Unfortunately they traded Stevie Franchise to Orlando in the T-Mac trade in the offseason following this series. Too bad, who knows whether Steve + Yao would have been a better fit in the long run if both of them could have stayed healthy
2004 Kobe was the enigma Kobe. Anomalie Kobe. Legal trouble year and all that he wasn't the same physically / emotionally. Skinniest he ever was too. Less time and energy that year etc. His pure skill could only took him so far.
People like to act like Malone wasn't injured in the finals. But tmac was always injured. But I'm not saying that's the only reason lakers lost. Just saying people forget People need to watch and read old sorts news to really hear how lakers and Kobe were talked about. People try to revise and make it seem like Kobe wasn't everything they say about lebron
They say that because Lebron didn't have one or two great games at this age but he is still a top 10 NBA player currently which you can't tell about the above mentioned three.
Alex Howard His last year in Orlando where his team had worst record in the nba, he came out and said he wanted to be traded to Houston to play with Yao. And every year after getting bounced out of the 1st round, he had excuses for days and cried about not having enough help. I grew up during this era of basketball and Steve Francis and TMac were my fav. Players at the time, then TMac pulled this crap.
Kobe and Malone had terrible chemistry on court together- bryant clearly didn't want to pass to him. Karl sets a nice screen- rolls to the hole or to an open 16 ft jumper and Kobe is no Jon Stockton....Payton wasn't much of a facilitator in this game either- run some pick in roll with karl shit.
Mattathias Macabees it’s too bad Phil Jackson could never figure out the team chemistry. Both Payton and Malone should have came off the bench and be part of a strong 2nd unit. Fisher should have started with Kobe because Fisher is more of a spot up shooter. Payton is more effective dribbling the ball. I would have also started Rick Fox vs Dev George. George was younger and more athletic and it would have helped balanced the age of Payton and Malone. Medvedenko should have started as he was a pretty good 3 or shooter. Malone needed to rest more also. Jackson played him too many minutes and he got hurt. Frustrating season for sure.
That's true. Kobe & GP just aren't a good fit. Both of them gotta have the ball in their hands. Same reason the glove really didn't fit well with the heat with Wade on the floor. But he did have some clutch moments and got a ring then, so good for him.
It's weird how you can't seem to find definitive information about this. Although only 27 players have ever played past Age 39 in history, so I guess it's not that hard to break it down and figure it out.
