Kobe Keeps Adding To His Resume

Kobe Keeps Adding To His Resume

It’s scary to think that Kobe Bryant is in his 13th NBA season and still is only 30 years old.  In comparison, Steve Nash was also drafted in  and he’s 35 years old.  It was a tremendous draft with the likes of Kobe, Nash, Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Marcus Camby, Peja, Jermaine O’Neal, Big Z, Stephon Marbury, Antoine Walker, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.  All those names except Kobe are either on the downsides of their careers or out of the league.  Kobe still shows no signs of letting up.Being the math geek that I am, I figured that Kobe needs about 8 more seasons to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record.

Kobe is currently 17th on the All-Time NBA Scoring List and at worst ends up fifth behind Kareem, Karl Malone, MJ, and Wilt.  Throw in his three titles with a very good chance of winning a few more before he retires and Kobe should be mentioned amongst the top 10 players of all time.  He’s durable, he plays on both sides of the court, and he’s in the same sentence with MJ Larry Bird, and Jerry West for guys that I’d want to take the game winning shot.Kobe and this current Lakers team won 65 games in the regular season, second only to his team that won 67 and they’re poised to make his sixth trip to the NBA Finals. If the Lakers meet the Cavs in the finals, David Stern may need a full bottle of Jergens.  On Wednesday, Kobe joined KLAC to talk about the latest edition of the Lakers.

How are the new pieces this year fitting in this year:

“It’s great. We have so much versatility, our team can adapt pretty easily and I think that you add a year of maturity and going through the playoffs last year, then I think the health of Andrew Bynum and Trever Ariza just makes us a much, much deeper ballclub. Those things help tremendously.”

On how Pau Gasol is this year compared to last year:

“He’s a great offensive player, incredibly skilled. But we demand that same type of level defensively from him as well, because he has the potential to be a really good defensive player, so we continue to push him.”
Is the team aware that if the Lakers win the title then Phil Jackson will have the most titles of any coach in history:
“We’re aware of it, extremely aware of it, myself and Derek we’re definitely aware of it but as a group we know that as well. We’d like to go down in history as the team that got the greatest coach of all time that 10th title. Which to say that is absolutely nuts, coach winning 10 championships, that’s ridiculous.”

Thoughts on a potential Lakers vs. Cavs finals?

“I don’t think about it much at all. If we’re fortunate enough to get to that point, and they are as well and we meet up, then it is what it is. We’re gonna have a good time, it’s gonna be a fun series and I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot of interest. I mean, there’s a lot of people talking about that series already so I’m sure it’ll be crazy.”