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Subject: Lakers [OT]

Author: Russell Reagan

Date: 01:17:43 06/20/02

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On June 20, 2002 at 03:46:20, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:

>Does anyone doubt the LA Lakers are the best basketball team?

I don't know of anyone that does, but their success is due to two players only.
It's just a coincidence that Shaquille O'neal happens to play on that team, and
that he has another top player in Kobe Bryant to assist him.

The fact is that there is no single player in the world who can stop Shaquille
O'neal, which makes them kind of hard to beat them. The best you could hope for
is a player who will score as much as Shaq to "cancel him out". But then you
have to worry about Kobe.

On top of that, Shaq had many injuries during the recent playoffs. It's scary to
think how much more dominating he would have been if he was fully healthy.

As long as Kobe and Shaq get along and neither thinks they can make it without
the other, they'll keep winning championships. Even when they are losing by 20
points, you aren't really worried. It's as if they get close to the end of the
game and think, "Ok guys, let's quit goofing around for a few minutes and win
the game."

However, I think this past year Kobe started to get a bigger head. He used to
seem very humble for his talent level, but during this past playoffs he seemed
to have the "I can't be stopped" attitude. If he gets a big head, it could mess
things up. It's really hard to accurately determine how good he really is,
because he has Shaq on his team. Shaq draws double and triple coverage and
throws the ball out to Kobe who shoots a wide open shot. A lot of players could
look really good with Shaq on their team. Then he adds in a fantastic dunk once
in a while, and people think he's great.

Then again, Kobe is only like 23 I think...sheesh!

Russell



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