all-time, packing in
five games, a team with four titles in the last 10 years. THEIR big three has three
championships together.
The Celtics beat a team that had been to six straight conference finals with only one
ring to show for it. The only players on the Celtics roster with titles are two bench
players.

As much as I would enjoy a nice series, I just don't see what the Celtics can do that Utah and San Antonio couldn't do and together both of those franchises couldn't come up with four wins against L.A.

Lakers in five...and that's being kind.