With the current regular season in full swing, it’s been difficult to tell who is going to be sitting at home on New Years Day. The Kobe Bryant-led Lakers have had a rough start and fans of other teams are likely thinking about their chances of making an appearance in the playoffs. But things took a turn for the worse during Wednesday night’s game when Bryant got into a heated altercation with former playoff opponent DeMarre Carroll.,
Kobe Bryant Viciously Went After a ‘No Stats All-Star’ and Former Playoff Foe: ‘You Can’t Guard Me’. In the video, Kobe was wearing an all-black Nike outfit.
Opposing teams must have found it tough enough to contain Kobe Bryant. Shane Battier’s life was made horrible by the media creating an incentive for the former Los Angeles Lakers player to obtain baskets.
Battier was a standout all-around player at Duke University, but he ultimately focused on his defense. When he played against Kobe, who was always looking for reasons to overpower opponents, his defensive approach was scrutinized.
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With the Blue Devils, Shane Battier was named to many All-America teams and earned the Wooden Award. His tremendous adaptability made him a success in the NBA, but it also made him a lesser-known great.
Despite the fact that he never made an All-Star team, Battier became known across the league for his unwavering defense. Battier received praise for his on-ball defending and tenacious work ethic from a variety of sources, including Michael Lewis of the New York Times, who dubbed him the “No Stats All-Star.”
In the same February 2009 piece, Lewis mentions a March 2008 matchup between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers, in which Battier assisted in holding Kobe Bryant to 11-of-33 shooting and 24 points.
Daryl Morey, a former Rockets general manager, praised Battier’s defensive prowess. But he went out of his way to express his confidence in Kobe’s will to “destroy” Battier.
Morey had no clue how prescient his remarks would turn out to be.
In the 2009 conference semifinals, Bryant burned Battier and let the Rockets swingman know about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoeu fXMEGI
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The Rockets and Lakers met in the playoffs only a few months after the New York Times piece on Battier, giving Kobe Bryant the opportunity to prove that no one man could keep him down for a whole series.
The Rockets won Game 1 in Los Angeles. Bryant, on the other hand, would not allow the Purple and Gold lose both games at home, scoring 40 points in a 111-98 thrashing. He also spoke some nonsense.
Early in the third quarter, Bean nailed a jumper right in Battier’s face. “You can’t defend me,” Kobe yelled to Battier as they rushed back toward the other end (h/t YouTube).
Battier, in fact, couldn’t do much to keep Bryant’s stats down. Later in the game, the Black Mamba tossed a lob off the glass to himself after shooting 16-of-27 from the field. He was known for his unabashed arrogance, which helped him become one of the greatest players in NBA history.
In the end, the Lakers won the series in seven games. Even though Paul Pierce made Bean’s life miserable in the 2008 NBA Finals, Bryant averaged 27.4 points and shot better than 45 percent, demonstrating that, although Battier had a good defensive skill set, there was no such thing as a “Kobe stopper.”
Kobe scored a lot of points against Battier.
During the 2009 NBA Playoffs, Kobe Bryant drives on Shane Battier at | Getty Images/Stephen Dunn
Despite the fact that Battier was thought to have a distinct defensive influence on Bryant, the data demonstrate that The Black Mamba had his fair share of success.
In 37 head-to-head matchups with Battier, Kobe averaged 28.6 points. That’s more than double his career average of 25.0 points. The efficiency has plummeted. In those games, he shot 43.3 percent from the field. Despite this, Bryant found a way to put the ball in the basket.
Until the end of his career, Bean consistently embraced challenges and reminded former colleagues of his killing instinct. The praise for Battier’s defense on him only provided Kobe an excuse to attack him head-on, particularly during the 2009 playoffs.
Basketball Reference provided the statistics.
‘He’s Calling Me Every MF and Every SOB in the World,’ Kobe Bryant once cursed out Charles Barkley through text after Chuck accused him of dogging a Game 7: ‘He’s Calling Me Every MF and Every SOB in the World,’ Kobe Bryant once said.
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