February 5, 2020 • 49 mins
The last ‘Special Team’ the Los Angeles Lakers had was in 2009-2010, when Kobe Bryant led them to their most recent championship - in thrilling fashion over the Boston Celtics. This week, we look back at the final title on Kobe’s resume. Yes, the Lakers had to overcome injuries and get surprising clutch production from improbable places in order to win, but this was about Kobe. How when he played ‘poorly', he was still great. How he became so beloved after his early years - as the answer isn’t what you think it is. And how his legacy would be different had the Lakers lost to the Celtics again.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
(00:23):
Mike Harmon, our weekly podcast that spotlights a big team,
single season in sports history. Sometimes it's NFL, sometimes it's
NBA Major League Baseball. This week we are looking back
at the two thousand nine two thousand ten Los Angeles Lakers.
In the wake of the tragic and sudden death of
Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others in helicopter accident,
(00:47):
we wanted to spend some time looking back at the
last championship won by Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, because
this two thousand nine two thousand ten season was incredible.
It was incredible for Kobe, it was incredible for the Acres.
They beat the Celtics to win it all, getting revenge
from losing two years before. It was their second straight
NBA title. It was a magical time, especially for you
(01:11):
and I living in Los Angeles. The Lakers beating the
Celtics was it was sports nirvana. I mean, it's the
Dodgers beating the Yankees in the World Series. It was
as good as it got for l A and the
Lakers of all the championships they had, the first one
they win, yes, that special with Shack and Kobe, But
this one, this was beating the Celtics. This was really
really special Number sixteen. This is the rivalry that we
(01:35):
grew up with, right, the Magic versus Bird and all
those great teams and Hall of famers, all the video
games you played based on them, and the highlight reel
was always one or the other was in a title contention.
Right the Lakers for all those years, it seemed like
every other they were. They were battling for a title
before the six year drought of playoff problems and and
(01:59):
everything that we've seen. But you look at Kobe Bryant
and what he means to the city and obviously exemplified
in the tragic passing and all the heartfelt sentiments and gatherings.
The city just got overrun. Everywhere you turn there was
a Laker logo in your face. You speak of the
city being overrun? Do I have a story about you?
(02:20):
The night the Lakers won the title? About me? But no, no, no, yeah, yes,
it's about you, said, man, I have a story for you.
I was a little nervous for what do you know
about a story for you. I'm talking to you. I'm
here with you. I'm talking to you what you knew
when I was doing that night. It's the fiftieth season
in Los Angeles for the Lakers. They're coming off the
(02:43):
NBA title after beating the Orlando Magic. And for Kobe Bryant,
it was the cementing of his legacy because for Kobe
it was him and Shack fighting for control of the Lakers.
They win three championships. Shack and Kobe couldn't get along.
Shack wasn't gonna get the maximum contract he wanted from
Dr Jerry Buss. He said, trade me. They trade him
(03:04):
away to Miami. The Lakers kind of stumbled around for
a couple of years. Then they make the big trade
for pal Gasol, and that's the trade that remade Los Angeles.
The Lakers go, they go to the Finals and lose
to the Celtics. They beat the Magic, and that was
the coronation of Kobe Bryant, who then changed the image
that he had, not quite overnight, but a very short
(03:26):
period of time, because in early in his career he
was the petulant, immature kid. And then Eagle Colorado happened,
and no one really knew what to make of Kobe
after the sexual assault allegations, and then after that case
was settled, he's moved on. This is six years later,
and the NBA sort of came around to Kobe Bryant,
and Kobe became much more beloved. Why it wasn't so
(03:50):
much that Kobe changed on the core, because he was
still a guy that was gonna make his teammates cry
and practice the famous story of making Sasha Willach Cryant
practice for being hard on his teammates. He was still
the same guy. But when Kobe came up, it was
Kobe Bryant as a rookie. First couple of years in
the NBA, you're talking about some of the most loved
players of all time. But the best images you could
possibly have Michael Jordan, Karl Alone, Shaquille O'Neil, Clyde Drexler,
(04:14):
you know, Charles Barkley was, Oh my god, every time
the guy opens his mouth, it's awesome. He so exciting,
he says so many great things. So it's hard for Kobe,
who looks like, oh, here's a young kid coming and
he wants to be a star right away. But then
all those guys go, all those guys retire, Gary Payton,
they all retire, and then who is the NBA left with.
It's Kobe, It's Lebron James, who hadn't won and it's
(04:35):
very polarizing. And Tim Duncan, who was really boring. So
here's Kobe who was as exciting as it is, still
hitting game winning shots, reinventing himself as the Mamba. And
suddenly it's okay. You know what, Kobe's basketball faults we
can forgive now. The Eagle Colorado stuff is separate. But
the basketball faults, well, maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe
we can now see him as a ladder day Jordan,
(04:56):
where he always wanted to get more out of his
teammates and co be became someone who was only about winning.
You know, you can get lip service for that earlier
in your career, but he was all about winning and
in the league win. A lot of stars like the
lifestyle because NBA stars like I like getting paid a
lot of money. I'd like playing basketball every night and
if the team is good, we're in the playoffs and winning, Hey,
(05:17):
that's great, we can win a title. But it's not
something that drives every player to say I want to
win and win as much as possible. Kobe was not
a guy for load maintenance. Kobe went, can met Kobe
playing now load mainten? No, I'm playing. I'm gonna play
on the score fifty. He was about winning. And when
you're about winning, you are going to appeal to all
of the fans because we don't care as much about
(05:38):
load maintenance or hey, we have to tank this year
to get better. Now, we want our teams to win.
And Kobe, no matter what he did, he was about that,
hitting free throws with a torn achilles and that's what
brought fans back to Kobe Bryant well. And there were
so many stories that came through right he became old
school without changing, like just by default, as the world
changed around him, and we we heard all these stories
(06:02):
being told by the legends of the game, the folks
around the Lakers, guys like James Worthy saying, hey, you
know what, before you're seventeen, As his body was starting
to break down a bit, hey teach me. Can you
teach me how to work in the post? Better? Can
you teach me how to douggie? Everybody loved have done
that too. I didn't needed to learn how to dance.
I mean better for footwork, right, but just the idea
(06:23):
of all right, there's always something from somebody's game I
can borrow and make my own and get back in
the gym and work it out. You know. The final
year I was frustrated. I had part of a season
ticket package. You and I have talked about this on
our show a Fox Sports Radio. You got to see
Lou Williams a lot. That became my guy, became my guy.
But at the time, you're frustrated because I'm trying to
(06:45):
take my daughters and you're trying to teach them about
work ethic. You're trying to teach them about you know,
what it takes. And Kobe was the embodiment of that.
But you knew his body was breaking. So in jest
I always laughed, Hey, I started to love Lou Williams,
but you recognize dude just wouldn't go yeah like he
he would dunk. It was rare, you know, like and
it wouldn't be a power dunk, it'd be one of those.
(07:06):
All right. I got up enough and I get back
on d and and move on. So Kobe who it
was hard for the Lakers to get free agents to
come play for for them? What did they want to
come play with Kobe his very strong personality. It was
very difficult. Also, he was at odds with the Lakers
because they wouldn't go out and spend money on free agents.
(07:27):
That year they spent the most money of any team
on player salaries, over a hundred and twelve million dollars.
They go out and they get Ron our tests to
sign and Ron ar test before he became met a
world peace picked his spots and he became so huge.
We're gonna get to him later on in the podcast.
But just a real quick story on Ron Artest who
came in. Look, he had the reputation he was. He
(07:50):
was out there, you know, the malice and the Palace,
the brawl. What was Ron Artests gonna be Now he's
in Los Angeles? My goodness, what are you gonna get
from him? But the day he saw he came to
do all kinds of interviews. Right, So he comes to
do interviews to do anyways in all kinds of shows.
And this is back when I was doing All night
on ESPN Radio. And so where our radio station is
(08:12):
located was at Staples Center, right next to where ESPN
did does the Late Sports Center from so my producer
because I'm in l A my producers in Connecticut. He says, Jason,
go downstairs. Ron Artest is gonna meet you downstairs. Go
get and bring him up. He's gonna you're gonna get
to interview him for the show. I'm like, awesome, Like
I shouldn't have to go down and get Ron our Test.
But I'm by myself. Somebody else this talent. So I
(08:34):
walk over the TV to I walk over the TV
building right where where is the production assistant to go
do this? So I walk over, I walk in and
I'm gonna meet Ron our Test here. So I walked
and I tell the security guards, Hey, I'm here to
meet Ron our Test. I'm Jason Smith from ESPN Radio
and I got run our Test coming. And they go,
oh okay. So they call somebody. I'm figuring they're gonna
bring Run our Test out and suddenly this guy comes out.
(08:55):
I have no idea who he is. He says his
name was Steve, and he's like the guy in charge
of the billy security is I'm sorry, sir, what are
you here for? You said, I'm here for Ron Artest
I'm with ESPN. I'm supposed to meet him here to
do an interview. Do you have any identification? I go, yeah,
I have my I D so I show him my ID. Goes,
this is an ABC identification. This is not an ESPN identification.
I go, yeah, I work in the building here. I
(09:15):
worked for seven ten We're in the ABC building. I
don't work in this building. I work in the right
right here at points it's right across the street. He goes, yeah, no,
you can't come in here without this I D. I go, uh, okay,
I'm supposed to be here. You can ask anybody up
there producing who's there? He goes, well, who's there? Who
can I call? And I say the name of the
executive producer up there? Goes Nope, she's not here tonight.
(09:37):
And I go, obviously I know who she is. If
you could just call upstairs and tell them I'm here,
they will bring him down. They know I'm coming. And
the guy wouldn't do it. And I was so mad
to get him fired. Well, you know what, I didn't
get him fired, but he got a lot of trouble
the next day because I went back and I called, uh,
my manager, Scott Schapiro, who's now our manager here at
Fox Sports Radio, and I told her what happened. He
(10:00):
got right on it, and he apologized and he felt
bad about it, supposedly, and then he wound up quitting
Slash getting fired like a few weeks later. Yeah, the
writing was on the wall. I was. I was so
mad with a little bit of power. He was, uh,
you know, a ruler like I was a guy off
the street. You know, I'm here. I'm here. Bring him
to call upstairs, Call upstairs to sports Center. Call. Did
(10:21):
the badge have a picture of you with Mitchell he's
producing call. I gave him all the names. Nope, not here.
It's like, nope, she's not here. Okay, you're just on
a power trip. Man, You are just on a power trip.
Sometimes you run into those obstacles. Man. Lamar Odom also left.
He didn't blow me off an interviewer, have did you
every fine metal world peace? Oh yeah, yeah, Well we've
(10:42):
had him on the show. But I meant, but I
meant that now he went up. He left. He thought
he was doing a radio interview with that left. He
had a great conversation. He was writing it a when
we had met a world peace. In a year ago,
he was writing an erotic novel, right erotic science fiction.
Erotic science fiction. He was writing. Yes, he gave us
(11:03):
a little bit of a sketch offer, and we looked
at each other and said that's a little sketch. But
he was very excited about. Yeah. We had fun. Uh
so that was run our Test. Who comes in and
lamar Odom almost left. Pat Riley brought him in. They
want him to go sign with the Miami Heat. He
almost did, but in the very end, cooler heads prevailed.
