Thread by @KBGOAT824, Disproving the myth that Kobe Bryant quit on his team in Game [...]

Disproving the myth that Kobe Bryant quit on his team in Game 7 of the 2006 WCR1 vs the Phoenix Suns

This is will be an extremely long thread exposing this myth. The first two things that I will be talking about is Kobe’s regular season numbers against the Suns and his W-L record against them.

In the 2005-06 season vs the Suns, Kobe averaged 42.5 PPG on 45.8 FG% & 58.8 TS%. Despite Kobe putting up spectacular scoring numbers on great efficiency, the Lakers went 1-3 against the Suns with each one of their losses being by double digits.

The only reason why the Lakers won that one game was because the most important player in the Suns team Steve Nash was out for that game.

Against a great team like the Phoenix Suns that ran a run and gun offense, Kobe couldn’t just go out and score 35-40 points like he can do against some other teams in the league and win. He had to take a different approach if he wanted to win against the Suns.

In the 2006 WCR1 vs the Suns, the Lakers went with a totally different strategy. Phil Jackson wanted Kobe to take less shots and be more of a facilitator and playmaker so that his teammates can be more involved in the offense.

When Kobe’s teammates start making their shots, their energy & intensity will pick up, and they’ll play better on defense. Perfect strategy against the Suns

Jackson specifically wanted the offense to go through mainly Odom and Brown since the Suns had a weak defensive frontcourt

“Our game plan was to have Kobe draw double-teams, then feed Kwame and Lamar down low, a strategy that seemed to be working”
- Phil Jackson

More proof of the whole gameplan is the fact that the other Laker players’ shot attempts increase in the playoffs from the regular season except Kobe’s.

Lamar Odom went from averaging 11.6 FGA during the season to averaging 14.1 FGA in the playoffs

Luke Walton went from averaging 5.4 FGA during the season to 12 FGA in the playoffs.

Smush Parker went from averaging 9.5 FGA during the season to averaging 10.3 FGA in the playoffs

Kwame Brown went from averaging 5.4 FGA during the season to 9.3 FGA in the playoffs

Kobe Bryant was the only player that had a significant drop in FGA. He went from averaging 27.2 FGA during the season to averaging 20.7 FGA in the playoffs

Throughout most of that series, there was never an concerted effort to go through Kobe which is why when you look at his PPG for that series, you’ll see that his PPG took a huge hit from the regular season. He was being heavily passive through the whole series.

There’s some people that actually think the Suns’ defense shut down Kobe in that series which is not true at all, and it shows that they didn’t watch the games nor do they know what the gameplan was for that series.

If Kobe was asked to score in the beginning of the series, he would’ve definitely averaged 40 PPG on great efficiency, but that would completely ruin the Lakers’ chances of winning the series. They would lose even in less games and never went up 3-1 in that series.

Here’s what Kobe said at practice after he scored 22 points on 21 shots in a loss against the Suns in Game 1. He basically said he can get his shot anytime he want against the Suns.

Even Raja Bell said that when he watch film of Game 1, he said he looked lazy on defense. Raja Bell stated the big reason was the fact that Kobe wasn’t aggressive on offense. Now let’s go through each game of the series.

In Game 1, Kobe had 22 points (on 21 shots), 6 rebounds, & 5 assists on 33.3 FG% & 45 TS%. He was picking his shots & facilitating the whole game. Other Laker starters had 10+ shot attempts in that game. Lakers lose by 5 points (107-102). Suns lead the series 1-0.

In Game 2, Kobe had 29 points, 10 rebounds, & 5 assists. He shot better shooting 50 FG% & 54.4 TS%. He took more shots attempts than any Laker player with 24 shots, but it was below his season average. Kobe was still sticking to the gameplan of facilitating & picking his shots.

The Lakers as a whole played great on both ends of the floor especially on defense. The Lakers’ defense held the Suns to 93 points on 42.3 FG%. The Lakers win the game by 6 points (99-93). The series is tied 1-1.

In Game 3, Kobe had 17 points (on 18 shots) 7 assists, & 4 steals. Luke Walton took more shots than Kobe did in this game with 19 shots. The Lakers’ defense held the Suns to 92 points on 43.6 FG%. The Lakers win the game by 7 points (99-92). The Lakers lead the series 2-1.

In Game 4, Kobe scored 24 points on 14 shots and dished out 8 assists. He shot 64.3 FG% & 68.5 TS%. Four of Kobe’s points included the one to force the game to overtime and one to win the game. Lakers’ defense held the Suns to 98 points on 43.8 FG%. Lakers lead the series 3-1.

The Lakers didn’t celebrate winning Game 4 for long because hours before Game 5 they heard that Kwame Brown was being investigated for alleged sexual assault in Los Angeles. This killed the team’s mood in Game 5.

“We didn’t celebrate for long. Hours before Game 5 we learned that Kwame was being investigated for alleged sexual assault in L.A. The charges were eventually dropped, but the reports distracted the players and kept us from putting the series away in Game 5.”
- Phil Jackson

In Game 5, Kobe scored 29 points on 17 shots and dished out 5 assists, but the Suns blowout the Lakers in this game (114-97). The Lakers was struggling all game, and what’s worse is that the Suns adjusted to the Lakers’ offensive scheme. Lakers still lead the series 3-2.

