Cory W

By Royce Webb
ESPN.com

Let's not overthink this. Let's be clear.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson screwed up -- and screwed all of us -- when he took Kobe Bryant out of the game with 12 minutes to play.

Let's look at the facts as they appeared after three quarters ...

Kobe had 62 points and counting, including 30 in the third quarter alone.

He was the best player on the floor (sorry, Dirk).

He was within nine points of the all-time single-game record for the Lakers, one of the most storied franchises in NBA history. (That's 71, by Elgin Baylor, on Nov. 15, 1960.)

The game was in Hollywood, or close enough ... not only the entertainment capital of the world, but the birthplace of Showtime.

The fans were on their feet, cheering wildly. Even former Laker and sometime Hollywood actor Rick Fox was laughing and cheering, on the night he was being honored.

So ... by all means, get Kobe out of there!

Look, I've read "Sacred Hoops." I know basketball is a team game. I know there is a right way to play. I realize Phil Jackson is the Zen Master.

And I realize there was a slight chance that Kobe could have gotten hurt. Maybe the Mavs would have gotten mad and made sure Kobe felt their wrath, as they did when Josh Howard gave him a hard foul earlier in the third quarter.

But, hey, sometimes you just have to go for it. When a pitcher has a perfect game, you leave him in. When a bowler has a shot at 300, he keeps rolling the ball, no matter what the score is. And when Kobe Bryant has 62 points after three quarters, you have to find out ... Can he be the first Laker to score 75? Can he be the second player in NBA history to score 80?

People go to games and tune in on TV to watch players do what Kobe Bryant did for 36 minutes (33 minutes, actually). They want to see the great plays, the great players, the astounding performances. They want to see something they've never seen before.

The Los Angeles Times reported after the game that Jackson had left it up to Kobe whether he wanted to return "if he so desired," and he had declined: "That's not what we play for. That's not what it's about. It's not to score 70 points. We wanted to win the game, and the game was in the bag. It was in the refrigerator."

As usual, Kobe's words were well chosen. And, as usual, it's hard to take them at face value.

Does anyone think scoring and individual achievement aren't of vital importance to Bryant? Then why did he tell a teammate and a coach he planned to score 50 against the Mavs last night? Why did he have zero assists for the game? Why did he shoot 14 times (counting shots on which he was fouled, which don't count as official shot attempts) in the last five minutes of the third quarter? That's one shot every 21 seconds, for those of you scoring at home, including four 3-point attempts ... with his team up by more than 30 points toward the end of that barrage.

The fact remains, the coach decides who is in the game. Jackson removed Bryant. He left him on the bench. He could have put him back in. And surely no one believes that Kobe isn't even more curious than the rest of us just how many he can score in a game.

To cinch the case, let's go back to perhaps the most storied night in NBA history -- March 2, 1962, when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game.

What if the Philadelphia Warriors had removed Wilt at the end of the third quarter, when he had only 69 points? How would that have been a good thing for fans, or for the NBA? The Warriors won 169-147, so it's not like they needed all 100 points.

This isn't about Kobe. This is about a once-in-a-lifetime game, which was robbed from us as much as it was from Kobe. This is about what might have been. We'll never know.

__________________
ICQ: 292310358
Offering writing and content services (mainstream).
Marketing for L3 Payments