Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Scottie Pippen Bitter About Kobe's 81

Scottie Pippen's never really been known as somebody you'd call "admirable." Nobody can ever forget the playoff game where he refused to play because the last play of the game was drawn up for Toni Kukoc instead of Pippen. Scottie did some blogging for the NBA on Kobe Bryant's recent 81 point game. I was amazed by how classless Scottie is in the article. Actually I guess that shouldn't amaze me. What's amazing is that the NBA allowed it on their site.
The article basically claims that NBA teams don't play defense anymore. Actually I think an exact quote is that "Today defense is no longer part of the game." This is the most ridiculous statement. The NBA saw a steady decline of scoring in the 90s. Why? Partly because players were drafted more on physical talent than shooting skill, thus overall shooting skills declined. But what do you do with such players? You teach them to play defense. It's a heck of a lot easier than teaching them to shoot.
You could see this starting in the college game first. Pressure defenses really became the norm in the mid-90s. This definitely became the case with the NBA, too. Over the years the NBA has changed the rules in some ways, to try to promote more offense. Now why would the NBA do this if "defense is no longer part of the game?" Obviously if things were like the mid-80s, then they would definitely not try to help offensive players by changing the rules.
So have the rules changes created a league devoid of defense? That's hard to argue given all the recent NBA champions. Detroit and San Antonio are both outstanding defensive teams and have been for years. Before their rein, the league was dominated by the Shaq n' Kobe Lakers. They were coached by Phil Jackson -- the same Phil Jackson who coached Scottie Pippen and the defensive-minded Chicago Bulls. Did Phil just forget about defense while coaching the Lakers? I think not. One of the teams that challenged the Lakers during their run was the Sacramento Kings. They really became serious contenders once they started playing great defense.
So why did Scottie make such a ridiculous statement? Because he needed some ammo to claim that his old buddy Michael Jordan could have scored 81 today. In fact he claims that Michael could have scored 100 today. In fact he says "If Kobe could get 81, I think Michael could get 100 in today's game." Well guess what, there's no if about Kobe scoring 81. Anyways, he goes on to claim that with the lack of defense in the game that he wouldn't be surprised to see players averaging 40 points a night. Way to put down not only Kobe, but every other great scorer out there like Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and Amare Stoudemire.
Then he goes on to claim that he thinks Phil Jackson will do everything in his power to make sure that Kobe doesn't have a game like that again. He claims that it's bad for the team. Was it bad for the Bulls all the times that Michael Jordan scored 50 or 60 points? He says that Kobe has taken a step backwards from a leadership perspective because he scored 81 in a game, since now Kobe should score 81 points a night and the Lakers should win 75% of their games.
The whole thing reminds of when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were making their magical run at 61 home runs. You had guys like Mike Schmidt bitterly claiming that if only they had played in the current era, they would have hit 75 home runs per year. It's amazing that great players from the past feel the need to belittle great accomplishments by current players. There's no reason to do it, except for their own insecurities and jealousy.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scottie is right... nobody plays defense anymore... just watch the old games from the 80's and 90's. they speak for theselves... it used to be a half court game with the ball being moved around the permiter to spread out the defense... now there is no defense... its a streetball game... lets put it this way... zone used to be "illegal Defense" back in the good old days... now they allow zone hoping that people will play defense

Anonymous said...

Michael: YOU ARE A "HUELE BICHO", NOW LOOK IT UP IN YOUR DICTIONARY.

Helios said...

lol, I can't believe I found this now after so long, but I must respond. all of todays perimeter players benefited when the rules where tweaked after the 2000-01 seasons. 3 second violation, preventing bigs from clogging the lane. the half circle in the paint that if you pass as a defender, allows a perimeter player to barrel into you, no hand checking, no forearm checking past 15 feet in. in other words, no roughing the wings/perimeter players. during mj's era, he was an anomaly, because for ever the scoring leaders in the nba have been big men, now for the first time in the leagues history there are more perimeter players in the top ten scoring than in any other era. this is a direct result of the rule changes. how many free throws did kobe have that evening of 81? 25. what used to be considered a hard foul, today is called a flagrant one or two, etc. etc. remember kurt rambis being closed lined by mchale? that was a regular foul my friend, two free throws and the game continued. today that would easily be a flagrant two. if the great teams of the eighties and early nineties played in todays nba, they'd all foul out, hands down. not because of lack of skill, but because their style of play is no longer allowed by the powers that be.

Helios said...

oh and by the way, the great defensive teams you mentioned are "great" relative to this era where you can't body up your opponent, but if you for instance compare them to a bad boys pistons teams style of defense, these guys would be considered soft. again, great for what the league allows, but don't confuse that with all time great defense. and also, you lose a bit of credibility when you talk about great scorers my friend. Kobe, yes, allen iverson definitely, but when you start naming tmac, vince and amare and use the word great behind them, it's a little hard to take you seriously. Talented scorers yes, but great? thats a stretch. at least kobe and allen iverson have been scoring champions. and another thing, why is scottie jealous again? because last I checked his legacy is pretty well cemented, and he has plenty of hardware to look at on his mantle, so why is he jealous? he wasn't a high lottery pick that turned into a hall of fame caliber player and was part of one of the most transcendent title runs in nba history. I think the fact that he pointed out the obvious, and maybe it makes kobe's "accomplishment" look a little watered down stings a bit, but the truth is the truth. The nba made rule changes because it suffered drastic drops in ratings when the last bull championship team was broken up. unfortunately for the league the majority of the casual fan, who is not educated in basketball, believed that the high flying acrobatics and antics of those bulls teams was the norm, when it never really has been. as you'd see in each of mj's retirements. olajuwan and ewing had great seasons when mj was out. and then again david robinson and shaquille oneal and tim duncan, as it's always been for decades, the big man started to dominate the show. but the casual fan was turned off by this, so the league made it's tweaks, and lo and behold, perimeter players averages started going up. I need not argue this point, educate yourself in the history of the game, and why changes where made and what effects they've had, and you'll see that the changes made earlier this decade where made to make it easier, as opposed to harder like in years past. the only other change that was similar was the flagrant foul rule introduced to stop teams from mugging Michael jordan with the so called jordan rules. regardless of this, his averages where still astronomical when he was getting mugged, there wasn't a sudden spike in overall perimeter scoring because of it. but after the no handchecking, three second violation, the circle underneath the rim etc etc the amount of perimeter scorers has increased twofold. it is not a coincidence, and for you to believe that mj would flounder in this era of the quick whistle is ludicrous. If he torched the then champion celtics for 63 points, when they where the leagues number 1 defense, in an era where perimeter players where sent to the floor routinely, what do you think he would do today, where you can't bump and body, where you can't deny a lane, where can't literally touch your opponent on the waste (handchecking), where you can't have a big waiting in the paint for you (3 sec. violation), seriously, what do you think micheal jordan would do? If you think he wouldn't do anything but torch the league, then you really don't understand basketball my friend.

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Anonymous said...

Pippen made a valid argument. Kobe scored 81 points against the defensively-challenged mediocre RAPTORS in a REGULAR SEASON game - huge sarcastic wow... It was e great performance and they won but MJ scored 63 aganist a great defensive team and one of the greatest BOSTON teams of all time in an intensive PLAYOFF game. So yeah, Kobe is a GREAT player - no doubt about it, HOF class - but nowhere near as LEGENDARLY electryfying and good as MJ.

Anonymous said...

Kobe scored 81 points (2nd most points in a regular season) against the defensively-challenged mediocre RAPTORS in a REGULAR SEASON game - huge sarcastic wow... It was a great performance and they won but MJ scored 63 (most playoff game points in history) against a great defensive team and one of the greatest BOSTON teams of all time in an intensive PLAYOFF game. So yeah, Kobe is a GREAT player - no doubt about it, HOF class - but nowhere near as LEGENDARLY electryfying and good as MJ.

Anonymous said...

yeah Pippen is right and i experienced it also... now our generation only likes to score, score and score and they are not putting defense on the first offense anymore and based on my experience a few only plays hard defense.