(11:25):
He returned to the Lakers for thirty three million dollar contracts.
So now they go out and they get run our Test.
In the off season, lamar Odom is back and the
Lakers are loaded up going for their second straight NBA title. Now,
since it's the two thousand nine, two thousand ten Los
Angeles Lakers, let's look it back a little bit at
what happened in the magical year of two thousand and
(11:45):
ten as the Lakers got set four back to back championships.
It was the year in which Reggie Bush announced he
would forfeit the Heisman Trophy, gonna get it back. So
much lost, so dumb parents got a house. It's just
it's a trophy that would be in the house. Yeah,
(12:06):
it's fine, take it. If only there were fewer zeros
associated with the house, they would have just they wouldn't
have cared. Do you think he gave back the real
trophy or do you think that he had a had
a double made and he switched it. I think it
was a chocolate repless what are you doing? I'm eating
Reggie Bush's eyes. When Trophy started knowing at it, they
said it was Shockley. Hey, why is that guinea pig
(12:28):
eating that trophy? I don't understand. Brett farve streak of
two straight games started ended in Minnesota the week after
the Metrodome collapsed. They had to move and play in
Ford Field, and Brett Farve did not start that game,
so his consecutive game streak was over. I remember the
Metrodome collapsing. That video was so odd. I was here
(12:50):
to see that. You see the snow and everything comes
down here in Fox Sports Radio and it's like, wait
a minute. What The Yukon women had their nine d
game wind streak and after losing to Stanford, and I
gotta be honest, if you were on that team, the
people who came before. You are never gonna let you
forget that you lave, you broke the ninety game wins.
(13:11):
You don't get to go to any of the banquets.
He get nothing. Yeah, but Gino Rim said I could go. No, sorry,
you can't make it. You can't make it now you're
out of the club. So that's where things stood for
the Los Angeles Lakers, who look, this is a team
that was returning a roster mainly of players who were
absolute stars. Kobe Bryant was the captain, Derek Fisher was
(13:34):
was still here, getting a little bit long in the tooth.
But it was lamar Odom, it was pal Gasol, it
was the Lakers front court throwing Andrew bind fantastic. He
also brought in Shannon Brown who played a big role
playing guard for them a little bit. Remember Adam Morrison
was on this team. But the Lakers front court and
Kobe Bryant dominated so many games. We look, there's a
(13:56):
reason they're the defending champs, and and they brought back
all of their strength and this season went on, it
was the front court that really started to get things done.
And it was okay that lamar Odom wasn't every other
game guy because you had players who could fill in,
and certainly Ron art Test was one of those players where, hey,
if you're an every other game guy, lamar odom I
could be in every other game guy. Together every night,
(14:17):
we're great. It worked out pretty well in that regard.
You forgot one huge loss as Kurt Rambis took his
goggles to Minnesota. He did he did well, Kurt kept
coming back Kurian. Kurt Rambis had his chance to coach
the team, and then he came back under Phil Jackson
and Phil Jackson one and when things worked out and
forth exactly so. Coming up next, it was the regular
(14:40):
season for the two thousand nine two thousand ten Los
Angeles Lakers. As we celebrate Kobe Bryant's final championship with
the Lakers all the drama of the NBA Finals still
to come here Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike
Harmon Perfect Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon
(15:12):
our podcast this week looking back at the final championship
of the career of Kobe Bryant as the Lakers win
the NBA title in two thousand ten, defeating the Celtics
in seven games. And one of the things the Lakers
and Kobe dealt with this season were a lot of injuries.
You know, right off the bat of this season, Pal
Gasol gets hurt, lamar Odom has to come into the
(15:34):
starting lineup, Gasol comes back, and the Lakers go on
a big run. We'll have more in Gasol in the
second but throughout the second half of the season, because
the Lakers got out to a big start the first
few months, they had to deal with injuries to Kobe,
Bryant and lamar Odom and Andrew buying him and buying
them even throughout the playoffs, Sashavulia, chich Bill Walton, They
had to deal with that the second half, and they
(15:54):
were in a great team. They still ended up with
the top seed overall in the playoffs in the Western Conference.
But this wasn't easy by any means. I mean, they
had to have they had to patch work their team
together all year. No, and that's that's what mulds you
into a champion eventually, because you're gonna have to steal minutes.
You and I talked about it all the time. When
you look at NBA titles and the number of games
(16:14):
and minutes that have to be played that you've got
to find those one game, one or two games in
each series where that third score, fourth score, whoever ever
it is, comes off the bench, gives you some decent minutes.
We talked about it in college buckets with the n
C double a turn and look, you gotta win six times.
Not often do you have one or two superstars carrying
you through. And for this Lakers team, between the largest
(16:37):
of the coaching staff and their histories and and pageantry
of what they'd had, they knew what to do right
because they've been through some of the grinds before, very
long tenured trainer, all of those trying to figure out
how to cobble together a team. And when you got
a guy like Kobe, like you said, a guy that
wouldn't sit down even with an injury, and how many
(16:58):
guys outside of him or what are they missed in
three weeks a month taking a nice ski vacation. Now
he plays every down. Kobe actually did get hurt this year. Now,
First he fractured his right index finger in December and
didn't miss the game. First couple of months he hit
three buzzer beaters, uh that won games for the Lakers.
(17:18):
Finally he does succumb to an injury and sat out
a game on February six for the first time since
two thousand and seven. Right, and then the days of
load maintenance. And that's one thing that you know, Kobe
Bryant playing, You know, if he was playing now when
load maintenance has never been any more important than it
is now with Kawhi Leonard sitting out every other game
(17:38):
in Lebron and business decisions. Kobe wasn't a load maintenance guy.
If he could play, he was gonna play, and he
played until physically he couldn't play anymore. I mean, would
there be nights the Lakers say, hey, take tonight off,
all right, but they'd be once in a while, once
in a great while. We saw that in his final year.
That's the only time you really physically but that was
basically done. But in his prime, there's no way he'd
(18:00):
be sitting out games. He might sit out. You know what, Kobe,
you've played in the first twenty five games. We have
three games and five nights. We're gonna sit you out
the second the back to back here and then you're
not gonna sit from the twenty five games. I mean
That's something I could see him doing. But the blatant
you know, hey, we're sitting out one game every couple
of weeks like Hypa Zambia. Now, he would never do it. No,
there would have to be some major considerations to allow
(18:24):
for that, right, I mean in terms of looking at
how the roster's constructed. Maybe in the gravest of circumstances,
but just not the way he was dialed in. Now,
while the bulk of this podcast, we're gonna talk about
Kobe Bryant, Like I said, it was his last championship,
and you know it's his second straight NBA Finals m
v P. With time to look back at the greatness
(18:45):
of the Lakers and this second coming of the Lakers,
which was built around Kobe, whereas the first time when
they won three championships in a row, was built around
Shack and Kobe. Is that the acquisition of Pau Gasol
immediately turned the Lakers into a championship caliber team. Immediately
after getting Pau Gasol on a trade, they went on
a big run and it was a different team. The
(19:07):
contributions of Gasol and lamar Odom are not given enough
credit because even though lamar Odom was an every other
game guy for most of his career and the talent
level head he was always one of the top three
most talented players in the NBA because of what he
could do his length. But every other game he was
he you know, he was every other game guy. But
(19:27):
as every other game was fantastic. It would be nights
with fourteen assists for Lamar Odom. Here's a night with
thirty five points. Here's a night where Lamar had ten
points and twenty one rebounds. His every other game was amazing.
And when you can build the depth from the front
court the Lakers had, you can afford to have Lamar
Odom play good every other game, especially this year, because
you had run our Test. Who would be able to
(19:49):
take up the slack. So this Lakers team, this front
court was so deep, and it's not like you had
to get it from one guy every night. You had
the consistency of Kobe, the consistency of Pau Gasol buying
him when he was in the lineup. You know, our
test every other night owed him every other night. You
had that and it worked well. It's funny because you
mentioned those two guys in terms of Odom and run
(20:09):
Our Test, Slash Metal World, Peace, slash Panda is your friend,
all whatever, whatever you want to go by a guy
who you know, as the tributes float out for Kobe
Bryant was was prominent and just saying, hey, raise a
glass and celebrate the greatness. But Andrew Binham is a
guy that I think his career because of what it became, right,
(20:31):
very short lived in terms of success and prominence. People
forget him also as to exactly how important that was,
because that was that was a career year. I mean
fifteen and eight. Odom was at ten point eight, nine
point eight, giving you three assists a game, good balance,
and one of those guys watching games as we do
(20:51):
and doing our show on five Sports Radio, it drove
your nuts. And I think if he were, and he's
been very honest in interviews that he's done. But there
there was just wasted time, an awful lot of wasted
time and opportunity along the way. But here he got
five guys have finished in double digits averaging you know,
at least ten point eight points per game, led by Bryant,
(21:14):
So you always had someone to step up, and there
were enough veteran voices in the room to make sure
that you never got into a lull. So for the Lakers.
The big highlight for Kobe this year was in Memphis,
he passed Jerry West to become the Lakers all time
leading score. A very big moment for him is now
(21:34):
he's starting to hit the big milestone part of his career.
With the Los Angeles Lakers, they finished with a fifty
seven and twenty five record. They are first in the
Pacific again. They kind of meander through the stretch run,
but they just started out so hot and they won
so many games that they kind of coasted in. They
going to lose six of the their final nine, right,
so at least raises an eyebrow of did they gas? Right?
(21:58):
Are they done? They go into the playoffs and their
first round was against the Oklahoma City Thunder. And this
is Oklahoma who was becoming, Hey, we're gonna hit our
peak very soon with Kde and Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
But here they beat them in the first round. Oklahoma
City's athleticism kept him in it. But the big game,
pal Gasol hits a layup with one second left to
(22:20):
win Game six and the series. This wasn't a Kobe series.
This was a gasol Odom bind him series because what
the Lakers front court was able to do, what these
guys are able to do in beating Oklahoma City, it
was their series. A. Kobe still had a good series,
but this wasn't one where boy Kobe at five games
of thirty or more points. It was those three guys
getting it done. And they move on to the second round.
(22:41):
Needed to be well rounded. I mean, and again goes
back to the the veterans stepping up because you know
the defense and as much as we much maligned defense
of some of those young guys from Oklahoma City, let's
face it, those are things that will they'll carry for
their career. I mean, still collapsing on Kobe. Bryant finished
with thirty two and that clincher, but you needed others
(23:02):
to step in. Second round, they get the Utah Jazz
and the Lakers front court was dominant. But as Utah adjusted,
l A started hitting threes and it was a very
quick series, and this was a Kobe series thirty points
at least in all four games, and it was easy
dispatching of the Jazz, moving on to the Western Conference
(23:22):
Finals where they would meet the Phoenix Suns. Kobe scores
forty in game one. He has thirteen assistant Game two,
and this series is known for a very big play
not involved in Kobe Bryant. It was a Kobe air
ball in Game five, Ron our Test rebounds it puts
in the game winner. And our Test had a great series.
