Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

[24]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

If they were better, they would have won. The better team always wins, so Simmons needs to STFU with that garbage.

No, not by a long shot. 2004 Lakers on paper were the better team than the Pistons. 4 future Hall of Famers plus a coach who never lost a finals appearance prior to that series.

[airjoca]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

They were a better group of individuals, not a better team.

[Vast]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

Really, son?

Check out Reggie's again, @ 36 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWNuB6zHAJ0&feature=related

Now, look at MJ's @ 36 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRCTp57LQro&feature=related

Reggie cleared MJ the hell out of his way. MJ wasn't even touching Reggie AT ALL. MJ got Russell, who was hanging all over him, off to gather himself for his last shot.

Now, tell me which one was more blatant.

Reggie pushed jordan off the ball to try to get open. every player does that. C'mon son. Jordan didn't even complain at the time.
You wanted the ref to call an offensive foul before the pass was even thrown. You Bulls fans sure were spoiled in the 90's to be complaining about that.

[23]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

Reggie pushed jordan off the ball to try to get open. every player does that. C'mon son. Jordan didn't even complain at the time.
You wanted the ref to call an offensive foul before the pass was even thrown. You Bulls fans sure were spoiled in the 90's to be complaining about that.

Everybody doesnt do that.. that was a full two armed push off and it is an offensive foul

This isnt about a bull fan or whatever else you guys keep crying... it was just a push off, and fact of the matter is, the Bulls won anyway

[24]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

They were a better group of individuals, not a better team.

The 03-04 Lakers was a video game team. On Paper it is absolutely no contest the Lakers on all accounts should have blown the pistons out of the water.

Gary Payton
Kobe Bryant
Rick Fox
Karl Malone
Shaq

Chauncy Billups
Richard Hamilton
Tayshaun Prince
Rasheed Wallace
Ben Wallace

[ballsohard]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

Really, son?

Check out Reggie's again, @ 36 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWNuB6zHAJ0&feature=related

Now, look at MJ's @ 36 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRCTp57LQro&feature=related

Reggie cleared MJ the hell out of his way. MJ wasn't even touching Reggie AT ALL. MJ got Russell, who was hanging all over him, off to gather himself for his last shot.

Now, tell me which one was more blatant.

I never said Reggie's wasn't more blatant than Jordan's, just they were both blatant and both were fouls that should've been called.

[23]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

Dude

They werent a better team. Its obvious.

Just a bunch of high profile names thrown together to ring chase

[24]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

Dude

They werent a better team. Its obvious.

Just a bunch of high profile names thrown together to ring chase

I'm not saying that they were the better team when it came to real life. I'm saying that just on paper, the players that were put together should have been something unstoppable.

[23]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

Throwing a bunch of names together means nothing... they should've seen that from the olympic team

Its obvious that they weren't a team but since the nba is hellbent on marketing individuals like it doesnt matter... you ended up with what you did in the finals, then the aftermath

[AlexBrady]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

I'm not saying that they were the better team when it came to real life. I'm saying that just on paper, the players that were put together should have been something unstoppable.

The 04 Lakers failed because Malone and Payton didn't know what five on five ball was all about. They could post up and play screen/roll but making the precision cuts and passes were beyond their abilities. And because those guys had no idea, why would Kobe and Shaq go through with the Triangle?

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

The corpses of Rick Fox, Horace Grant, Karl Malone and Gary Payton even on paper ain't ****. That team was Kobe and Shaq with a bunch of ring chasers. The only one of them that played another game in the NBA after that season was Payton and he was still a corpse in his next two stops.

[Dice]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

The 04 Lakers failed because Malone and Payton didn't know what five on five ball was all about. They could post up and play screen/roll but making the precision cuts and passes were beyond their abilities. And because those guys had no idea, why would Kobe and Shaq go through with the Triangle?

In all fairness to the 04 Lakers, Malone and Payton was the least of their problems. Matter of fact, Malone in the playoffs really stepped up defense and played solid post defense against Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. Both guys who were in their prime. It was a shame he got hurt before the Finals. He still played but was very ineffective compared to what he did in the previous two rounds. As the playoffs went along, Jackson started to cut down Payton’s minutes and give Fisher more minutes especially when games started to come down to the wire. Fisher, being the more experienced in the Triangle offense, got a lot of burn in the latter half of playoff games.

What really was their downfall was your man Kobe. According to Phil Jackson in his book, “The Last Season”, that chronicled that 2004 season, Jackson basically stated that Kobe was so arrogant that in that Finals he basically trashed the Triangle Offense. And with that, the cohesion between him, Phil Jackson and the best player on the team at that time, Shaq, just got shot to hell. In my opinion, Kobe sabotaged that championship.

[AlexBrady]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

In all fairness to the 04 Lakers, Malone and Payton was the least of their problems. Matter of fact, Malone in the playoffs really stepped up defense and played solid post defense against Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. Both guys who were in their prime. It was a shame he got hurt before the Finals. He still played but was very ineffective compared to what he did in the previous two rounds. As the playoffs went along, Jackson started to cut down Payton’s minutes and give Fisher more minutes especially when games started to come down to the wire. Fisher, being the more experienced in the Triangle offense, got a lot of burn in the latter half of playoff games.

What really was their downfall was your man Kobe. According to Phil Jackson in his book, “The Last Season”, that chronicled that 2004 season, Jackson basically stated that Kobe was so arrogant that in that Finals he basically trashed the Triangle Offense. And with that, the cohesion between him, Phil Jackson and the best player on the team at that time, Shaq, just got shot to hell. In my opinion, Kobe sabotaged that championship.

Malone played good bump and grind defense against Rasheed Wallace, who was a reluctant banger. If memory serves, Duncan and Garnett had little difficulty when facing and going.
You're right, Kobe was insufferably arrogant during the 04 season and he did routinely trash the Triangle.

[rdub78]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

I'm not saying that they were the better team when it came to real life. I'm saying that just on paper, the players that were put together should have been something unstoppable.

A team is a team and the Lakers that year were not a team. Just a collection of huge egos that couldnt ever put the team first.

2011 Eagles anyone?

[phillyfan23]

Re: Interesting take from Bill Simmons on the 1998 ECF

A team is a team and the Lakers that year were not a team. Just a collection of huge egos that couldnt ever put the team first.

2011 Eagles anyone?

2011 eagles didn't have problems with huge egos....they had the worst coaching in the whole NFL starting with Andy Reid's passing the ball 70 percent of the time getting vick banged up and at the same time ignoring the most explosive running back in the league, mccoy.

Defense, they had castillo who was learning on the job,misused asomugha and had no talent at all in the linebacking and safety positions.