With the Suns adjusting their defense to the Lakers’ offensive scheme to handle the other Laker players specifically Kwame and Odom because they were the ones doing the most damage to them, Jackson decided to let Kobe do what he does best on offense and that is to score.

In Game 6, Kobe scored 50 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, dished out 5 assists, and had 3 steals. He was highly efficient shooting 57.1 FG% & 66.4 TS%. He attempted 35 shots with none of his teammates being close to him in shot attempts. He had his best game by far in that series.

His scoring was actually effective in this game because of the Suns adjusting their defense to the offensive scheme that the Lakers used in the first 5 games of that series. The game even went into overtime when it shouldn’t have, and I’m going to talk about how it went into OT.

With over a minute left in the 4th quarter, Kobe made 2 clutch shots to give the Lakers a 3 point lead. The score was 105-102 with the Lakers leading by 3 near the end of the 4th quarter. It seem like the Lakers were going to win this series in 6 games.

Until Kwame Brown’s horrible closeout defense taking the pump fake from Tim Thomas which gave Thomas a chance to hit an open 3 point shot that force the game into overtime, happened. https://youtu.be/H_wykgldWLU ">https://youtu.be/H_wykgldW...

Also if Lamar Odom would’ve actually boxed out after that Steve Nash missed that 3 from the corner, the Lakers would’ve the won this game in the 4th quarter, but that obviously didn’t happen. Now let’s head into OT of that game.

Kobe played great in OT scoring 12 points on 71.4 FG% & 85.7 TS%. Even with Kobe putting up spectacular numbers in OT, the other Laker players struggled in OT. The Lakers lose this game by 8 points (126-118). The series is now tied 3-3.

Kobe was in a unusual situation. Taking less shots and being more of a facilitator in Game 5 didn’t work and it led to a blowout. His high scoring didn’t work either, but he was closer to winning with that so he took the scoring approach at the start of Game 7.

In the 1st half of Game 7, Kobe scored 23 points on 61.5 FG% & 77.9 TS%. He scored over half of the Lakers’ points (23 out of 45 points) on extremely high efficiency, but despite his great scoring the Suns were beating the Lakers by 15 points in the 1st half (60-45).

What’s even worse is that the other Laker players besides Kobe shot terrible in the 1st half. His teammates shot a horrible 30 FG% (9/30 FG) scoring only 22 points in the 1st half.

So to get back in the game, Jackson told Kobe before the 2nd half started to go back to the strategy that got the Lakers the 3 wins which is to take less shots and be more of a facilitator since Kobe’s high scoring wasn’t working, and it was leading to a blowout.

Here’s Phil Jackson stating that he told Kobe to take less shots and feed the ball to Lamar and Kwame in the post. This is why Kobe only took 3 shots in that game. Despite endless opportunities to score, Brown & Odom scored a combine total of 20 points on 29.1 FG% (7/24 FG).

In the 2nd half, the whole Lakers team (besides Kobe) didn’t shoot well. They scored a total of 44 points on 33.3 FG% (15/45 FG) in the 2nd half. The Suns would beat the Lakers blowing them out by 31 points (121-90). The Suns win the series 4-3 eliminating the Lakers.

After Game 7, Phil Jackson stated that they wanted to get back in the game by running the offense through the other Laker players besides Kobe. More proof that Kobe did not quit in Game 7.
http://archive.nba.com/games/20060506/LALPHX/recap.html">https://archive.nba.com/games/200...

Kobe even went out of his way to be on TNT’s Inside The NBA to explain the gameplan.

This is what Kobe said after Ernie Johnson asked, “did you see where taking 3 shots in that game was going to raise some eyebrows?”

In 2010 before facing the Suns in the WCF, Kobe had to explained the gameplan again, and he also completely denied that it was a “statement” game.

In the spring of 2006, did you tank the second half of Game 7 of the first-round series against the Phoenix Suns?

"People who say that are stupid," Bryant said. "That& #39;s just stupid."

"It& #39;s outlandish, the amount of irresponsibility people have, throwing out statements like that," he said.

"Barkley was stupid, he didn& #39;t watch the game, lots of people who were critical of me didn& #39;t even watch the game," Bryant said.

"To get back in the game, we needed somebody else to start making shots," Bryant said. "I was just trying to get the other guys going, turn the momentum around."

& #39;"I really tried to help everyone else, it just never happened, we missed shots, they got run-outs, three, three, three, and all of the sudden, the game was out of reach," Bryant said.

"I had been successful doing that before, other guys start making shots, the energy picks up, we get back in the game. But nobody saw those games."

So what about the idea that he was making a statement? And that maybe that statement worked? Because of that loss, and the following year& #39;s first-round loss to Phoenix, the Lakers eventually rid themselves of Parker and Brown, and acquired Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol.

"Hell, no," he said, shaking his head in amazement. "That& #39;s not my thought process. I don& #39;t think like that. I think about one thing and one thing only, and that& #39;s kicking butt."

Here’s the link
https://www.deseret.com/platform/amp/2010/5/16/20115577/question-lingers-about-kobe-s-game-7-in-2006-series-vs-the-suns">https://www.deseret.com/platform/...

In conclusion, Kobe did not quit in the 2nd of half Game 7. Also he was not making a “statement.” He was trying to get back in the game and win by going back to the strategy that got the Lakers the 3-1 lead in the first place which is for him to be passive.

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