(23:43):
Here just for a second, on Ron our Test is
that this air ball was Oh my god, the Lakers
could be given away this series, but Ron Artest gets
the rebound, hits a shot, and it's arguably his first
or second best Laker moment. He had a big moment
in the NBA Finals. We're gonna get to in a
few minutes, but up in until this point, this was
his signature moment. Here's run our Test hitting a shot
(24:04):
where hey, Kobe air balded and now the Lakers looked
like they're gonna move on because of him. Well that's
for run our Test, right place, right time. And you
always held your breath when he did shoot. Yes, it
was no, no, no, no, no, oh good shot, good shot. Good.
Even if he was early in the game, it would
be like, all right, just stop because it's gonna the
buckets are gonna run out. Start start, working the ball,
(24:25):
and this was an opportunity of you know, Johnny on
the spot. Lakers were the three games to to lead.
They win Game six. Kobe Bryant leads the way thirty
seven points. Roun Our Test had twenty five. So the
Lakers get to the NBA Finals. Were awaiting them a
rematch with the Boston Celtics, who had knocked them out
and won the title two years before Kevin Garnett's big
(24:46):
anything is possible? Or was I supposed to say nothing
is impossible? What was the slogan I was supposed to
say on national television to make money? I forget what?
What did we trademark? This was such a big moment
for Kobe in his NBA career because as much as
he had won, he won three championships with Shack as
(25:07):
a one A, and now he had won one as
a one beating the Magic losing to the Celtics. If
he lost to the Celtics again, that would really damage
his legacy because hey, hey, Kobe was great, but you
know what, Magic got the better the Celtics. Kareem got
the better the Celtics. Worthy got the better. Celtics don't
get the better of us. And so even though Kobe
(25:28):
look right now, you could look back at him as
the greatest Laker. I mean it's really he and Magic Johnson,
and he won Magic and the the largesse of the tragedy.
But also I would make that argument, yeah, look and
Magic always one with Kareem you know, you know, Michael
(25:49):
Cooper and go on down the list of Hall of famers,
not to denigrate the career Magic Johnson, which was great.
So we play that game of who did you play
with to make you eight? Wakay, alright, but it's always
he had shocks like well, I mean, go look at
the laundry list of guys I had wrought our test.
(26:11):
Oh alright, alright, alright, I mean really, because this is
a moment where you think of him now, is the
greatest Laker? Had he lost this second series to the Celtics,
He's not the greatest Lakers. Boy, I love Kobe. Man,
we lost to the Celtics twice. I mean that's what
it would be. Man, We lost the Celtics twice well
and at the time, and it still has its resonance,
(26:31):
right because they don't get to get together very often.
The way the schedules are worked. Eventually, the NBA will
probably make some change to that and startain mixing it
up more like Major League Baseball has. But you look
at the Lakers and Celtics. I mean, that's our childhood, right,
all those great teams and all of those Juggernauts and
(26:53):
Hall of famers, And this was the last act of that,
at least, as you and I sit together talking on
this podcast. So the Lakers are set to meet the
Celtics in the finals. It's seven games of blood on
the floor and hair on the walls, heroics from Kobe,
heroics from surprising places. As we continue here special teams
(27:14):
with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. So here we are
Lakers Celtics, second final in three years. Kobe Bryant's career,
(27:38):
defining legacy with the Lakers is up in this series.
We all look forward to it again. It was all
video of the series two years ago. But then they
show you know, you've got magic and you have Larry
and all the great video from the eighties and millennials
are going. Who are these guys. I don't know who
any of these players are. It begins in game one,
(27:58):
goes to the Lakers co he scores thirty points and
Boston never threatens. They looked horrendous in Game one and
it was boy, the Lakers just that much better. Are
they just gonna boat race the Celtics all the way through?
I mean, they never threaten in Game one, and you're thinking,
oh boy, this is just gonna be a Laker route.
Game two was a different story. Boston is more aggressive.
(28:19):
Ray Allen hits eight three pointers, region Rondo with a
triple double. He scored ten points in the fourth quarter
as the Celtics win Game two. I mean, Rajon Rondo
not just a triple double, but back when he could
score ten points in a quarter, You're like, come on, man,
that's the way. That's what he could never score. You also,
remember this is a decade ago. I mean, that's that's
(28:41):
the other part of it. Even when he was at
his best, he never was a big score ten points
in the fourth quarter. Everybody's got one or two barages
in them. Uh. On the NBA level, right, we see
it every night as we broadcast on Fox Sports radis
like that guy did what seven including how many in
the fourth like his career high twelve? You know, those
kind of things. And for Rondo. He did come up
(29:03):
big and big games. After the one oh win, the
series shifts back to Boston for three games and the
Lakers go out and they take Game three four. Derek
Fisher played many more minutes than expected. Pal Gasol was
not playing well. Fisher hits four straight shots. He scores
eleven points in the fourth quarter. Kobe scores once in
(29:27):
the fourth quarter, but it's enough. He had twenty nine
total for the game, and it was a night for him,
and it was one. It was one of those games that, look,
we're fond of saying this. Anytime you see a team
winning a championship, there's always one or two games where
the best player doesn't play at his best and the
supporting cast carries him and it's unexpected. Sources, no one
(29:48):
expected Derek Fisher to be a guy to go for
sixteen points in this game. And yeah, I mean no
one expected that, but it's the unexpected contribution. Derek Fisher
won this game for the Acres. They take a two
games to one lead. Yeah, just a tremendous game. Six
or twelve from the field. For his sixteen points. You
look at Gassol and buying them while they weren't huge offensively,
(30:11):
they only combined for twenty two points. They they talied
twenty rebounds, so helping push things get those extra opportunities.
Game four, the Boston Celtics come back and they even
the series of two games apiece. The Boston bench is fantastic,
Andrew buying him misses the second half with a knee injury.
So now we have a brand new series headed to
Game five, and this injury would kind of dog buying
(30:33):
him the rest of the series. He'd be in and
out of the lineup. Well, I'd be remiss if I
didn't talk about the eight team points off the bench
in twenty three minutes from Glen Big Baby Davis. I mean,
you know, that's when I think back to those Celtics teams,
that one that beat the Lakers and and the one
that sent them to seven games, is I don't think
of Pearson, Garnett, Ray Allen. I think of James Posey
(30:53):
raining down threes, you know, two years before to win this,
and I think of players like Glenn Davis and and
Leon Leon Poe having big games. You know, for the Celtics,
it was their supporting cast that really kept them afloat
in a lot of games, one of the championship and
nearly one of the second one. But look at this
game four, right, Allan with twelve, Pierce leads them with nineteen,
but then you have Davis with eighteen off the bench,
(31:15):
and Nate Robinson one of the great stories of the
last decade plus in the NBA. But you know he's
got twelve points on four of eight shooting two or
four from three point range and a plus eight, so
valuable minutes off the benches. This series got extended. Game
five goes to the Celtics as well, eighties six. Kobe
(31:37):
scores thirty eight, but he was the only Laker with
a big game. Boston's big three was Garnette Pierson, Rajean
Rondo eighteen eight and five rebounds. Another big game from Rondo,
and now the Celtics are one game away from the
NBA title. But in the end, the Lakers did what
they had to do. They went into Boston, they won
(31:58):
one game and that was gonna send back to l
A and the Lakers now have two chances. You gotta
win both games to win the NBA type. Yeah, this
game just a game of starters. The benches combined to
score twenty seven points fourteen thirteen Lakers edge. Olthowise just
starting five might as well have just sent everybody else home,
uh and rolled it out. We can go back and
(32:18):
watch some of the tapes of this and again it's
Rondo eighteen and eight showing again on a big stage
because ray Allen wasn't shooting particularly well, uh and and
he wasn't taking a ton of shots, so someone else
needed to step up. You know, this series now, when
it gets back to l A, you could tell that
both teams started to run out of gas because baskets
(32:39):
were hard to come by, and these were two great
offensive teams. When you look at the final scores in
this series, you add the Lakers break a hundred points
in game one, the Celtics break a hundred points in
game two, and that's it, right, you know, that was
it the end of the series. Even Kobe Bryant said
following Game seven, I had nothing left because he had
he didn't have a great shooting night in Game seven.
And I remember when they asked him after the game, Kobe,
(33:00):
you seem to struggle tonight. He said, I had nothing left.
You I was going on guts and stamina and and
I really have anything left. And you go to Game
six and the Celtics clearly are deflated even further because
this was Kendrick Perkins getting hurt early, suffering a torn
PCL and m c L in the first quarter. Left
a huge hole on defense, a huge hole on the boards,
(33:22):
and the Lakers just blow the doors off of the
Celtics seven their bench outscores the Celtics zero. Alright, Celtics
did not get a point off the bench tonight again,
buying him left with knee swelling. I mean, Boston's forever
gonna say, if Perkins didn't get hurt, we would have
won the NBA title. Doc Rivers has even said that
many times the past couple of years. Well you know
(33:43):
we're undefeated with Perkins running. Well, okay, well you still lost.
You're not getting a title for that. But here's the thing.
Perks more than capable of speaking up for himself and
telling you how great. Yes he is, Yes he is,
And I appreciate the hell out of him. Every time
he opens his mouth. I lean forward in my chair
because I don't know where the story is gonna go.
And yeah, maybe that's true, it doesn't matter. We say
(34:05):
that all the time. You can't take away the title
and just caveat and out. If this guy got hurt, look,
buying him missed the equivalent of a game and a half.
You know, he look, you miss Kendrick Perkins. They're missing
Andrew buying him, and he missed a lot of time
to look. Like I said, this was a war of
attrition these last couple of games of this series. You're
talking about final scores of sixty seven in game six
(34:27):
and eight three seventy nine in game seven. This is
not gonna set the world on fire. Yeah, but I mean,
just look at little contribution you're and what you're looking
for from your benches. You're trying to eat some minutes,
but they're not shooting the ball. It's just who's got
a warm body that can steal three or four minutes
to get your star, some gatorade, some whatever nutrients you
(34:47):
need back in and get and roll them back out there. So,
you know, leaving everything on the court for those forty
eight there's nothing else but nothing left by time you
get to the end of the series. So the Lakers
had to Game seven tied with the Celtics, and it
looked like the Celtics, we're gonna run them out of
the gym. In the second half, they had a forty
nine thirty six lead, and it was wow. The Celtics.
(35:08):
Perkins is out there reeling. They're gonna find a way
to beat the Lakers at Staples Center and win Game seven.
Lakers call it twenty second time out. That was it,
twenty second time out. Different team. When they got back
on the floor, they started cutting into the lead. Derek
Fisher hit some threes, Pal Gasol made some clutch plays.
They come all the way back. They take the lead
(35:29):
deep into the fourth quarter, and when it looks like
the Lakers were at the point where they could salt
the game away, Boston keeps chipping away. Now the Lakers lead,
it's six, it's down to three, it's seven, it's down
to four, it's six, it's down to three. There came
to a point at the end of this game where
it looked like the Lakers were gonna put the Celtics away,
but the Celtics didn't go gentle into that good night.
(35:51):
The Lakers would be up six, the Celtics would hit
a three, they'd be up five. The Celtics would get
a bucket. And it came to the point where the
Lakers were protecting a three point lead with not much
time left, and every point now it's this has gotta
be Kobe, This has gotta be Kobe. Gotta be Kobe,
and ron our Test hits the three to give the
(36:11):
Lakers a six point lead, when every single Laker fan
is going no, no, no, no, no again, ron Artest,
no no, no, no, no oh, what a great shot.
