R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Talk about music, movies, television, books, and other media. No religious or political discussion allowed.
User avatar
Retrology
Posts: 438
Joined: July 17th, 2015, 2:45 am

R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby Retrology » January 26th, 2020, 2:20 pm

Died in a helicopter crash today apparently. One of the greatest icons in American sports history is gone. I'm at a loss for words.

Gleebergloben123
Posts: 474
Joined: April 8th, 2015, 12:06 am

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby Gleebergloben123 » January 26th, 2020, 3:58 pm

Not a huge NBA fan, but this really saddens me. One of his daughters was on the flight with him. A sad day.

jon
Posts: 1562
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 4:30 pm

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby jon » January 26th, 2020, 7:12 pm

It's very unfortunate. Personally I'm afraid of small planes and helicopters. We were on a small plane once when I was like 6 years old, and I was very scared. I still think about it sometimes how the only safe flying to me is commercial airliners. And even that isn't 100%

David
Posts: 191
Joined: April 20th, 2015, 3:10 am

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby David » January 27th, 2020, 3:28 pm

Grew up watching him and feel terrible for his family, as well as the other families involved. Just a surreal day. I thought it was a hoax when I saw the news ticker come up.

Voor
Posts: 1555
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby Voor » January 27th, 2020, 5:04 pm

Terrible as other have mentioned, but I’ve always been kind of confused about Kobe. Of course he’s a champion on the court, but I didn’t realize he was so beloved nationally (and globally), as I felt that general consensus was that he had a pretty unlikable personality.

Kind of the same for his game—I thought he was known for being a “selfish” player, and not a great teammate.
Last edited by Voor on January 27th, 2020, 5:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Stalvern
Posts: 1952
Joined: June 18th, 2016, 7:15 pm

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby Stalvern » January 27th, 2020, 5:39 pm

Voor wrote:Terrible as other have mentioned, but I’ve always been kind of confused about Kobe. Of course he’s a champion on the court, but I didn’t realize he was so beloved nationally (and globally), as I felt that general consensus was that he had a pretty unlikable personality.

Everybody famous is a hero when they die.

jon
Posts: 1562
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 4:30 pm

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby jon » January 27th, 2020, 8:17 pm

I wasn't going to say anything offensive but Kobe wasn't as great as he was made out to be. His 3 point percentage for his career is 32.9%. That's not good at all for someone considered an all time great. Steph Curry for example for his career is 43.5% from 3 pointers. A possible excuse for Kobe is that he took crazy shots, but so did Curry. Kobe's 3 point shooting just wasn't elite at all. And as it's been mentioned, his defense was not great at all. Michael Jordan for example was an amazing defender and was all time defense a lot of times. But Kobe was kind of a liability on defense. His first 3 titles he had Shaq of course. But even the last 2 titles he had Gasol, Bynum, Odom, and a bunch of great role players like Fisher. They were like 20 million over the salary cap those last 2 titles. I think that Steph Curry and Michael Jordan were leagues better than Kobe. I'd probably rather have a lot of SG's like Klay Thompson for example, who is 41.9% for his career from 3. Lebron is not considered a really good 3 point shooter and his career average of 34.3% his higher than Kobe's. However, Kobe was a good free throw shooter at 83.7%, but even that is behind a lot of guards like Curry and Thompson for example.
Edit: The Australian Open was supposed to be on ESPN2 at 9:00 and since it's Kobe non stop on ESPN a 9:00 college basketball game which was supposed to be on ESPN is now on ESPN2 and I have to miss hours of tennis coverage because it's been moved to ESPN News.

Voor
Posts: 1555
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby Voor » January 27th, 2020, 8:54 pm

Eh, I’ve never equated Kobe with 3s, and I don’t think the 3 point shot was as much as an emphasis on the game throughout most of his career as it is now. So I don’t really worry about that at all.

Defense? Again, eh, like a lot of dudes who carry offenses, they pick and choose when to spend their energy on defense. Have you seen Harden’s defense? Lol. Of course, there are some that do BOTH, which is indeed amazing.

Surrounded by good players during championship runs? Can’t fault Kobe here either, you almost have to have a 2nd all star and 2 more above average players to have a chance. Jordan had Pippen after all, a HOFer.

I think his game is known more as an unrelenting shot creator, which is impressive, but also seemed to sacrifice winning towards the end of his career. The meme on him was that he’d take crazy shots, despite being triple teamed.

Comparing him to Curry feels like apples and oranges to me—totally different styles. Same with Lebron. I LOVE Lebron’s ability to make plays, and Curry will dazzle you at times. Kobe’s was more a strong willed type game, which was impressive, but so similar to Jordan’s.

jon
Posts: 1562
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 4:30 pm

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby jon » January 27th, 2020, 9:26 pm

Perhaps I was a bit insensitive. I once ordered Kobe Bryant's NBA Courtside 2 and got the 1st one by accident which sucked. Maybe I'll get the 2nd one now.

David
Posts: 191
Joined: April 20th, 2015, 3:10 am

Re: R.I.P. Kobe Bryant

Postby David » January 27th, 2020, 10:07 pm

Jon - Do you follow basketball much? The dude was a nine time all NBA 1st team defense player. He was elite defensively for the majority of his career. He had his faults, but looking at 3pt/FT percentage as a huge factor in comparing players doesn't paint a full picture. There's no one in NBA history "leagues" better than him. He's easily a top 15-20 player all-time.


Return to “Other Media”