LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

[Streets]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

does anyone else see the parallels between kobe bryant and shawn michaels? maybe it's just me.

Nope. John Cena? Yes.

Shaq sounds MJ hall of fame speech bitter in some of these excerpts though, lol.

Still looks like a great read.

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

In fairness, that's not displaying leadership though. Allen Iverson went to the Finals and won an MVP, that doesn't mean dude was showing he could potentially be a leader. You can do that stuff off pure talent. Hell LeBron in Cleveland getting to the Finals doesn't show his leadership capabilities, but it does show the dude can ball when he wants to. If we're going to talk up the Bean showing leadership then lets do a little more than say he made it to the Finals so he's a leader.

You don't make the finals three out of four years, win two of them, get MVP and not display leadership ability.

That's the difference between Kobe and LeBron/Iverson.

Phil Jackson has talked in great length about how Bryant has changed since his days with Shaq and the few years after Shaq left. Brian Shaw as well.

The first year they made it back to the finals, and when he won MVP, his teammates raved about his newfound ability to finally be able to transfer his physical skill to a leadership role. That was the year where during the summer he was being an absolute douchebag.

After he just shut up, it seems like something clicked in his head. He had a lot of rotation players who were very young, guys like Farmar, Ariza, Bynum, Sasha, and Walton.. all of those guys gave Kobe a lot of credit for spending time with them to ensure they understood the triangle and defensive concepts. It paid off when they unexpectedly made it back to the finals.

Since that year, he's been much more involved with his teammates on a personal level, especially when Pau first came over, he really reached out to him. Besides his foolish advice to Andrew Bynum in the Dallas series last year, he's been a fine leader.

In the next few years he'll have a chance to really prove it, with a brand new coach.

[buckeye02]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

I wonder if he tells how much money he made at LSU.

[Kashanova]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

come on people, kobe is a leader because he screams at his teammates and he points at his hands when the camera is on him

[Dice]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

So if Kobe is not a leader then who was the on court leader for the Laker championships in 2009 and 2010?

[RedSceptile]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

So if Kobe is not a leader then who was the on court leader for the Laker championships in 2009 and 2010?

Does Adam Morrison or D.J. Mbenga count Dice?

[Jasong7777]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

I'm sure Kobe's leadership qualities have been discussed in like 20 threads already.

[Dice]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

Does Adam Morrison or D.J. Mbenga count Dice?

Count as what? Wasted space on the bench?

[The15thunter]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

Nope. John Cena? Yes.

Shaq sounds MJ hall of fame speech bitter in some of these excerpts though, lol.

Still looks like a great read.

why cena over michaels. i see more michaels, in that he's incredibly talented, but was a huge jerk in the locker room and a problem to others due to his politics. then, he became a much better person, but there were still some who resented him based on what he did in the past.

[RedSceptile]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

Count as what? Wasted space on the bench?

Nah because apparently Kobe want a leader so it had to be someone else.

I mean I get it, a lot of people don't like Kobe Bryant for their own reasons but come on now discrediting him at everything is getting stale (not directed at you Dice).

[Dice]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

Nah because apparently Kobe want a leader so it had to be someone else.

I mean I get it, a lot of people don't like Kobe Bryant for their own reasons but come on now discrediting him at everything is getting stale (not directed at you Dice).

I agree. Trust me, I'm not the biggest Kobe Byrant fan myself and I think he is a little 'bitchmade' as King put it. BUT if we're going to discredit his leadership abilities because of whining or he laid an egg in an elimination game in the Finals, then there are a whole lot of other players we need to scratch off the list and question their leadership.

Hakeem Olajuwon demanded a trade in his career. Are we going to question his leadership? Magic Johnson laid a huge egg in the 1984 Finals, but yet he's lead his team to 5 championships and arguably the greatest Laker of all time.

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

"Being a leader" is probably overrated anyway. How many great leaders are there in the league today and who are they?

How good of a leader was Micheal Jordan? How about Shaq himself? Shaq was one of the greatest centers ever, and I question his leadership just as much as I do Kobe. Being a great leader and a great player, a championship player, a hall of fame player, don't go hand in hand.

King B Mack trying to take shots at LeBron James for not being a leader. I don't care how awful a leader this guy supposedly is, I'd take him top 2 or 3 seven days a week and I'm most GM's would take him first overall.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

You don't make the finals three out of four years, win two of them, get MVP and not display leadership ability.

That's the difference between Kobe and LeBron/Iverson.

Phil Jackson has talked in great length about how Bryant has changed since his days with Shaq and the few years after Shaq left. Brian Shaw as well.

The first year they made it back to the finals, and when he won MVP, his teammates raved about his newfound ability to finally be able to transfer his physical skill to a leadership role. That was the year where during the summer he was being an absolute douchebag.

After he just shut up, it seems like something clicked in his head. He had a lot of rotation players who were very young, guys like Farmar, Ariza, Bynum, Sasha, and Walton.. all of those guys gave Kobe a lot of credit for spending time with them to ensure they understood the triangle and defensive concepts. It paid off when they unexpectedly made it back to the finals.

Since that year, he's been much more involved with his teammates on a personal level, especially when Pau first came over, he really reached out to him. Besides his foolish advice to Andrew Bynum in the Dallas series last year, he's been a fine leader.

In the next few years he'll have a chance to really prove it, with a brand new coach.

I agree with this. That's all I wanted was a little clarification on the Finals point cause pure talent can get you there and once you're there anything can happen. This breaks down your point completely and clearly though. As for LeBron, I'm not taking shots at the dude or saying I wouldn't want him on my team, but in the context of just throwing out 'such and such made it to the Finals, he's a leader,' LeBron in Cleveland as we've come to learn was pretty much not a leader and his sheer talent/ability carried that team to where they got.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

"That Leadership stuff is all overrated"- Jeff George(Just wanted a chance to post that here LOL)

NOW, back to the book:

On Big Baby:

Big Baby” Davis kept looking me off and taking it himself. Doc is shouting at him to go inside, but he won’t. So Doc calls timeout and draws up a play for me. I go out there, and I back Andrew Bynum way under the rim. I’m loose, I’m ready. I’ve got Bynum under the basket and again, Baby won’t give me the ball. So I go up to him and say, “If you ever miss me again I’m going to punch you in the face.” I was hot.
Two nights later we’re playing in Sacramento and here we go again. I take three shots the entire game and again I’ve got my man isolated underneath the basket, and Baby ignores me and takes a jump shot. So the next time we’re in the huddle I let Baby have it.
I tell him, “Pass the [expletive] ball inside.” He comes back at me a little bit and now I’m really heated. All hell is breaking loose. We’re going back and forth. Doc is standing there and he’s not saying a word. The message is pretty clear: Work this out yourselves. I tell Baby, “You’re a selfish player. Everyone on this team knows it.” Hey, all the fans knew it. He takes shots when he shouldn’t.

Nate Robinson:

I wasn’t surprised at all when he got traded. Nate was always trying to get noticed by the public. He was always tweeting videos of himself punking his teammates … Some people are a little too focused on Twitter and Nate was one of them. He was too worried about how many followers he had. He kept saying, “Shaq, I need more people. Help me out.”

[ScoobySnax]

Re: LOL.. Shaq has a book forthcoming??

Every excerpt gets a little bit juicier lol. I feel like a lil bitch for being excited about this book.