The 2014-2015 NBA Season Thread. Lock It Up Please: The Golden State Warriors Are The Champions

Status
Not open for further replies.
NBA_Player_Gets_Technical_Foul-160fd101364fafd5029bf9c90e0126a7
i still dont get how its a T
moking/showing up the ref
 

my fave dre highlight. dude shocked everyone, even his former teammates and fans

i remember during the AS rook/soph challenge in oak when fans were booing him cause he refused to dunk. every time he touched the ball and layed it up the fans were getting on him :lol
 
Last edited:
i remember during the AS rook/soph challenge in oak when fans were booing him cause he refused to dunk. every time he touched the ball and layed it up the fans were getting on him
laugh.gif
takes awhile to loosen up those old joints.. real life uncle drew
 
Last edited:

my fave dre highlight. dude shocked everyone, even his former teammates and fans

i remember during the AS rook/soph challenge in oak when fans were booing him cause he refused to dunk. every time he touched the ball and layed it up the fans were getting on him :lol



holy crap dude??!?!! what the hell!! Basic game came through with that boom. Impressive




awww chauncey :( and braid melo
 
Vino :hat


December 16, 2014, 6:51 PM



Some days, he laughs like we've never heard him laugh. Other days, he barks with a startling chill..

One moment he rages with competitiveness. The next moment, his throat is thick with humility.

He winces in pain. He reflects with wisdom. He jokes about his shortcomings. He fights against frailty.

It's taken 19 years, but it feels like Los Angeles is finally seeing the real Kobe Bryant, and what a joy.

During a season filled with Lakers defeats, every game for Kobe is a triumph over age, a victory over reputation, a win against the natural predisposition to preserve a mask that has served him so well for so long.

That mask was gone when he showed up after a Sacramento game with a fat lip and said, "I'm hurting, I'm hurting."


That mask disappeared when he showed up in Detroit and said he was so tired he slept the day away. "I closed my eyes it was 9:30 [a.m.], I opened them again it was 2 o'clock, what the hell happened?"

Derek Jeter just completed a carefully orchestrated farewell tour in which the world learned nothing about him, planting him into the landscape as little more than a pinstriped monument. Kobe Bryant is only a couple of months into what could a two-year farewell tour, and he delightfully couldn't be more different. He is slowly showing us everything, revealing bits of himself in every grand moment and small gesture, ensuring that he won't just be remembered as a Staples Center statue, but somebody real.

Remember his first milestone, seven games into the season, when he set the awkward NBA record for career missed shots? Byron Scott, the Lakers' coach, actually threw up a shield for Bryant by calling the record "crap," and a younger Bryant might have walked away in a huff, but this one stuck around and smiled.

"Well, I'm a shooting guard that's played 19 years," he said, later adding, "You've got to step up and play, man. You can't worry about criticism. You can't worry about failure."

Then, a couple of weeks later, Bryant became the first NBA player with more than 30,000 points and 6,000 assists. Instead of gloating about the assists, he smiled and laughed at himself.

"It's a huge honor," he said. "It means I pass more than people say."

There was the time he missed a morning shoot-around and blamed his weariness on a mythological figure that sent reporters scrambling to Google.

"What I got, man, comes from Chronos," he said, referring to a mythological figure who was the origin for Father Time.

Even as he was showing the world his softer and more human side, Bryant reminded everyone of the nasty, almost inhuman competitive edge that fueled his five-ring greatness. For years, everyone has heard stories about Bryant's toughness during practice, but reporters were only allowed to see the final minutes when everything was calm.

Last week Bryant finally confirmed those stories by throwing a fit at the end of a practice in front of the media. He ripped teammates, called them "soft like Charmin," and even profanely griped about their effort to General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

"I don't know if it helps them, it obviously raises the intensity level," he said later, adding, "I just challenge guys, see what happens. I've always believed in throwing them in the pool then seeing if they can sink or swim."

These varying views into Bryant's previously shut-tight persona became even more clear Sunday in Minnesota when he passed Michael Jordan for third place on the all-time scoring list.

At the beginning of the postgame interview, this most hardened of athletes looked like he was going to cry.

"I'm just honored to be here, to still be playing," he said.