And you and I have talked to him before, and
we've gone through these moments, and you when he tells
stories of these games and I got the ball from
Kobe and whatever else, his eyes get wide light saucers.
(36:34):
They needed every bit of ron our Test in this game.
I mean, who knew you need every bit of ron
our Test that game? Right, It's it's just an insane
box score. When you go through and watching the sequences.
The benches have really no impact from a scoring perspective.
It's nine six Odom and Vulla Chich total of nine
(36:57):
against six for Big Baby Davis. The ben for the Celtics.
Davis plays about twenty one minutes and that's it. Tony
Allen five minutes, twenty seconds Nate Robinson three and a
half minutes and Scalambreedy got in for fifty one seconds.
That's it. But that's it. That's all you got from
the bench. It's basically, hey guys, this is how far
we got this game seven, you got it. Take care
(37:20):
of it. Our test three comes with about a minute
left to go, and okay, that turned out to be
the big backbreaker, but the Celtics still hit a shot
and they still cut the lead, and Kobe misses, but
Pau Gasol gets the rebound, gets the ball back to Kobe.
The Celtics have no choice but the foul Kobe Bryant.
Kobe hits both free throws after Gasol rebounds Kobe's missed three,
(37:42):
which is a really big deal because still even with
that three from Ron Artest, the Celtics still had a chance.
Boston then gets another bucket and it's like, oh my god,
it's Boston ever gonna go away? What's gonna happen? And
then Sasha willia Chich, who we talked about the very
beginning of the podcast. It made a very quick reference
to him. He was one player that Kobe Bryant made
(38:03):
cry at practice because he was so tough on him,
want him to tough enough. Volia Chich hits two big
free throws with eleven seconds left to give the Lakers
a four point lead. Rondo mss A three, Lakers get
the rebound, they win eighty three seventy nine, and the
Lakers are NBA champions. They withstand all the way to
the buzzer. This was one of those where you want
(38:25):
to stand up and applaud both teams after because you
could tell none of them had anything left and it
was just throwing. It's like the end of our You're
throwing punches. It's like the second Rocky Apollo fight. They're
just circling each other and throwing. Rocky's bleeding from his
eye and Apollo you can't even see his eyes. They're
just throwing punches and in back and punches. That's what
(38:45):
the end of this was like three seventy nine. You
know what the poison pens would be out for a
finals game that ends Because if you told me that
scoring game seven, what's your first thought, which which pistons tea? Yeah,
it was that was that? Oh that was when the
first one, first time or when they were back, was
(39:06):
that when they lost to the Spurs. It was seventy nine. Um,
Kobe still wound up with a game high twenty three
and still had ten in the fourth quarter, proving that
even when Kobe would have moments like this, like you know,
he misses the big three but Palgasol gets the rebound,
he still was great. I mean, this is the game
where if you said, hey, Kobe had ten in the
fourth quarter, but because you expected him to make every
(39:28):
big clutch shot, it would seem like, uh, Kobe didn't
have a great game, no shooting, he didn't have a
great game. But still he had high point total and
he scored ten in the fourth quarter. When you know
you're not scoring a lot of points there, three points
won this game. That's a really big deal. Twenty three
and fifteen on the night he was eleven and fifteen
from the file line for the night six of twenty four.
(39:49):
Pretty much anybody else, you'd take the ball from them
after a while, But who else are you gonna get it?
Like Kobe. Eventually you're gonna find your shot. No, no,
the the legs were gone afterwards. I'll always remember ron
our test and his and his press conference because this
was when he brought his entire family to the press conference,
and it was everybody had his kids, his wife, and
(40:10):
he introducing everybody and he goes, hi, all right, this
is my wife, and this is this and I'm ron
and and he goes all the way through. He has
his whole family up there. Phil Jackson talked about the
role that ron Our Test played in winning the game.
He called him like the most valuable player of the game,
even though Kobe won his second straight NBA Finals m
v P. But this goes to show you that as
great a player as Kobe was, look, you need help
(40:33):
to win, and he got to help the first time
around with Pau Gasol. And it wasn't a great Magic
team that they beat in the finals. This was a
really great Celtics team, and he had all the help
he needed with our Test and Odomankase. I mean, this
was probably the best of all of those Laker teams,
even though it was only together for a very short
period of time. Because eventually Lamar Odom he gets sick
and tired of his act and they move on and
(40:54):
Palgosol gets older and ron our Tests, you know, only
has so much time before he turns into some Okay,
he's not quite the player he used to be, but
this moment in time, this was that best Laker team. Right,
Derek Fisher was getting older, and you look at just
on down the line, right Andrew by Him had his flash.
Jordan's farm are guys that you had some quality minutes
(41:16):
from through the regular season. They weren't long for being
with the team. And just for the Ron artests that
he he averaged eleven points per game during the regular
season clincher, he's the guy making the difference scoring twenty.
So I mean it's just a strange game and an
EBB and flow, but also a testament to the way
(41:36):
those teams both were constructed. Yeah, Kobe was the only
player to average more than twenty points a game in
the series. He averaged a game high point high man
for the Celtics, and in that series was Paul Pierce
with eight. Team. I mean, look look at what the
Lakers did. You had Kobe with twenty eight. Then it
was Pal Gasol who was eighteen and eleven. Then you
had our test with ten, Andrew by Him had seven,
(41:59):
Derek Fisher was eight. Lamar Odom only average seven points
a game in this series. You know he he had
a rougher NBA Finals than anybody else did, but look,
it's that was it across the board. This this was hey,
we are we are throwing all kinds of haymakers at
each other, and clearly Kobe Bryant stood head and shoulders
above everybody else because without Kobe's ability to put the
ball in the basket when points were at a premium,
(42:21):
this is the Celtics winning another title. Instead, it cements
the legend you put the five up, five greater than
Shaquille's four. And you know, even you heard Shack say
that after uh Kobe passed. He was very emotional on
T and T in the in the nights following the
fatal h helicopter accident, where Shack was saying, you know,
(42:43):
we're not gonna be able to joke around that his
Hall of Fame induction where he would say five is
greater than four because Shaq would always say I won
the battle with Kobe because I won the first title.
But then Kobe could say, yeah, but I won two
and I stayed and so now my five is greater
than your four. And you know that's that's been That's
a big debate to this Shack Kobe debate, that's always
gonna live. Look, that's part of the emotions that come
(43:05):
out of Shaquille O'Neal to of what his career became. Right,
he got that title and he's revered, and he's gone
on to great success as a commentator. I don't know
that there's anything more entertaining on television. You got Fox
NFL Sunday and you got Inside the NBA. Those are
the two. Those are the two hallmarks to everything. But
with Shaquille O'Neal, there's gotta there's gonna be regret. Whether
(43:26):
he's he's really expressed it yet, I've heard it in
bits and pieces. Right when you start talking about what
the end of his career became, leaves Los Angeles, goes
to Miami, great, but then you have stops in Cleveland
and Boston and all these other things. You know, dancing
with the Jabberwocky's is great, But you talk about Kobe
(43:48):
being able to finish twenty years in the Laker uniform
versus moving and bouncing around and trying to find fits,
fighting health issues, some of which was caused by not
taking care of your body early. For Shaquille O'Neill, So
I mean there's beyond the personal rift, there also had
to be some personal jealousy of how he was able
to stay on a straight path instead of the hop
(44:10):
scotch that Shaquille O'Neil played. And this was the title
that cemented all of that well, and that's the thing
for Kobe. And you know, let's let's let's end here
with this with Kobe because the one thing about him
that endeared him defans through everything throughout his life. And
you've heard so many different tributes to Kobe over the
course of the past a few days, and you're gonna
continue to hear of the coming weeks and months, is that.
(44:33):
You know, Shaq was always about fun. He knew he
needed to win any one. Did Shaq really try to
get better every day? No, because he would have developed
more than one post movie, would have developed a way
to dominate the games as he got older, would have
taken care of his body a little bit more. Kobe
always wanted to get better. He was always about winning.
He was always about the edge over my opponent. In
(44:55):
that way, he was the most like Michael Jordan that
we had seen, because that's what he wanted and that's
what fans come to games for. Because while fans understand
we have to tank to get better, they understand we
have to trade this player because he makes too much money.
We gotta get into the salary cap. Whatever sport we're
talking about, the one thing that always brings you back
is I want my team to win. And Kobe wanted
(45:17):
to win. Body be damned, everything else be damned. I
want to win. That's why I'm shooting free throws with
a torn achilles. That's why I'm I'm trying to score
sixty and win my final game in the NBA. He
was always about winning and there was nothing else about it.
And in a league where a lot of players enjoy
the lifestyle of the NBA and look, not that they
don't want to win, but how many players are obsessed
(45:39):
with winning like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James for a long
time in his career, it's making business decision after business decision.
Kobe just wanted to go out and win. There are
a few players like that, but no one like him.
And while players enjoy the lifestyle, they enjoy being stars,
they enjoy playing. They get to the playoffs. Now we're
trying to win. Kobe was obsessed with that every single day,
well all the way through the twenty years, and he
(46:00):
into when the body was starting to betray him. It
became all right, how do I become a more affected
player in my final years? Right? More jump shots, the
fade away, the footwork on the post. We talked a
little bit earlier about the James Worthy conversation, you know
that he called him, going, hey, help me work work
down on the knock. It was like, what do you
(46:20):
mean You're you're going into your seventeen What am I
going to teach you? I? Yeah, It's like you're Kobe Bryant,
what do you what do you want? But still trying
to pick people's brains, And it's it's as a fan
of sport, and that's what gets us all behind the microphone,
keeps us paying for different packages, whether it's the ticket
or whatever else and going through if you buy jerseys
(46:42):
and everything else is you're you're a fan of the
sport and you appreciate greatness. And even if you were
in a Laker fan, you appreciated Kobe Bryant. Right. I
grew up in Chicago Bears fan, Bulls fan, everything but
the Cubs and Southside, what do you want? But it
was you still appreciated the guys that gutted you. You
(47:03):
hated to play brat Farve, but every time you just went,
oh man, and you shake your head and you'd watch
him do something crazy in the final minutes of a
game to beat you, and it's like, all right, here
we go again. Same thing later on with Aaron Rodgers
for Laker. You know, detractors, they still had to just
shake their head and go, yep, we got Kobe again. Right.
(47:23):
He had another one of those signature nights and made
us all look silly and we couldn't defend him, or
we kept single guarding him when obviously we shouldn't have.
Schell Michell, I led you to the water and you drank.
But just that idea of and that was the appreciation
of him. And I think you see that across all sports,
(47:44):
and we've seen that, and that will just continue to flow.
So that's how I look back at the final NBA
Championship for Kobe Bryant. Here on Special Teams You want
more Kobe content, check out Special Teams Are podcast. We
look back at the first NBA title for Kobe Bryant
and the Lakers as the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers
(48:04):
to win the NBA title. Check that out as well.
