How much is too much - Kobe - 81pts,

Dooer,

I think you have to distinguish between youth teams and the NBA on this issue.

The NBA is in the entertainment business and, while I am not a big Kobe fan, what he did yesterday was phenomenal and certainly entertaining.

Youth leagues are for development and team building. The coach on your son's youth team should implement some specific offensive plays that would spread the ball around. if the ball-hog player won't run the plays, he can cool on the bench for a while until he learns to be a team guy.

Winning at that age is secondary to fun and development, IMO.

I just spoke to a friend of mine, a former LA Laker who now does the radio broadcasts and has a sports talk show on the Laker-owned station in LA. He was at the game, of course.

He said it was incredible to watch. If Kobe saw the double team coming, he'd shoot the 3. If no double, he'd drive.

He shot 61% - that's not a ballhog - that is feeding the hot hand, which is exactly what you should do.

Of course, Kobe doesn't have much around him, so he pretty much has to take things into his own hands. But it isn't like it was a blowout win and Kob just put on a show. They were down by 18 or so, an Kobe brought them back.

When Wilt scored 100, they won something like 169-130. This game was not like that. For a guard to score 81 points is really extraordinary.

I'm not a huge Kobe fan, but I think he deserves his place in history for this performance.

81 points

quote:

by RK: that's not a ballhog

it brings to mind Miami's (Ohio) Wally Szczerbiak, now a Timberwolf
while he was there Miami recruited & signed players willing to "inbound" and "set picks"

.

Kobe is planning on starting his own spin-off league called the NIBA (National Individual Basketball Association).

Gotta give him some props though - 61% is pretty incredible. A couple weeks ago he dropped 48 or somethign and had ZERO assists [Lakers lost that one]. At least last night he spread it around alittle [2 assists!!]

Also remember that he caught a lot of garbage a couple weeks ago when he had 62 after the 3rd quarter and pulled himself OUT of the game when Jackson gave him the option of continuing. I can't fault him at all, especially the way he bent the defense over last night. It was all in the context of winning the game.

There really are few options for LA to score besides Kobe. While I'm not impresssed so much when he and guys like Iverson put up their 10-29 nights with some ft's to get their 30 this game was incredible.
I believe he was like 28-46 & 7-13 on 3's. Also hit 18-20 ft's after hitting around 60 straight over the last few weeks. Even found time to dish out 2 assists.
Closest thing to Jordan we may see for a long time in terms of ability to flat-out score, play defense, and always plays hard. His jumper right now is on auto-pilot in terms of going in and hoisting em' up too.

LOL....more scoring!
Check out the name

New York girl breaks record with 113 points

By BRIAN TOWEY
The Associated Press

February 03. 2006 8:00AM


NEW YORK - Epiphanny Prince was instructed to maintain her intensity on the court, despite the less-than-stellar opponent and apparent lack of a challenge.

The 5-foot-9 high school senior couldn't have been more focused Wednesday.

Prince scored 113 points for Murry Bergtraum High School in a 137-32 win over Brandeis High School, breaking a girls' national prep record previously held by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller.

"I was telling some college coaches before the game that in the (Public School Athletic League) the competition isn't that great, and that I thought I might get bored," Prince said. "They told me to keep playing hard and doing my best."

As the points began to accumulate at a Kobe Bryant-like pace, Prince recognized the rare opportunity at hand.


"After I scored 29 points in the first quarter, I didn't think much of it," Prince said. "After I had 58 points at the half, and especially after having in the 80s after the third quarter, I just decided to go for it. "It was efficient," she said. "It wasn't like I missed a whole bunch of shots. That's what made it even better."

Prince is headed to Rutgers next season. Her previous high this season was 51 points.

"At the half, we thought she had a chance to break the record, so we just let her go," said coach Ed Grezinsky, whose team is ranked No. 2 in the nation by USA Today.

Brandeis Coach Vera Springer thought Grezinsky made a poor decision by leaving Prince in the game, the New York Post reported yesterday.

"It's nothing against Epiphanny,"Springer told the newspaper. "I have great admiration for her. This was an adult decision. Why would you do this against a team like ours?"

Springer said her team, which has won only four league games this season, stopped playing defense in the second half.

"She didn't earn this," Springer told the Post. "It was like picking on a handicapped person."

Miller scored 105 points for Riverside Poly in California against Riverside Norte Vista in 1982.

Two-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie scored 101 points in a half for Morningside High School in Inglewood, Calif., against South Torrance in 1990. South Torrance refused to play the second half.

"It's an amazing thing when an individual does that," NBA star LeBron James said, when told of Prince's performance. "I don't know who she is, but maybe we'll see her in the WNBA. For that matter, the NBA."

The boys' high school record is 135 points, set by Danny Heater of Burnsville High School in West Virginia in 1960, according to the National High School Sports Record Book on the National Federation of State High School Associations' website.

In my opinion, Grezinsky, the girl's coach is an idiot, and should be fired for what he did in embarrassing another team.

EP...she didn't know any better, I suppose. She'll "get hers" later in life.

If you don't know that you can hold the ball and not score against a team that you have overwhelmed in the 1st quarter, that speaks VOLUMES about what kind of person you are..COACH OR PLAYER.

Shame on you!