Cavs Cavs Cavs!
Needless to say, Saturday night's Cavs-Pistons game was pretty amazing. Daniel Gibson was money in the bank -- again, Danny Ferry gets a million thank you's for drafting Boobie with the 42nd overall pick
When Rasheed Wallace exploded and got his sixth personal foul (and first and second technical fouls) in the fourth quarter, the game was obviously over -- Detroit completely fell apart. This Pistons were a good team, but LeBron was the best player in the series, and he proved that the Cavs can win in a variety of ways, like when he scores 48 in one game, and then gets 14 rebounds and 8 assists in the next game.
Interestingly, there were dueling "Kobe could learn a lot from LeBron" articles online today. Mark Kriegel compares Kobe to Lindsay Lohan before writing, "Great players are supposed to endow the players around them with greatness. Kobe Bryant does not. While James is about winning, Kobe is about Kobe." Sally Jenkins was even tougher on Kobe. "Bryant is now 28 years old, and he should hope to be LeBron James when he grows up," she writes, eventually concluding, "[H]ere is the difference between the two men: People have to play with Bryant; they want to play with James."
A couple of weeks ago, some sports progam asked the question, "If you could start an NBA franchise today with any player, who would it be?" Whoever it was answering said Kobe. After Kobe's "trade me-don't trade me" radiothon last week, everybody and his brother was pointing out that Kobe was the best player in the league. I think after Saturday, LeBron's got a good argument for himself. Sure, Kobe has the edge on pure scoring ability, shooting, and one-on-one defense, but "intangibles" should count for something, not to mention LeBron's ability to pass and rebound. The ability to win not just one, but four playoff series without Shaq as a teammate (that's right, Kobe's been winless in playoff series since Shaq went to Miami) should count for something. The fact that LeBron's teammates like him should count for something. And, perhaps most significantly for "building a franchise," the fact that LeBron has avoided the legal troubles and intra-squad controversies that have plagued Bryant should count for something.
But, really, who cares about Kobe right now? It's Cavs-Spurs. I'll post my series preview tomorrow or Wednesday. Go Cavs!