From Mike, I'm Jason. You have an idea of who
you want to see or hear us talk about on
future episodes and podcasts of Special Teams. Twitter at how
about a fresca? Mike is at Swollen Dome. We'll talk
to you next week. Before you go, rate and review
(48:31):
the show. Whether you're listening on I heart Radio, I
heart radio apps, Apple, whatever it is, give us a rate,
tell us you like it. We will love you forever
and ever and ever. Special Teams is a production of
(48:55):
I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
(00:23):
Mike Harmon, our weekly podcast that spotlights a big team,
single season in sports history. Sometimes it's NFL, sometimes it's
NBA Major League Baseball. This week we are looking back
at the two thousand nine two thousand ten Los Angeles Lakers.
In the wake of the tragic and sudden death of
Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others in helicopter accident,
(00:47):
we wanted to spend some time looking back at the
last championship won by Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, because
this two thousand nine two thousand ten season was incredible.
It was incredible for Kobe, it was incredible for the Acres.
They beat the Celtics to win it all, getting revenge
from losing two years before. It was their second straight
NBA title. It was a magical time, especially for you
(01:11):
and I living in Los Angeles. The Lakers beating the
Celtics was it was sports nirvana. I mean, it's the
Dodgers beating the Yankees in the World Series. It was
as good as it got for l A and the
Lakers of all the championships they had, the first one
they win, yes, that special with Shack and Kobe, But
this one, this was beating the Celtics. This was really
really special Number sixteen. This is the rivalry that we
(01:35):
grew up with, right, the Magic versus Bird and all
those great teams and Hall of famers, all the video
games you played based on them, and the highlight reel
was always one or the other was in a title contention.
Right the Lakers for all those years, it seemed like
every other they were. They were battling for a title
before the six year drought of playoff problems and and
(01:59):
everything that we've seen. But you look at Kobe Bryant
and what he means to the city and obviously exemplified
in the tragic passing and all the heartfelt sentiments and gatherings.
The city just got overrun. Everywhere you turn there was
a Laker logo in your face. You speak of the
city being overrun? Do I have a story about you?
(02:20):
The night the Lakers won the title? About me? But no, no, no, yeah, yes,
it's about you, said, man, I have a story for you.
I was a little nervous for what do you know
about a story for you. I'm talking to you. I'm
here with you. I'm talking to you what you knew
when I was doing that night. It's the fiftieth season
in Los Angeles for the Lakers. They're coming off the
(02:43):
NBA title after beating the Orlando Magic. And for Kobe Bryant,
it was the cementing of his legacy because for Kobe
it was him and Shack fighting for control of the Lakers.
They win three championships. Shack and Kobe couldn't get along.
Shack wasn't gonna get the maximum contract he wanted from
Dr Jerry Buss. He said, trade me. They trade him
(03:04):
away to Miami. The Lakers kind of stumbled around for
a couple of years. Then they make the big trade
for pal Gasol, and that's the trade that remade Los Angeles.
The Lakers go, they go to the Finals and lose
to the Celtics. They beat the Magic, and that was
the coronation of Kobe Bryant, who then changed the image
that he had, not quite overnight, but a very short
(03:26):
period of time, because in early in his career he
was the petulant, immature kid. And then Eagle Colorado happened,
and no one really knew what to make of Kobe
after the sexual assault allegations, and then after that case
was settled, he's moved on. This is six years later,
and the NBA sort of came around to Kobe Bryant,
and Kobe became much more beloved. Why it wasn't so
(03:50):
much that Kobe changed on the core, because he was
still a guy that was gonna make his teammates cry
and practice the famous story of making Sasha Willach Cryant
practice for being hard on his teammates. He was still
the same guy. But when Kobe came up, it was
Kobe Bryant as a rookie. First couple of years in
the NBA, you're talking about some of the most loved
players of all time. But the best images you could
possibly have Michael Jordan, Karl Alone, Shaquille O'Neil, Clyde Drexler,
(04:14):
you know, Charles Barkley was, Oh my god, every time
the guy opens his mouth, it's awesome. He so exciting,
he says so many great things. So it's hard for Kobe,
who looks like, oh, here's a young kid coming and
he wants to be a star right away. But then
all those guys go, all those guys retire, Gary Payton,
they all retire, and then who is the NBA left with.
It's Kobe, It's Lebron James, who hadn't won and it's
(04:35):
very polarizing. And Tim Duncan, who was really boring. So
here's Kobe who was as exciting as it is, still
hitting game winning shots, reinventing himself as the Mamba. And
suddenly it's okay. You know what, Kobe's basketball faults we
can forgive now. The Eagle Colorado stuff is separate. But
the basketball faults, well, maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe
we can now see him as a ladder day Jordan,
(04:56):
where he always wanted to get more out of his
teammates and co be became someone who was only about winning.
You know, you can get lip service for that earlier
in your career, but he was all about winning and
in the league win. A lot of stars like the
lifestyle because NBA stars like I like getting paid a
lot of money. I'd like playing basketball every night and
if the team is good, we're in the playoffs and winning, Hey,
(05:17):
that's great, we can win a title. But it's not
something that drives every player to say I want to
win and win as much as possible. Kobe was not
a guy for load maintenance. Kobe went, can met Kobe
playing now load mainten? No, I'm playing. I'm gonna play
on the score fifty. He was about winning. And when
you're about winning, you are going to appeal to all
of the fans because we don't care as much about
(05:38):
load maintenance or hey, we have to tank this year
to get better. Now, we want our teams to win.
And Kobe, no matter what he did, he was about that,
hitting free throws with a torn achilles and that's what
brought fans back to Kobe Bryant well. And there were
so many stories that came through right he became old
school without changing, like just by default, as the world
changed around him, and we we heard all these stories
(06:02):
being told by the legends of the game, the folks
around the Lakers, guys like James Worthy saying, hey, you
know what, before you're seventeen, As his body was starting
to break down a bit, hey teach me. Can you
teach me how to work in the post? Better? Can
you teach me how to douggie? Everybody loved have done
that too. I didn't needed to learn how to dance.
I mean better for footwork, right, but just the idea
(06:23):
of all right, there's always something from somebody's game I
can borrow and make my own and get back in
the gym and work it out. You know. The final
year I was frustrated. I had part of a season
ticket package. You and I have talked about this on
our show a Fox Sports Radio. You got to see
Lou Williams a lot. That became my guy, became my guy.
But at the time, you're frustrated because I'm trying to
(06:45):
take my daughters and you're trying to teach them about
work ethic. You're trying to teach them about you know,
what it takes. And Kobe was the embodiment of that.
But you knew his body was breaking. So in jest
I always laughed, Hey, I started to love Lou Williams,
but you recognize dude just wouldn't go yeah like he
he would dunk. It was rare, you know, like and
it wouldn't be a power dunk, it'd be one of those.
(07:06):
All right. I got up enough and I get back
on d and and move on. So Kobe who it
was hard for the Lakers to get free agents to
come play for for them? What did they want to
come play with Kobe his very strong personality. It was
very difficult. Also, he was at odds with the Lakers
because they wouldn't go out and spend money on free agents.
(07:27):
That year they spent the most money of any team
on player salaries, over a hundred and twelve million dollars.
They go out and they get Ron our tests to
sign and Ron ar test before he became met a
world peace picked his spots and he became so huge.
We're gonna get to him later on in the podcast.
But just a real quick story on Ron Artest who
came in. Look, he had the reputation he was. He
(07:50):
was out there, you know, the malice and the Palace,
the brawl. What was Ron Artests gonna be Now he's
in Los Angeles? My goodness, what are you gonna get
from him? But the day he saw he came to
do all kinds of interviews. Right, So he comes to
do interviews to do anyways in all kinds of shows.
And this is back when I was doing All night
on ESPN Radio. And so where our radio station is
(08:12):
located was at Staples Center, right next to where ESPN
did does the Late Sports Center from so my producer
because I'm in l A my producers in Connecticut. He says, Jason,
go downstairs. Ron Artest is gonna meet you downstairs. Go
get and bring him up. He's gonna you're gonna get
to interview him for the show. I'm like, awesome, Like
I shouldn't have to go down and get Ron our Test.
But I'm by myself. Somebody else this talent. So I
(08:34):
walk over the TV to I walk over the TV
building right where where is the production assistant to go
do this? So I walk over, I walk in and
I'm gonna meet Ron our Test here. So I walked
and I tell the security guards, Hey, I'm here to
meet Ron our Test. I'm Jason Smith from ESPN Radio
and I got run our Test coming. And they go,
oh okay. So they call somebody. I'm figuring they're gonna
bring Run our Test out and suddenly this guy comes out.
(08:55):
I have no idea who he is. He says his
name was Steve, and he's like the guy in charge
of the billy security is I'm sorry, sir, what are
you here for? You said, I'm here for Ron Artest
I'm with ESPN. I'm supposed to meet him here to
do an interview. Do you have any identification? I go, yeah,
I have my I D so I show him my ID. Goes,
this is an ABC identification. This is not an ESPN identification.
I go, yeah, I work in the building here. I
(09:15):
worked for seven ten We're in the ABC building. I
don't work in this building. I work in the right
right here at points it's right across the street. He goes, yeah, no,
you can't come in here without this I D. I go, uh, okay,
I'm supposed to be here. You can ask anybody up
there producing who's there? He goes, well, who's there? Who
can I call? And I say the name of the
executive producer up there? Goes Nope, she's not here tonight.
(09:37):
And I go, obviously I know who she is. If
you could just call upstairs and tell them I'm here,
they will bring him down. They know I'm coming. And
the guy wouldn't do it. And I was so mad
to get him fired. Well, you know what, I didn't
get him fired, but he got a lot of trouble
the next day because I went back and I called, uh,
my manager, Scott Schapiro, who's now our manager here at
Fox Sports Radio, and I told her what happened. He
(10:00):
got right on it, and he apologized and he felt
bad about it, supposedly, and then he wound up quitting
Slash getting fired like a few weeks later. Yeah, the
writing was on the wall. I was. I was so
mad with a little bit of power. He was, uh,
you know, a ruler like I was a guy off
the street. You know, I'm here. I'm here. Bring him
to call upstairs, Call upstairs to sports Center. Call. Did
(10:21):
the badge have a picture of you with Mitchell he's
producing call. I gave him all the names. Nope, not here.
It's like, nope, she's not here. Okay, you're just on
a power trip. Man, You are just on a power trip.
Sometimes you run into those obstacles. Man. Lamar Odom also left.
He didn't blow me off an interviewer, have did you
every fine metal world peace? Oh yeah, yeah, Well we've
(10:42):
had him on the show. But I meant, but I
meant that now he went up. He left. He thought
he was doing a radio interview with that left. He
had a great conversation. He was writing it a when
we had met a world peace. In a year ago,
he was writing an erotic novel, right erotic science fiction.
Erotic science fiction. He was writing. Yes, he gave us
(11:03):
a little bit of a sketch offer, and we looked
at each other and said that's a little sketch. But
he was very excited about. Yeah. We had fun. Uh
so that was run our Test. Who comes in and
lamar Odom almost left. Pat Riley brought him in. They
want him to go sign with the Miami Heat. He
almost did, but in the very end, cooler heads prevailed.
(11:25):
He returned to the Lakers for thirty three million dollar contracts.
So now they go out and they get run our Test.
