So, I had this discussion with distinguished media members (that’s not an oxymoron, right?) and some passionate NBA fans, both scoffing at me like I was some purple-and-gold bleeding heart with a D.J. Mbenga tattoo.
This spring, I told them that Kobe Bryant was one of the two best players in basketball, and I was voting the dude second on my MVP ballot. They gave me the standard replies:
• His teammates are better than everyone else’s.
• His numbers are down.
• He’s just so Jesse James hateable.
Fact is, Kobe is still Kobe — he was the best player on the best team in the best conference, and after Game 2’s win against Phoenix, Suns coach Alvin Gentry said: “Guys, there’s a reason he’s the best basketball player in the world.”
Bryant finished third in the MVP voting — only about a third of the voters had him second — but entering tonight’s Game 3 against Phoenix (L.A. is up 2-0), he is playing transcendent basketball. He’s not just the best shooter out there, or even the best passer, he’s the best brain.
His 40-point performance in Game 1 was a statement to the surging Suns, but his Game 2 was masterful. Gentry threw double-teams at Bryant, and the shooting guard was as calm as Drew Brees in the pocket, not only finding an open guy, but finding the right open guy.
As my man Kevin Arnovitz of pointed out, Bryant tallied five first-half assists on 3-pointers, while drawing four different defenders on those five double-teams. Didn’t matter who was coming, Bryant was collected — and collected the assist. He finished with 13 assists, the most by a Laker in the postseason since 1996. He also scored 21 points. Most important, he found ways to win the game.
“He’s not going to force things; he doesn’t do that anymore,” Gentry told reporters. “And so if you ask me if we did a good job on him, we took him from 40 to 21. So that’s a good job. But when you add in the 13 assists, that’s 26 more points. So you’re looking at 47 is the way we look at it.”
Yes, regular-season Kobe-haters say he forced too many shots and he didn’t always have his team playing 48 fierce minutes.
But they won the West, and now the Lakers are two games from winning the West in the postseason.
Phoenix is a tough venue to play, and it’s possible Kobe will be returning to L.A. for at least a Game 5. But if there’s anything we’ve learned about Kobe over the years, it’s that he feeds off motivation. The 2008 Finals loss to Boston stung for 12 months, when he won the 2009 Finals.
Knowing that Boston is in the driver’s seat to be in the 2010 Finals, well, that might be all the motivation he needs to get past Phoenix, by any shot or pass necessary.
Melo’s status.
Nuggets all-star Carmelo Anthony is eligible for a three-year contract extension this summer, but a source with knowledge of the situation said the Nuggets have yet to set up negotiation meetings with Melo’s camp.
Anthony is under contract for one more season and could headline the free-agent class of 2011. He is getting married July 10 in New York.
A spec-tac-u-lar veto.
TNT’s Marv Albert conducted a rare basketball-related interview with President Barack Obama at the White House basketball court, and it will air Tuesday at 6 p.m., prior to Game 4 of the Lakers-Suns series. A snippet of the interview will air today on NBA TV and on .
According to TNT, Obama talked about free-agent Le- Bron James (the prez is a big Bulls fan), the Phoenix Suns’ stand against the immigration law in Arizona and Obama’s overall love and respect for the game of basketball.
“It is clearly one of the highlights of my broadcasting career,” Albert said, “and a great honor and privilege for me personally.”
