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Penny Hardaway Vs. Kobe Bryant

7K views 39 replies 20 participants last post by  Wilt_The_Stilt 
Penny Hardaway was a very good player for many years but KOBE is one of the all time greats. PENNY'S MAIN PROBLEM WAS PROBABLY NOT HIS IT WAS HIS COACH HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN MADE A POINT GUARD THATS WHY HE WAS INJURED TRYING TO CHASE ALL THOSE SMALL GUARDS AROUND RUINED HIS KNEE'S, he should have been a shooting guard or point small forward but the pg position totally shot his knee's he was a great athlete early in his career but the wear and tear of a bigger player chasing small guards just wore his body down, Penny's stats are only COMPARABLE TO KOBE'S BECAUSE KOBE CAME IN STRAIGHT FROM HIGHSCHOOL AND DIDN'T GET THE SAME PLAYING TIME AND BECAUSE HE WAS TOO INEXPERIENCED , trying putting those stats back up KC in 2 years they'll make Penny look ridiculous compared to Kobe.

KC just seems to enjoy antagonizing Laker fans and pandering to all those pseudo come lately Kings fans, Everyone that knows ball knows Penny's no comparison to Kobe,hell outside of here no ones made that comparison it's Jordan not Penny.

And too all those people who believe You could insert all those other players to play with Shaq and win titles how about Spud Webb playing with the Celtics of the 80's instead of DJ, how about Tom Chambers taking Worthy's place on the showtime Lakers they'd probably still win the title, or how about Drexler playing with Jordan instead of Pippen they surely would've won 6 titles regardless of Pippens contributions, Chris Webber and Duncan surely they would have won the title back in 99 instead of David Robinson, yeah sounds pretty ridiculous,

To say that Shaq and Iverson equal CHAMPIONSHIP EXPOSES somone's naivety , SHAQ HASSLE'S WITH KOBE ABOUT SHOTS HOW IN THE HELL WOULD ANYONE ELSE GET A SHOT WITH IVERSON ON THE LAKERS, I GUESS AND IVERSON AND FISHER BACK COURT WORKS REAL WELL WHEN THEY POST UP BOTH GUARDS ALL DAY, Penny and Shaq had several chances to get a ring but didn't why because Penny choked away too many games at the end when it mattered most,got killed by Drexler in the finals, never would have happened to Kobe in his prime now, Paul Pierce has no Idea how to play with a dominant center he's a scorer Kobe's made himself into a playmaker as well as a scorer ,Pierce would never be able to penetrate and dish to the Diesel like Kobe does,goes to the basket too off balance to do that ,

Now Tmac possibly could win a title but then again he messes up more late game situations so you'd probably have to go to Shaq in the clutch which probably isn't a good idea for a 50% foul shooter.
 
One other thing do you know why creators create and not score themselves because they can't score as well , Kareem shot the skyhook because he could ,he could have been one of the alltime great passing bigmen but why when you can score, ala Bill Walton, If Walton had a sky hook he wouldn't have been the best passing big man., Magic passed because he could do that better than he could score ,same with JKidd he's a much better passer than shooter, Andre Miller is a much better passer than creating his own shot conversly Marbury has better scoring ability than passiong ability, same for Iverson who's a better scorer than he is a passer, Now Penny could score but was a better playmaker ,Kobe is just as creative as Penny but he has a better Knack for scoring when he wants to pass he could get 10 assists but he scores easier because of his athleticim, Penny isn't as good at scoring thus he had better assist numbers than Kobe but that doesn't make him a better creator it just makes him a more FREQUENT CREATOR.

Now Larry Bird could pass as well as Magic but his numbers for assists were never as good as Magics why Bird could score better than Magic ,so Magic resorted to passing to make himself most effective, He was a more FREQUENT passer than Bird not neccesarily a better passer than Bird.
 
