| | | Kobe and Shaq are squabbling? Something about whose team it is,
and what makes a big dog happy, and who should tone down his game?
Kobe Bryant is quoted as saying, "I've improved. How are you going to bottle
me up?" Shaquille O'Neal asserts, "I'm not Luc Longley. I'm not Dikembe Mutombo."
Appeal to George W. Bush: Forget about taking over the presidency in
nine days. Can you take over the Lakers instead? It's seems like the
NBA champions need a uniter, not a divider. Can't we all get along?
Last year, Kobe and Shaq played together in 64 of the Lakers' 82
regular-season games. This year, they have played together in 32 of
the team's 34 games. Here are their statistics in those 64 games
last season and those 32 this season:
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Shaq and Kobe 1999-2000 and 2000-01 comparisons
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======Last Season====== ======This Season======
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Player
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*GT
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FGA/GT
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FTA/GT
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Pts/GT
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*GT
|
FGA/GT
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FTA/GT
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Pts/GT
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Kobe
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64
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17.6
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6.1
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22.3
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32
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23.0
|
7.7
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29.9
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Shaq
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64
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21.4
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9.9
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29.8
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32
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19.0
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11.8
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25.8
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*Games together |
Last season, when the pair averaged 39 field-goal attempts per game
while playing together, it was Shaq who took 55 percent of those shots;
this year, with the pair hoisting up 42 shots per game, it's still a
55-45 split, but this time it's Kobe who has the 55 percent. And
therein lies the rub -- or should we say, the alleged rub.
Both players are averaging more than 25 points per game, with Kobe's average
of 29.6 (an average that includes the two games that Shaq missed)
leading the league. It's rare indeed, in any era, for two teammates
to average 25 points per game in the same season -- much less so in
a low-scoring era.
Using a minimum of each teammate playing at least 60 games, the last time
a team had two 25-per-game scorers was in 1986-87, with Boston's Larry Bird
and Kevin McHale. But that was not one of the Celtics' NBA championship
teams. The only team that had a pair of 60-games, 25-points-per-game
scorers and went on to win an NBA championship was the 1971-72 Lakers --
the team that finished 69-13 and had a 33-game winning streak along the way.
Gail Goodrich (25.9) and Jerry West (25.8) were the big scorers on that
team (on which Wilt Chamberlain was the dominant force).
Will Kobe and Shaq come together and lead the Lakers to another title?
Or will we look back to this time as the beginnings of a
Jerry Jones/Jimmy Johnson-type rift? George W. is unlikely to
forego his constitutional duties to take care of the Lakers (his
inclination is toward baseball, anyway, not basketball). And unless Shaq
has secretly completed a doctorate, it's unlikely that he'll be missing
many more games for graduations.
General manager Mitch Kupchak calls the notion of a trade "ridiculous." That leaves just one solution: coexistence.
Steve Hirdt is the executive vice president of the Elias Sports Bureau.
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