Didn’t Draw Iron - an NBA Basketball Blog

Another widely held belief that’s hardly ever challenged.

The reality: Kobe had a few talented players , a bunch of stiffs, and Smush Parker. He would try the “trusting his teamates” approach, but they hardly ever performed in a way that deserved his trust. So he did very often carry the team by himself.

First, a look at his team the 3 previous years:

Refer to my “Myth #1″ article for an indepth breakdown of each player. But I’ll repeat the summation that will give you an overview of each. It’s a virtual dream-team of:

over-the-hill veterans
Aaron McKie
Vlade Divac
Brian Grant
Jim Jackson

terrible players that Kobe improved but ultimately went nowhere
Kareem Rush
Jumain Jones
Slava Medvedenko
Smush Parker
Devin Greene
Von Wafer
Laron Profit
Kwame Brown
Shammond Williams

mediocre players that Kobe improved
Chucky Atkins
Luke Walton
Devean George
Brian Cook
Chris Mihm
Vlad Rad

young players how have finally blossomed this year
Jordan Farmar
Sasha Vujacic
Ronny Turiaf
Andrew Bynum

along with a few talented players just for kicks
Lamar Odom (really best as 3rd option)
Caron Butler (traded after one season)

Are you kidding me? Are you freakin kidding? Until this year, he’s never had a quality 2nd option, a decent big man, a reliable spot-up shooter, a true power forward, or any talent at the point guard and he was supposed to do what? Beat Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs? (which he almost did btw)

But, now that he has most of those things this year, he’s magically learned to trust his teamates and took them to the #1 spot in the most competitive playoff race in history. And as they stand ready to play Boston for the NBA championship, I can’t help but find it remarkable what a little bit of “talent”, errrr - I mean “trust”, can do…