09 playoffs thread

"in other words never underestimate the fact that kobe was never socialized like a normal person."

Yeah this is sort of what I was trying to say above wrt Kobe's coming into the league at 17 and playing for an immensely screwed up Laker squad, but that really only gets to a fraction of what's unusual about the dude. This is not someone who had the kind of upbringing which would allow him to be relatable to for a lot of players (esp. coming into the league as young as he did and being as insanely overconfident as he was--some people probably still don't forgive him for throwing up all those airball threes against the Jazz in his first playoff series.) Playing a year or two of college probably would have helped.

simmons had a good point about this recently - he compared kobe to a child actor, which is basically what he was, breaking into los angeles at 17 and never leaving. there is no one in the nba - and arguably no one in the world - who can relate to kobe's upbringing as a kid and his beginning in the nba. it's def much diff than KG in minnesota or oden in portland. i agree with icey that there is something psychologically off with him. i don't think he's mentally ill, but he's totally maniacal and he knows it, which is completely evidenced in his fake acting and the way he hijacked the spike lee doc. as simmons points out, jordan had the same maniacal demeanor, but he didn't pretend he didn't. also, he never forced scottie pippien out of chicago and thus never had to convince the public that he wasn't the hugest asshole living.

as for j.r. smith, i don't see how he's at all defensible, even for a nuggs fan. the guy is a glorified deshawn stevenson and sometimes teams forget about him and he scores 24 points and that's all. you would think he scored 30 at least. he's hurt the nuggs in this series more than he's helped them anyway, so it's all relative. he'd be be perfect on the hawks btw.

The Tom Friend article on Chauncey Billups does a good job of explaining that JR Smith is basically a guy who will follow whomever is the pack leader. When it was AI, he (and Melo) would follow AI's lead and go out to clubs every night and etc. With Billups in town, he has adopted better habits, and last night you saw a guy who was more willing to penetrate and pass than I personally have ever seen from him before. He's still a douchebag who takes bad shots, but he is a valuable player when surrounded by the right influences.

sociopath narcissist - something like that - he is just so one of those people who is always trying to act human but has no idea what its actually like

― ice cr?m, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 12:51 PM (4 hours ago)

i dunno. he's more human than, say, alex rodriguez

Uh you are aware that a huge % of athletes are OCD weirdos. It's not exactly a crippling psychological hump. It's more like a bonus feature.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:58 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

don't know ray allen's story, but good god, i had someone w/actual OCD break shit down to me and it's fucking beyond and nightmare (basically, the crux of was him standing there with a written check he didn't like because he'd signed it "wrong" and it eventually became like an all-day nightmare of trying to deal with a check)....like it sounded so horrible, not a "bonus feature" or some quirky anal type personality quirk

lol kelly dwyer on ball don't lie today, talking about Kobe Bryant, Doin' Work:

"Actually, it isn't a wonder. Kobe has isolated himself so much from anyone who will tell him that things aren't heading in a direction that isn't particularly appropriate, that it's pretty obvious that he doesn't know how poorly he came off.

I'm years removed from being angry about that. At this point, in May of 2009, I'm just sort of sad about that. The guy is so maladjusted, he just has no clue."

i don't think he came off so bad? it's just like, there are so many more entertaining ways to stage the thing than as a dvd commentary, where it didn't even seem like he was familiar with the game beforehand. that nike thing with him teaching his moves or whatever i would pay for, he seems to really be inside what he's doing physically and mentally and realistic about how far talent and 'specialness' is taking him in a way that a say, jr. smith is years away from figuring out.
if i were to do the pop-psych thing i'd lean more toward cultural anxiety/general social anxiety being the root of his awkwardness and the sort of rote way he tends to present himself. chicken and the egg thing whether the competitiveness came about to mask his insecurities or the other way around, i'd lean toward the former fwiw

"i had someone w/actual OCD break shit down to me"

Obv there are degrees of OCD. My only point was that certain kinds of obsessive compulsive behavior can be a boon in certain professions (take it from the son of an OCD librarian.) I think assuming that it's hurting (rather than helping) Ray Allen in his seems pretty weird.

Cavs forward Ben Wallace was angered today when he heard Magic coach Stan Van Gundy’s comments about his supposed flopping in Game 3. On Monday Van Gundy said “Ben Wallace and Mo Williams fell down more than a baby learning to walk.”

Wallace, who is a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and does not have a reputation as a flopper, was not happy with that comment.

“Either come out there and do something about it or shut the (expletive) up,” Wallace said after the Cavs shootaround this morning at Amway Arena. “That’s what I tell him.”

you are calling me a floppER

godalmightyFUCK i hate these taunting foul calls. what the hell is this, nursery school?

yeah that was horrible

it's insane is what it is. guys now can't pump their fists in the nba playoffs.

it's the jd drew-ization of pro basketball.

magic are shooting smart right now

wau rafer

appalling performance by cleveland imo

yeah rafer playin hero for sure. orlando crowd vs cleveland crowd is a world of difference too.

yeah cavs've shown no energy every 4th quarter this series

wow the turk bails himself out

cavs best shot is to foul happy howard out

breaking news from the future: lebron james to sign with the knicks

west missed wide open 3 -> lewis drilled contested 3 pretty much personifies this series huh

wtf is with cleveland not getting to orlando's shooters on kickouts. it's the ultimate drive and kick team, so defend it.

orl is 15/31 from outside tonight! jeez, cavs.

i've been impressed w/ magic's decision-making on offense tonight. then again easy to look good when you're sinking jays

omg

my lebroner is def at half mast after that

dwight doesn't seem fully in this game

i don't get what his deal is. so clueless at times.

can't believe bron took a jumper - even if he had made 1 of 1 they'd be okay

this has been a close and exciting series that has featured a lot of lousy basketball.

wow so the magic have completely misinterpreted what they were doing right in this game. the shooting was a byproduct of good ball movement, not something to rely on ENTIRELY.

live by the 3, die by the 3

hmm pretty important six secs now

blech

cmon lebronski

pretty impt 4 secs now

man it's really hard to root for the cavs this series. i'm trying my best but they just don't deserve this game.

fantastic shot by lewis. now it's messiah time.

neither team really deserves it - magic have been hoisting up bullshit threes all game

yall - lebron is gonna punish fools right now i can feel it

lebron has spectacular moments but ultimately these teams play really boring styles

fuck guys i don't feel like watching overtime

i wanted him to shoot a 3

don't really want to see an OT

xp

jesus

what the hell is wrong with you guys