A guy who usually talks like he will play forever openly stared down his own basketball mortality.

"I appreciate the game even more, because it has a certain finality to it," he said. "Moments like this come around, you're really overjoyed by it . . . at the same time, the end is pretty near, which is fine too."

Then the guy who has long fueled himself with opposing fans' boos actually talked about appreciating cheers from the Minnesota fans.

"When you're not expecting a hug, and you get a hug, and you're like, man this actually feels pretty damn good," he said.

When is the last time Kobe Bryant used the word "hug?"

As Bryant then explained, for all these years, his tough talk and sharp edges have been more a job description than a personality trait.

"I think the competitive nature is something that frightens a lot of people, when you peel back truly what's inside a person, to compete and be at that high level, it scares a lot of people that are comfortable just being average," he said. "You can't get to a supreme level without kind of channeling the dark side."


ADVERTISEMENT

Los Angeles is finally seeing all sides of this town's most polarizing sports star, and it may allow us to drop all the tired criticisms and appreciate the athlete.

Seriously, after 19 years, can everyone stop complaining about how much he shoots the ball? On this awful Lakers team, at this stage of his career, does it really matter anymore? This column space has ripped him a lot, but right now, it's a pleasure watching him fight, and he can't shoot the ball enough.

I texted Bryant Tuesday about how he has approached this season.

"It's growth and understanding that things come and go, good, bad, etc.," he responded. "I have more compassion for others . . . because I'm currently working through the limits time has given me while still challenging the extent of those limitations."

I asked him about that dark side.

"It's what I am," he said. "It's not WHO I am."

Never too late, a city finally sees.

View media item 1308878
 

my fave dre highlight. dude shocked everyone, even his former teammates and fans

i remember during the AS rook/soph challenge in oak when fans were booing him cause he refused to dunk. every time he touched the ball and layed it up the fans were getting on him :lol


This dunk was shocking when it happened. Imagine he pulled off that tip dunk damn near 5 years later? :lol
 
bruh...


Former Pistons president Joe Dumars was fined $500,000 by the NBA in 2010 for leaking confidential league memos to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, according to a report.


"The NBA decided that too many memos were making it into the media, so they conducted a sting operation over several months," wrote Kevin Draper of the New Republic. "They would change a few words or numbers in different team's copies of otherwise identical memos, so that when the memos leaked they could spot the small differences and trace them back to the leaker."


The New Republic said Dumars was caught "red-handed" in this sting. It added that Dumars, the Pistons and the NBA declined comment.
 
Just came across this article on Dylan Gioia, who is the 23 year old owner of the Brooklyn SkyRockets of the ABA. It gives a real good look as to what he deals with as an owner of an ABA team.

Link
 
I remember Dre "Basic Game" Miller doing a layup on a breakaway in the rookie/soph game. Crowd was booing. Dude stays trolling lol.

Sooo mad that Jabari tore his ACL. His game was really coming along. Shooting 49%.

He gains weight pretty easily. We saw this after his junior year in HS when he got hurt. Hopefully he has a speedy recovery and stays in decent shape.
 
Last edited:
So why exactly was Mike Malone fired? I thought he was turning around that team a lil bit?
 
Hey, I was told this 2014 NBA rookie was gonna set the world on fire. Guns blazing. What happened?
 
Last edited:
Damian Lillard ‏@Dame_Lillard · 15h15 hours ago

It's always been this way. [emoji]128564[/emoji]

View media item 1308990



Poor Dame. No respect.
dame > kyrie. dame >>>>>>>>> lowry. dame >>>>> conley

ehh I'd take dame over kyrie...but I'd put him on the same level as conley and lowry. not necessarily better or worse. kyrie not in my top 5 though. IT got kyrie above westbrook? lmao foh
 
I was just talking about Lillard yesterday with somebody. Theres a small chance he might miss the ASG this year due to there not being enough roster space
This is last years ASG West roster. With Klay Thompson's emergence he may have a good shot at going and if he gets on either Parker or Lillard has to get off in his place. Then theres Monta Ellis who can also throw a wrench into things.

I dont think Dames a top 5 PG in the league right now either. Hes for sure 6/7th though.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom