yikes.
Wake up and smell the coffee (or, in your case, the latte). There are probably 50 guys in the past 2 decades who would be seen as "great scorers" by the likes of you, if only they machine gunned 41 shots per game. Dr. J, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Bernard King, Adrian Dantley, Bob MacAdoo, Akeem Olajuwan, Isiah Thomas (he was also very fast), and on and on.......hey, ever hear of Kareem Abdul Jabbar?????
Yeah, yeah, he takes a lot of shots. But... but... he scores a lot of points. A lot. He can go for 50 points a night, and it's not even a surprise when he does so. He is flat-out unguardable. And unlike Shaq w/ free throws, he has no obvious chinks in his offensive armor.
Let me spell it out for you very simply: Allen Iverson gets 40 looks at the basket a game whenever he wants. In his wildest dreams, Ray Allen could never get 40 looks at the basket. He doesn't have half the game required for that.
Maybe you should watch your tape of game 1 again, bucko. You seem to be in serious denial.
But truly, no disrespect for Shaq or Kareem. Or Kobe, for that matter. My bet is that 15 years from now, Kobe will be looked at as the best player in the history of the game (and Knicks fans will be forever grateful). But not yet.
As for flopping... I don't know what games you've been watching. I didn't see him falling to the ground against Lue, but I did see at least 10 flagrants against him in the Bucks series.
As for the rest of what you wrote, that Allen doesn't yet have a complete game, that he's more physical than mental, that there were great scorers before '81, um... yeah, but what does that have to do with my contention that he's one of the best scorers since 1980?
BTW, Iverson has always been very underrated as a defensive player, and while he's not calculating enough (a la Kobe/Michael), his willpower and mental stamina rival anyone's.
BTW, the Lakers are my second-favorite team (my pistons are technically first, but they don't really count), and Kobe my second-favorite player. At any rate, this debate could continue for a while. I wouldn't be shocked to see this as the rivalry of the decade.
ardethan@theyhatedjesustoo.net |