In the off season, lamar Odom is back and the
Lakers are loaded up going for their second straight NBA title. Now,
since it's the two thousand nine, two thousand ten Los
Angeles Lakers, let's look it back a little bit at
what happened in the magical year of two thousand and
(11:45):
ten as the Lakers got set four back to back championships.
It was the year in which Reggie Bush announced he
would forfeit the Heisman Trophy, gonna get it back. So
much lost, so dumb parents got a house. It's just
it's a trophy that would be in the house. Yeah,
(12:06):
it's fine, take it. If only there were fewer zeros
associated with the house, they would have just they wouldn't
have cared. Do you think he gave back the real
trophy or do you think that he had a had
a double made and he switched it. I think it
was a chocolate repless what are you doing? I'm eating
Reggie Bush's eyes. When Trophy started knowing at it, they
said it was Shockley. Hey, why is that guinea pig
(12:28):
eating that trophy? I don't understand. Brett farve streak of
two straight games started ended in Minnesota the week after
the Metrodome collapsed. They had to move and play in
Ford Field, and Brett Farve did not start that game,
so his consecutive game streak was over. I remember the
Metrodome collapsing. That video was so odd. I was here
(12:50):
to see that. You see the snow and everything comes
down here in Fox Sports Radio and it's like, wait
a minute. What The Yukon women had their nine d
game wind streak and after losing to Stanford, and I
gotta be honest, if you were on that team, the
people who came before. You are never gonna let you
forget that you lave, you broke the ninety game wins.
(13:11):
You don't get to go to any of the banquets.
He get nothing. Yeah, but Gino Rim said I could go. No, sorry,
you can't make it. You can't make it now you're
out of the club. So that's where things stood for
the Los Angeles Lakers, who look, this is a team
that was returning a roster mainly of players who were
absolute stars. Kobe Bryant was the captain, Derek Fisher was
(13:34):
was still here, getting a little bit long in the tooth.
But it was lamar Odom, it was pal Gasol, it
was the Lakers front court throwing Andrew bind fantastic. He
also brought in Shannon Brown who played a big role
playing guard for them a little bit. Remember Adam Morrison
was on this team. But the Lakers front court and
Kobe Bryant dominated so many games. We look, there's a
(13:56):
reason they're the defending champs, and and they brought back
all of their strength and this season went on, it
was the front court that really started to get things done.
And it was okay that lamar Odom wasn't every other
game guy because you had players who could fill in,
and certainly Ron art Test was one of those players where, hey,
if you're an every other game guy, lamar odom I
could be in every other game guy. Together every night,
(14:17):
we're great. It worked out pretty well in that regard.
You forgot one huge loss as Kurt Rambis took his
goggles to Minnesota. He did he did well, Kurt kept
coming back Kurian. Kurt Rambis had his chance to coach
the team, and then he came back under Phil Jackson
and Phil Jackson one and when things worked out and
forth exactly so. Coming up next, it was the regular
(14:40):
season for the two thousand nine two thousand ten Los
Angeles Lakers. As we celebrate Kobe Bryant's final championship with
the Lakers all the drama of the NBA Finals still
to come here Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike
Harmon Perfect Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon
(15:12):
our podcast this week looking back at the final championship
of the career of Kobe Bryant as the Lakers win
the NBA title in two thousand ten, defeating the Celtics
in seven games. And one of the things the Lakers
and Kobe dealt with this season were a lot of injuries.
You know, right off the bat of this season, Pal
Gasol gets hurt, lamar Odom has to come into the
(15:34):
starting lineup, Gasol comes back, and the Lakers go on
a big run. We'll have more in Gasol in the
second but throughout the second half of the season, because
the Lakers got out to a big start the first
few months, they had to deal with injuries to Kobe,
Bryant and lamar Odom and Andrew buying him and buying
them even throughout the playoffs, Sashavulia, chich Bill Walton, They
had to deal with that the second half, and they
(15:54):
were in a great team. They still ended up with
the top seed overall in the playoffs in the Western Conference.
But this wasn't easy by any means. I mean, they
had to have they had to patch work their team
together all year. No, and that's that's what mulds you
into a champion eventually, because you're gonna have to steal minutes.
You and I talked about it all the time. When
you look at NBA titles and the number of games
(16:14):
and minutes that have to be played that you've got
to find those one game, one or two games in
each series where that third score, fourth score, whoever ever
it is, comes off the bench, gives you some decent minutes.
We talked about it in college buckets with the n
C double a turn and look, you gotta win six times.
Not often do you have one or two superstars carrying
you through. And for this Lakers team, between the largest
(16:37):
of the coaching staff and their histories and and pageantry
of what they'd had, they knew what to do right
because they've been through some of the grinds before, very
long tenured trainer, all of those trying to figure out
how to cobble together a team. And when you got
a guy like Kobe, like you said, a guy that
wouldn't sit down even with an injury, and how many
(16:58):
guys outside of him or what are they missed in
three weeks a month taking a nice ski vacation. Now
he plays every down. Kobe actually did get hurt this year. Now,
First he fractured his right index finger in December and
didn't miss the game. First couple of months he hit
three buzzer beaters, uh that won games for the Lakers.
(17:18):
Finally he does succumb to an injury and sat out
a game on February six for the first time since
two thousand and seven. Right, and then the days of
load maintenance. And that's one thing that you know, Kobe
Bryant playing, You know, if he was playing now when
load maintenance has never been any more important than it
is now with Kawhi Leonard sitting out every other game
(17:38):
in Lebron and business decisions. Kobe wasn't a load maintenance guy.
If he could play, he was gonna play, and he
played until physically he couldn't play anymore. I mean, would
there be nights the Lakers say, hey, take tonight off,
all right, but they'd be once in a while, once
in a great while. We saw that in his final year.
That's the only time you really physically but that was
basically done. But in his prime, there's no way he'd
(18:00):
be sitting out games. He might sit out. You know what, Kobe,
you've played in the first twenty five games. We have
three games and five nights. We're gonna sit you out
the second the back to back here and then you're
not gonna sit from the twenty five games. I mean
That's something I could see him doing. But the blatant
you know, hey, we're sitting out one game every couple
of weeks like Hypa Zambia. Now, he would never do it. No,
there would have to be some major considerations to allow
(18:24):
for that, right, I mean in terms of looking at
how the roster's constructed. Maybe in the gravest of circumstances,
but just not the way he was dialed in. Now,
while the bulk of this podcast, we're gonna talk about
Kobe Bryant, Like I said, it was his last championship,
and you know it's his second straight NBA Finals m
v P. With time to look back at the greatness
(18:45):
of the Lakers and this second coming of the Lakers,
which was built around Kobe, whereas the first time when
they won three championships in a row, was built around
Shack and Kobe. Is that the acquisition of Pau Gasol
immediately turned the Lakers into a championship caliber team. Immediately
after getting Pau Gasol on a trade, they went on
a big run and it was a different team. The
(19:07):
contributions of Gasol and lamar Odom are not given enough
credit because even though lamar Odom was an every other
game guy for most of his career and the talent
level head he was always one of the top three
most talented players in the NBA because of what he
could do his length. But every other game he was
he you know, he was every other game guy. But
(19:27):
as every other game was fantastic. It would be nights
with fourteen assists for Lamar Odom. Here's a night with
thirty five points. Here's a night where Lamar had ten
points and twenty one rebounds. His every other game was amazing.
And when you can build the depth from the front
court the Lakers had, you can afford to have Lamar
Odom play good every other game, especially this year, because
you had run our Test. Who would be able to
(19:49):
take up the slack. So this Lakers team, this front
court was so deep, and it's not like you had
to get it from one guy every night. You had
the consistency of Kobe, the consistency of Pau Gasol buying
him when he was in the lineup. You know, our
test every other night owed him every other night. You
had that and it worked well. It's funny because you
mentioned those two guys in terms of Odom and run
(20:09):
Our Test, Slash Metal World, Peace, slash Panda is your friend,
all whatever, whatever you want to go by a guy
who you know, as the tributes float out for Kobe
Bryant was was prominent and just saying, hey, raise a
glass and celebrate the greatness. But Andrew Binham is a
guy that I think his career because of what it became, right,
(20:31):
very short lived in terms of success and prominence. People
forget him also as to exactly how important that was,
because that was that was a career year. I mean
fifteen and eight. Odom was at ten point eight, nine
point eight, giving you three assists a game, good balance,
and one of those guys watching games as we do
(20:51):
and doing our show on five Sports Radio, it drove
your nuts. And I think if he were, and he's
been very honest in interviews that he's done. But there
there was just wasted time, an awful lot of wasted
time and opportunity along the way. But here he got
five guys have finished in double digits averaging you know,
at least ten point eight points per game, led by Bryant,
(21:14):
So you always had someone to step up, and there
were enough veteran voices in the room to make sure
that you never got into a lull. So for the Lakers.
The big highlight for Kobe this year was in Memphis,
he passed Jerry West to become the Lakers all time
leading score. A very big moment for him is now
(21:34):
he's starting to hit the big milestone part of his career.
With the Los Angeles Lakers, they finished with a fifty
seven and twenty five record. They are first in the
Pacific again. They kind of meander through the stretch run,
but they just started out so hot and they won
so many games that they kind of coasted in. They
going to lose six of the their final nine, right,
so at least raises an eyebrow of did they gas? Right?
(21:58):
Are they done? They go into the playoffs and their
first round was against the Oklahoma City Thunder. And this
is Oklahoma who was becoming, Hey, we're gonna hit our
peak very soon with Kde and Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
But here they beat them in the first round. Oklahoma
City's athleticism kept him in it. But the big game,
pal Gasol hits a layup with one second left to
(22:20):
win Game six and the series. This wasn't a Kobe series.
This was a gasol Odom bind him series because what
the Lakers front court was able to do, what these
guys are able to do in beating Oklahoma City, it
was their series. A. Kobe still had a good series,
but this wasn't one where boy Kobe at five games
of thirty or more points. It was those three guys
getting it done. And they move on to the second round.
(22:41):
Needed to be well rounded. I mean, and again goes
back to the the veterans stepping up because you know
the defense and as much as we much maligned defense
of some of those young guys from Oklahoma City, let's
face it, those are things that will they'll carry for
their career. I mean, still collapsing on Kobe. Bryant finished
with thirty two and that clincher, but you needed others
(23:02):
to step in. Second round, they get the Utah Jazz
and the Lakers front court was dominant. But as Utah adjusted,
l A started hitting threes and it was a very
quick series, and this was a Kobe series thirty points
at least in all four games, and it was easy
dispatching of the Jazz, moving on to the Western Conference
(23:22):
Finals where they would meet the Phoenix Suns. Kobe scores
forty in game one. He has thirteen assistant Game two,
and this series is known for a very big play
not involved in Kobe Bryant. It was a Kobe air
ball in Game five, Ron our Test rebounds it puts
in the game winner. And our Test had a great series.
(23:43):
Here just for a second, on Ron our Test is
that this air ball was Oh my god, the Lakers
could be given away this series, but Ron Artest gets
the rebound, hits a shot, and it's arguably his first
or second best Laker moment. He had a big moment
in the NBA Finals. We're gonna get to in a
few minutes, but up in until this point, this was
his signature moment. Here's run our Test hitting a shot
(24:04):
where hey, Kobe air balded and now the Lakers looked
like they're gonna move on because of him. Well that's
for run our Test, right place, right time. And you
always held your breath when he did shoot. Yes, it
was no, no, no, no, no, oh good shot, good shot. Good.
Even if he was early in the game, it would
be like, all right, just stop because it's gonna the
buckets are gonna run out. Start start, working the ball,
(24:25):
and this was an opportunity of you know, Johnny on
the spot. Lakers were the three games to to lead.
They win Game six. Kobe Bryant leads the way thirty
seven points. Roun Our Test had twenty five. So the
Lakers get to the NBA Finals. Were awaiting them a
rematch with the Boston Celtics, who had knocked them out
and won the title two years before Kevin Garnett's big
(24:46):
anything is possible? Or was I supposed to say nothing
is impossible? What was the slogan I was supposed to
say on national television to make money? I forget what?
What did we trademark? This was such a big moment
for Kobe in his NBA career because as much as
he had won, he won three championships with Shack as
(25:07):
a one A, and now he had won one as
a one beating the Magic losing to the Celtics. If
he lost to the Celtics again, that would really damage
his legacy because hey, hey, Kobe was great, but you
know what, Magic got the better the Celtics. Kareem got
the better the Celtics. Worthy got the better. Celtics don't
get the better of us. And so even though Kobe
(25:28):
look right now, you could look back at him as
the greatest Laker. I mean it's really he and Magic Johnson,
and he won Magic and the the largesse of the tragedy.
But also I would make that argument, yeah, look and
Magic always one with Kareem you know, you know, Michael
(25:49):
Cooper and go on down the list of Hall of famers,
not to denigrate the career Magic Johnson, which was great.
So we play that game of who did you play
with to make you eight? Wakay, alright, but it's always
he had shocks like well, I mean, go look at
the laundry list of guys I had wrought our test.
(26:11):
Oh alright, alright, alright, I mean really, because this is
a moment where you think of him now, is the
greatest Laker? Had he lost this second series to the Celtics,
He's not the greatest Lakers. Boy, I love Kobe. Man,
we lost to the Celtics twice. I mean that's what
it would be. Man, We lost the Celtics twice well
and at the time, and it still has its resonance,
(26:31):
right because they don't get to get together very often.
The way the schedules are worked. Eventually, the NBA will
probably make some change to that and startain mixing it
up more like Major League Baseball has. But you look
at the Lakers and Celtics. I mean, that's our childhood, right,
all those great teams and all of those Juggernauts and
(26:53):
Hall of famers, And this was the last act of that,
at least, as you and I sit together talking on
this podcast. So the Lakers are set to meet the
Celtics in the finals. It's seven games of blood on
the floor and hair on the walls, heroics from Kobe,
heroics from surprising places. As we continue here special teams
(27:14):
with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. So here we are
Lakers Celtics, second final in three years. Kobe Bryant's career,
(27:38):
defining legacy with the Lakers is up in this series.
We all look forward to it again. It was all
video of the series two years ago. But then they
show you know, you've got magic and you have Larry
and all the great video from the eighties and millennials
are going. Who are these guys. I don't know who
any of these players are. It begins in game one,
(27:58):
goes to the Lakers co he scores thirty points and
Boston never threatens. They looked horrendous in Game one and
it was boy, the Lakers just that much better. Are
they just gonna boat race the Celtics all the way through?
I mean, they never threaten in Game one, and you're thinking,
oh boy, this is just gonna be a Laker route.
Game two was a different story. Boston is more aggressive.
(28:19):
Ray Allen hits eight three pointers, region Rondo with a
triple double. He scored ten points in the fourth quarter
as the Celtics win Game two. I mean, Rajon Rondo
not just a triple double, but back when he could
score ten points in a quarter, You're like, come on, man,
that's the way. That's what he could never score. You also,
remember this is a decade ago. I mean, that's that's
(28:41):
the other part of it. Even when he was at
his best, he never was a big score ten points
in the fourth quarter. Everybody's got one or two barages
in them. Uh. On the NBA level, right, we see
it every night as we broadcast on Fox Sports radis
like that guy did what seven including how many in
the fourth like his career high twelve? You know, those
kind of things. And for Rondo. He did come up
(29:03):
big and big games. After the one oh win, the
series shifts back to Boston for three games and the
Lakers go out and they take Game three four. Derek
Fisher played many more minutes than expected. Pal Gasol was
not playing well. Fisher hits four straight shots. He scores
eleven points in the fourth quarter. Kobe scores once in
(29:27):
the fourth quarter, but it's enough. He had twenty nine
total for the game, and it was a night for him,
and it was one. It was one of those games that, look,
we're fond of saying this. Anytime you see a team
winning a championship, there's always one or two games where
the best player doesn't play at his best and the
supporting cast carries him and it's unexpected. Sources, no one
(29:48):
expected Derek Fisher to be a guy to go for
sixteen points in this game. And yeah, I mean no
one expected that, but it's the unexpected contribution. Derek Fisher
won this game for the Acres. They take a two
games to one lead. Yeah, just a tremendous game. Six
or twelve from the field. For his sixteen points. You
look at Gassol and buying them while they weren't huge offensively,
(30:11):
they only combined for twenty two points. They they talied
twenty rebounds, so helping push things get those extra opportunities.
Game four, the Boston Celtics come back and they even
the series of two games apiece. The Boston bench is fantastic,
Andrew buying him misses the second half with a knee injury.
So now we have a brand new series headed to
Game five, and this injury would kind of dog buying
(30:33):
him the rest of the series. He'd be in and
out of the lineup. Well, I'd be remiss if I
didn't talk about the eight team points off the bench
in twenty three minutes from Glen Big Baby Davis. I mean,
you know, that's when I think back to those Celtics teams,
that one that beat the Lakers and and the one
that sent them to seven games, is I don't think
of Pearson, Garnett, Ray Allen. I think of James Posey
(30:53):
raining down threes, you know, two years before to win this,
and I think of players like Glenn Davis and and
Leon Leon Poe having big games. You know, for the Celtics,
it was their supporting cast that really kept them afloat
in a lot of games, one of the championship and
nearly one of the second one. But look at this
game four, right, Allan with twelve, Pierce leads them with nineteen,
but then you have Davis with eighteen off the bench,
(31:15):
and Nate Robinson one of the great stories of the
last decade plus in the NBA. But you know he's
got twelve points on four of eight shooting two or
four from three point range and a plus eight, so
valuable minutes off the benches. This series got extended. Game
five goes to the Celtics as well, eighties six. Kobe
(31:37):
scores thirty eight, but he was the only Laker with
a big game. Boston's big three was Garnette Pierson, Rajean
Rondo eighteen eight and five rebounds. Another big game from Rondo,
and now the Celtics are one game away from the
NBA title. But in the end, the Lakers did what
they had to do. They went into Boston, they won
(31:58):
one game and that was gonna send back to l
A and the Lakers now have two chances. You gotta
win both games to win the NBA type. Yeah, this
game just a game of starters. The benches combined to
score twenty seven points fourteen thirteen Lakers edge. Olthowise just
starting five might as well have just sent everybody else home,
uh and rolled it out. We can go back and
(32:18):
watch some of the tapes of this and again it's
Rondo eighteen and eight showing again on a big stage
because ray Allen wasn't shooting particularly well, uh and and
he wasn't taking a ton of shots, so someone else
needed to step up. You know, this series now, when
it gets back to l A, you could tell that
both teams started to run out of gas because baskets
(32:39):
were hard to come by, and these were two great
offensive teams. When you look at the final scores in
this series, you add the Lakers break a hundred points
in game one, the Celtics break a hundred points in
game two, and that's it, right, you know, that was
it the end of the series. Even Kobe Bryant said
following Game seven, I had nothing left because he had
he didn't have a great shooting night in Game seven.
And I remember when they asked him after the game, Kobe,
(33:00):
you seem to struggle tonight. He said, I had nothing left.
You I was going on guts and stamina and and
I really have anything left. And you go to Game
six and the Celtics clearly are deflated even further because
this was Kendrick Perkins getting hurt early, suffering a torn
PCL and m c L in the first quarter. Left
a huge hole on defense, a huge hole on the boards,
(33:22):
and the Lakers just blow the doors off of the
Celtics seven their bench outscores the Celtics zero. Alright, Celtics
did not get a point off the bench tonight again,
buying him left with knee swelling. I mean, Boston's forever
gonna say, if Perkins didn't get hurt, we would have
won the NBA title. Doc Rivers has even said that
many times the past couple of years. Well you know
(33:43):
we're undefeated with Perkins running. Well, okay, well you still lost.
You're not getting a title for that. But here's the thing.
Perks more than capable of speaking up for himself and
telling you how great. Yes he is, Yes he is,
And I appreciate the hell out of him. Every time
he opens his mouth. I lean forward in my chair
because I don't know where the story is gonna go.
And yeah, maybe that's true, it doesn't matter. We say
(34:05):
that all the time. You can't take away the title
and just caveat and out. If this guy got hurt, look,
buying him missed the equivalent of a game and a half.
You know, he look, you miss Kendrick Perkins. They're missing
Andrew buying him, and he missed a lot of time
to look. Like I said, this was a war of
attrition these last couple of games of this series. You're
talking about final scores of sixty seven in game six
(34:27):
and eight three seventy nine in game seven. This is
not gonna set the world on fire. Yeah, but I mean,
just look at little contribution you're and what you're looking
for from your benches. You're trying to eat some minutes,
but they're not shooting the ball. It's just who's got
a warm body that can steal three or four minutes
to get your star, some gatorade, some whatever nutrients you
(34:47):
need back in and get and roll them back out there. So,
you know, leaving everything on the court for those forty
eight there's nothing else but nothing left by time you
get to the end of the series. So the Lakers
had to Game seven tied with the Celtics, and it
looked like the Celtics, we're gonna run them out of
the gym. In the second half, they had a forty
nine thirty six lead, and it was wow. The Celtics.
(35:08):
Perkins is out there reeling. They're gonna find a way
to beat the Lakers at Staples Center and win Game seven.
Lakers call it twenty second time out. That was it,
twenty second time out. Different team. When they got back
on the floor, they started cutting into the lead. Derek
Fisher hit some threes, Pal Gasol made some clutch plays.
They come all the way back. They take the lead
(35:29):
deep into the fourth quarter, and when it looks like
the Lakers were at the point where they could salt
the game away, Boston keeps chipping away. Now the Lakers lead,
it's six, it's down to three, it's seven, it's down
to four, it's six, it's down to three. There came
to a point at the end of this game where
it looked like the Lakers were gonna put the Celtics away,
but the Celtics didn't go gentle into that good night.
(35:51):
The Lakers would be up six, the Celtics would hit
a three, they'd be up five. The Celtics would get
a bucket. And it came to the point where the
Lakers were protecting a three point lead with not much
time left, and every point now it's this has gotta
be Kobe, This has gotta be Kobe. Gotta be Kobe,
and ron our Test hits the three to give the
(36:11):
Lakers a six point lead, when every single Laker fan
is going no, no, no, no, no again, ron Artest,
no no, no, no, no oh, what a great shot.
And you and I have talked to him before, and
we've gone through these moments, and you when he tells
stories of these games and I got the ball from
Kobe and whatever else, his eyes get wide light saucers.
(36:34):
They needed every bit of ron our Test in this game.
I mean, who knew you need every bit of ron
our Test that game? Right, It's it's just an insane
box score. When you go through and watching the sequences.
The benches have really no impact from a scoring perspective.
It's nine six Odom and Vulla Chich total of nine
(36:57):
against six for Big Baby Davis. The ben for the Celtics.
Davis plays about twenty one minutes and that's it. Tony
Allen five minutes, twenty seconds Nate Robinson three and a
half minutes and Scalambreedy got in for fifty one seconds.
That's it. But that's it. That's all you got from
the bench. It's basically, hey guys, this is how far
we got this game seven, you got it. Take care
(37:20):
of it. Our test three comes with about a minute
left to go, and okay, that turned out to be
the big backbreaker, but the Celtics still hit a shot
and they still cut the lead, and Kobe misses, but
Pau Gasol gets the rebound, gets the ball back to Kobe.
The Celtics have no choice but the foul Kobe Bryant.
Kobe hits both free throws after Gasol rebounds Kobe's missed three,
(37:42):
which is a really big deal because still even with
that three from Ron Artest, the Celtics still had a chance.
Boston then gets another bucket and it's like, oh my god,
it's Boston ever gonna go away? What's gonna happen? And
then Sasha willia Chich, who we talked about the very
beginning of the podcast. It made a very quick reference
to him. He was one player that Kobe Bryant made
(38:03):
cry at practice because he was so tough on him,
want him to tough enough. Volia Chich hits two big
free throws with eleven seconds left to give the Lakers
a four point lead. Rondo mss A three, Lakers get
the rebound, they win eighty three seventy nine, and the
Lakers are NBA champions. They withstand all the way to
the buzzer. This was one of those where you want
(38:25):
to stand up and applaud both teams after because you
could tell none of them had anything left and it
was just throwing. It's like the end of our You're
throwing punches. It's like the second Rocky Apollo fight. They're
just circling each other and throwing. Rocky's bleeding from his
eye and Apollo you can't even see his eyes. They're
just throwing punches and in back and punches. That's what
(38:45):
the end of this was like three seventy nine. You
know what the poison pens would be out for a
finals game that ends Because if you told me that
scoring game seven, what's your first thought, which which pistons tea? Yeah,
it was that was that? Oh that was when the
first one, first time or when they were back, was
(39:06):
that when they lost to the Spurs. It was seventy nine. Um,
Kobe still wound up with a game high twenty three
and still had ten in the fourth quarter, proving that
even when Kobe would have moments like this, like you know,
he misses the big three but Palgasol gets the rebound,
he still was great. I mean, this is the game
where if you said, hey, Kobe had ten in the
fourth quarter, but because you expected him to make every
(39:28):
big clutch shot, it would seem like, uh, Kobe didn't
have a great game, no shooting, he didn't have a
great game. But still he had high point total and
he scored ten in the fourth quarter. When you know
you're not scoring a lot of points there, three points
won this game. That's a really big deal. Twenty three
and fifteen on the night he was eleven and fifteen
from the file line for the night six of twenty four.
(39:49):
Pretty much anybody else, you'd take the ball from them
after a while, But who else are you gonna get it?
Like Kobe. Eventually you're gonna find your shot. No, no,
the the legs were gone afterwards. I'll always remember ron
our test and his and his press conference because this
was when he brought his entire family to the press conference,
and it was everybody had his kids, his wife, and
(40:10):
he introducing everybody and he goes, hi, all right, this
is my wife, and this is this and I'm ron
and and he goes all the way through. He has
his whole family up there. Phil Jackson talked about the
role that ron Our Test played in winning the game.
He called him like the most valuable player of the game,
even though Kobe won his second straight NBA Finals m
v P. But this goes to show you that as
great a player as Kobe was, look, you need help
(40:33):
to win, and he got to help the first time
around with Pau Gasol. And it wasn't a great Magic
team that they beat in the finals. This was a
really great Celtics team, and he had all the help
he needed with our Test and Odomankase. I mean, this
was probably the best of all of those Laker teams,
even though it was only together for a very short
period of time. Because eventually Lamar Odom he gets sick
and tired of his act and they move on and
(40:54):
Palgosol gets older and ron our Tests, you know, only
has so much time before he turns into some Okay,
he's not quite the player he used to be, but
this moment in time, this was that best Laker team. Right,
Derek Fisher was getting older, and you look at just
on down the line, right Andrew by Him had his flash.
Jordan's farm are guys that you had some quality minutes
(41:16):
from through the regular season. They weren't long for being
with the team. And just for the Ron artests that
he he averaged eleven points per game during the regular
season clincher, he's the guy making the difference scoring twenty.
So I mean it's just a strange game and an
EBB and flow, but also a testament to the way
(41:36):
those teams both were constructed. Yeah, Kobe was the only
player to average more than twenty points a game in
the series. He averaged a game high point high man
for the Celtics, and in that series was Paul Pierce
with eight. Team. I mean, look look at what the
Lakers did. You had Kobe with twenty eight. Then it
was Pal Gasol who was eighteen and eleven. Then you
had our test with ten, Andrew by Him had seven,
(41:59):
Derek Fisher was eight. Lamar Odom only average seven points
a game in this series. You know he he had
a rougher NBA Finals than anybody else did, but look,
it's that was it across the board. This this was hey,
we are we are throwing all kinds of haymakers at
each other, and clearly Kobe Bryant stood head and shoulders
above everybody else because without Kobe's ability to put the
ball in the basket when points were at a premium,
(42:21):
this is the Celtics winning another title. Instead, it cements
the legend you put the five up, five greater than
Shaquille's four. And you know, even you heard Shack say
that after uh Kobe passed. He was very emotional on
T and T in the in the nights following the
fatal h helicopter accident, where Shack was saying, you know,
(42:43):
we're not gonna be able to joke around that his
Hall of Fame induction where he would say five is
greater than four because Shaq would always say I won
the battle with Kobe because I won the first title.
But then Kobe could say, yeah, but I won two
and I stayed and so now my five is greater
than your four. And you know that's that's been That's
a big debate to this Shack Kobe debate, that's always
gonna live. Look, that's part of the emotions that come
(43:05):
out of Shaquille O'Neal to of what his career became. Right,
he got that title and he's revered, and he's gone
on to great success as a commentator. I don't know
that there's anything more entertaining on television. You got Fox
NFL Sunday and you got Inside the NBA. Those are
the two. Those are the two hallmarks to everything. But
with Shaquille O'Neal, there's gotta there's gonna be regret. Whether
(43:26):
he's he's really expressed it yet, I've heard it in
bits and pieces. Right when you start talking about what
the end of his career became, leaves Los Angeles, goes
to Miami, great, but then you have stops in Cleveland
and Boston and all these other things. You know, dancing
with the Jabberwocky's is great, But you talk about Kobe
(43:48):
being able to finish twenty years in the Laker uniform
versus moving and bouncing around and trying to find fits,
fighting health issues, some of which was caused by not
taking care of your body early. For Shaquille O'Neill, So
I mean there's beyond the personal rift, there also had
to be some personal jealousy of how he was able
to stay on a straight path instead of the hop
(44:10):
scotch that Shaquille O'Neil played. And this was the title
that cemented all of that well, and that's the thing
for Kobe. And you know, let's let's let's end here
with this with Kobe because the one thing about him
that endeared him defans through everything throughout his life. And
you've heard so many different tributes to Kobe over the
course of the past a few days, and you're gonna
continue to hear of the coming weeks and months, is that.
(44:33):
You know, Shaq was always about fun. He knew he
needed to win any one. Did Shaq really try to
get better every day? No, because he would have developed
more than one post movie, would have developed a way
to dominate the games as he got older, would have
taken care of his body a little bit more. Kobe
always wanted to get better. He was always about winning.
He was always about the edge over my opponent. In
(44:55):
that way, he was the most like Michael Jordan that
we had seen, because that's what he wanted and that's
what fans come to games for. Because while fans understand
we have to tank to get better, they understand we
have to trade this player because he makes too much money.
We gotta get into the salary cap. Whatever sport we're
talking about, the one thing that always brings you back
is I want my team to win. And Kobe wanted
(45:17):
to win. Body be damned, everything else be damned. I
want to win. That's why I'm shooting free throws with
a torn achilles. That's why I'm I'm trying to score
sixty and win my final game in the NBA. He
was always about winning and there was nothing else about it.
And in a league where a lot of players enjoy
the lifestyle of the NBA and look, not that they
don't want to win, but how many players are obsessed
(45:39):
with winning like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James for a long
time in his career, it's making business decision after business decision.
Kobe just wanted to go out and win. There are
a few players like that, but no one like him.
And while players enjoy the lifestyle, they enjoy being stars,
they enjoy playing. They get to the playoffs. Now we're
trying to win. Kobe was obsessed with that every single day,
well all the way through the twenty years, and he
(46:00):
into when the body was starting to betray him. It
became all right, how do I become a more affected
player in my final years? Right? More jump shots, the
fade away, the footwork on the post. We talked a
little bit earlier about the James Worthy conversation, you know
that he called him, going, hey, help me work work
down on the knock. It was like, what do you
(46:20):
mean You're you're going into your seventeen What am I
going to teach you? I? Yeah, It's like you're Kobe Bryant,
what do you what do you want? But still trying
to pick people's brains, And it's it's as a fan
of sport, and that's what gets us all behind the microphone,
keeps us paying for different packages, whether it's the ticket
or whatever else and going through if you buy jerseys
(46:42):
and everything else is you're you're a fan of the
sport and you appreciate greatness. And even if you were
in a Laker fan, you appreciated Kobe Bryant. Right. I
grew up in Chicago Bears fan, Bulls fan, everything but
the Cubs and Southside, what do you want? But it
was you still appreciated the guys that gutted you. You
(47:03):
hated to play brat Farve, but every time you just went,
oh man, and you shake your head and you'd watch
him do something crazy in the final minutes of a
game to beat you, and it's like, all right, here
we go again. Same thing later on with Aaron Rodgers
for Laker. You know, detractors, they still had to just
shake their head and go, yep, we got Kobe again. Right.
(47:23):
He had another one of those signature nights and made
us all look silly and we couldn't defend him, or
we kept single guarding him when obviously we shouldn't have.
Schell Michell, I led you to the water and you drank.
But just that idea of and that was the appreciation
of him. And I think you see that across all sports,
(47:44):
and we've seen that, and that will just continue to flow.
So that's how I look back at the final NBA
Championship for Kobe Bryant. Here on Special Teams You want
more Kobe content, check out Special Teams Are podcast. We
look back at the first NBA title for Kobe Bryant
and the Lakers as the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers
(48:04):
to win the NBA title. Check that out as well.
From Mike, I'm Jason. You have an idea of who
you want to see or hear us talk about on
future episodes and podcasts of Special Teams. Twitter at how
about a fresca? Mike is at Swollen Dome. We'll talk
to you next week. Before you go, rate and review
(48:31):
the show. Whether you're listening on I heart Radio, I
heart radio apps, Apple, whatever it is, give us a rate,
tell us you like it. We will love you forever
and ever and ever. Special Teams is a production of
(48:55):
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