NOW DP I MAYBE OLDER THAN YOU and yes I've watched Penny since back in his Memphis State days . First off Penny was a Point Guard ,Kobe doesn't play pg there's a big distinction there,but more on that later , Please define what YOU MEAN by creator so we can debate your definition so I don't misunderstand what you mean, You call Kobe an upgraded SPREWELL , HOW MUCH NBA BALL HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING, Kobe's so much more of a player but I think you get that point

Now I totally disagree with your point on SHAQ being the LAKER CREATOR EVEN FOR KOBE, fact is when Shaq has the ball he kicks it out to 3 pt shooters FISHER HORRY AND FOX since that isn't the strength of Kobe's game would do no good to rotate the ball back to Kobe which he rarely does, Shaq gets those guys open looks and on rare occasions sets up Kobe for the three.

Now the difference between A CREATOR AND A DISTIBUTOR IS THIS a distibutor does this, he passes the ball around the court insuring others touch it or he moves the ball up court, a CREATOR ,creates open looks or easier opportunities for others to SCORE than they could create for themselves, Now Kobe creates much more in that offense than Shaq does. Shaq only creates when pressed KOBE creates or often to get others going in the offense What was the mantra Phil said to the LAKERS when facing the BLAZERS in the WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS ,"forget about Shaq move the ball around " now why would he say that to the team creator because SHAQ only creates out of neccessity and was making bad passes when doubled by the longer armed BLAZERS, he would never say forget about Kobe because Kobe is the creator who makes everyone's job easier mostly Shaqs, When Kobe penetrates and draws the defense he kicks it to SHAQ for many Dunks he doesn't always penetrate to score but mostly to pass , that's what Phil's ingrained in him, Now for Shaq to be the creator he would have to create out of DESIGN NOT BY FORCEd DOUBLE TEAMING, when he dips he shoulder and goes to the basket he always goes there with the intent to score but sometimes is forced to pass , creators pass by DESIGN NOT NECCESITY, so therfore KOBE is the teams PRIMARY CREATOR AND SHAQ THE PRIMARY SCORER.

what does Shaq do for Kobe , he creates a focus away from Kobe defensively allowing Kobe to have man coverage most of the time to beat his man and score or pass without having to face constant double an triple teaming. Against the Blazers Kobe penetrated and dished to Horry for the game winner thats what a creator does. Shaq also provides a pressure release from Kobe of all of the scoring burden.

Now back to Penny on could he score as much as Kobe I seriously doubt it but that's a hard point to prove because they played in different systems. Penny had alot of huge scoring games but wasn't the scorer Kobe is. Now Penny on his team was the PG so he wasn't asked to fill a bigtime scoring role, THEY had NICK ANDERSON,DENNIS SCOTT AND HO GRANT who could score pretty well at that time. So Penny was asked to create and distribute the ball more. Kobe has to pick up more of a scoring role on the lakers because FISHER, HORRY AND FOX aren't that big of scorers so Kobe has to fulfill a much bigger scoring role. SOME NITES KOBE HAS TO SCORE 40 OR 50 POINTS WHEN THOSE THREE BRING NEXT TO NOTHING TO THE TABLE, He and Shaq have to single handledly beat teams sometime.

Now Penny was much more like a PIPPEN type player and Kobe more of a JORDAN for reasons of ability to score, KOBE could drop 50 on you Penny really couldn't have those types of games because that wasn't his strength, Now Kobe regularly has Pippen like games especially in the playoffs KOBE COULD SWITCH BETWEEN MODES PENNY COULDN"T.

On why the Lakers struggle without Shaq ,Because Kobe has to transform back to the primary scorer role and the Lakers have no one to fill the alternate scoring role as well as the creator role. In Orlando without Shaq Penny didn't have to really change his role when Shaq was out the other players around him were more capable of stepping up the their scoring so Penny could really Score a little more but not have that burden solely. Kobe doesn't have that kind of help in LA when Shaq is out, when those other guys are hitting when Shaq's out they win when they don't they lose ,the support players individually are woefully inconsistent. Similar to what Tmac faces .500 team when the role players are hitting but Losses when they're not. Penny had much more consistent role players. Including a much younger BRIAN SHAW.
 
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