Kobe on flopping:

“There’s a difference [between taking a charge and flopping]. We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren’t really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water. That’s kind of like, where are your balls at?”

Here are some thoughts from All-Star weekend:

• The dunk contest represents everything the NBA is not: The dunk contest officially hit rock bottom this year, with four relatively anonymous names (to the general viewing audience) and tired gimmicks that overshadowed some impressive dunks. When Kevin Durant tweeted after the game that Lebron, Wade, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook should enter the contest next year, he echoed the thoughts of many: it’s time to make the dunk contest relevant again. But I don’t think we necessarily need to bring the biggest names out to rejuvenate the event. We just need better personalities. While it’s easy to merge these two thoughts of best players and best personalities as one, remember that some of your favorite interviews and best follows on Twitter are not necessarily from the top guys. Though he tried his best to entertained, Chase Budinger is still, well, Chase Budinger. We still don’t know who Jeremy Evans is, and despite being rising stars in a league of many, Paul George and Derrick Williams don’t have that connection and reach to an outer audience. For a professional sports league brimming with individuality, it’s tragic that the one event that takes center stage on All-Star Weekend highlights everything that the NBA is not: boring, stagnant and deprived of any fun.

• My favorite photo from this past weekend: Chris Bosh being Chris Bosh.

• The All-Star game, surprisingly entertaining: The first five minutes of the game salvaged the entire weekend. The real stars came out and put on a show for the fans. Continuing with the theme of individuality, every superstar’s personality came through in the game. From Derrick Rose’s surly response to his teammate’s dancing during the introductions, to Kobe mouthing off to anyone within his line of vision, to Dwight Howard generally not taking much of anything too seriously, it was a reminder of why even though the quality of basketball has suffered, it’s nice to have these players around instead of hibernating through a nuclear winter of lockout talk. Even watching Russell Westbrook’s athleticism on display without the shadow of whether he’s taking too many possessions away from Durant, and Deron Williams exiled from New Jersey for one night and back on the big stage, there were so many interesting subplots to follow that made what is often called a farce, surprisingly entertaining.

• My favorite tweet from this weekend: Ozzie Guillen on Nicki Minaj.

• What’s our opinion on Dwyane Wade? For the past two years now, Wade has gotten away with almost everything. When in doubt, blame Lebron. From The Decision, to their mocking of Dirk’s sickness during the Finals, it seems Wade is protected as all the criticism is directed towards Lebron. On Sunday, Wade broke the unspoken rules of the all-star game and took a swipe at Bryant that resulted in a broken nose and a mild concussion. Competitive? Or out of line? I’m surprised more hasn’t been made about this. In the same breath, it was Wade who bobbled a breakaway pass from Lebron with over a minute left that would’ve put the East in the lead. Of course, it’s easier to lament Lebron’s deference on the final possessions. Slowly but surely, I’m starting to view Wade as a bigger villain than Lebron. To be continued.

• The tipping point for our hatred of Lebron James might’ve been this weekend: You know it’s crazy that we’re all sitting here criticizing Lebron’s passiveness in the final seconds of an all-star game. Key word: all-star game. Somewhere in Lebron’s head, he genuinely believes that when he’s making these passes and not taking the final shots, he’s making the best basketball decision on the court that’ll lead to victory. And who are we to question the best basketball player in the world right now? The criticisms for Lebron since the Decision have gone from reasonable with a touch of bitterness to irrational with complete bias and jealousy. I think this Sunday will be the tipping point where we will all start moving towards rooting for Lebron again. When he’s in that position again in the playoffs, with much more on the line, we will find ourselves rooting for Lebron to take that shot, and root for that shot to go in. If only to satisfy our desire to move onto to the next conversation. And that’s the best storyline as we head into the second half. This is Lebron’s championship to lose. Even as we’ve waited year after year for him to come through, it seems the pieces are finally in place. But we’ve been down this road before. If anything, we are moving closer towards embracing Lebron again. I can’t be the only one. But if he falls short again, we will re-start this conversation with another year’s worth of evidence to support all that we hate about him.

3 In The Key

The Final Act

No player in the league this year has been presented in such an isolated view then Kobe Bryant.

A new head coach, a supporting cast that leaves much to be desired for (case in point: both Allen Iverson and Gilbert Arenas were linked to the team this week, and would’ve been an upgrade at the guard position for them) and two big men who are on the trading block and don’t seem part of the team’s immediate future.

Add to the fact that their Los Angeles counterparts completed a trade for Chris Paul that the Lakers couldn’t close (well, the league wouldn’t allow to be completed) and that’s a long list of things going against Kobe and his team.

And yet, as the Lakers fight for a playoff spot in this shorten season, Kobe remains everything we’ve come to know: amazing and frustrating all in the same breath.

He’s shooting as much as ever, with a reputation and five championship rings that insulates him from criticism that would otherwise be intensified on a team built around length and size in the post.

As the team struggles to find its offensive rhythm under Mike Brown, Kobe continues to do things his way, everyone else adjust accordingly.

There’s something strangely inspiring about all this. Even as watching Kobe this year feels as though he’s one man, and the other nine players are on a separate plane.

Kobe may be hurting the team’s long-term progress. But he’s also reasserting his individual brilliance with late game heroics such as the overtime win at Boston and his last minute masterpiece a few days later against Toronto.

He shoots too much. But he’s doing all this with a wrist injury few could play through. He’s ignoring his teammates. But without him, where would the Lakers be.

Amazing. Frustrating. The story of Kobe’s career.

The most revealing quote came after he passed Shaquille O’Neal on the all-time scoring list when he said: “I just want No. 6, man. I’m not asking for too much, man. Just give me a sixth ring, damn it.”

There’s two things to take away from that statement. First, Kobe knows he needs help, he knows the roster at the moment is good enough to get to the playoffs and have a puncher’s chance. When you have Kobe, you have the best puncher in the world. But at the moment, not much else. Kobe has reined in his selfish play in the past for the sake of winning, but only when he knows his teammates are good enough. Right now, there’s no desire to sacrifice his individual play for the greater good. That greater good doesn’t exist.

Second, Kobe is starting to recognize his basketball mortality. As his career winds to a close, he’s focused his goal on just one more championship. There are still years left on that body of his, but there will come a time when even dominating the ball on offense will not bring the same results. Just one more ring, that’s all that’s in Kobe’s sights. For now, he’ll craft another individually brilliant season for all the critics that thought the decline was coming. When the reinforcements arrive, and they will soon, we will see the final act of Kobe’s career. It’s going to be great theatre.

3 In The Key

1. The most dangerous man

The Minnesota Timberwolves have celebrated very little since entering the league in 1989. Since moving on from the Kevin Garnett era, the team has spent its time stockpiling assets and undergoing a necessary rebuild.

One of the impediments to their resurgence has been general manager David Kahn, the man who drafted two point guards, Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio, when he was armed with two lottery picks, than went and signed another point guard in Ramon Sessions through free agency.

There has been no semblance to Kahn’s roster construction over the past few years, but seemingly out of randomness or just out of sheer quantity of moves made, he has pulled together one of the most promising young rosters in the league.

The remarkable transition by Ricky Rubio to the league has lifted a lot of pressure off Kahn. Also, Head coach Rick Adelman is the perfect man to mold this team into something more than just a collection of misfit talent. The Rubio, Kevin Love and Derrick Williams core should make the rest of the Western Conference landscape take notice very soon, as early as next season.

But the man that’s orchestrating all of this is the most dangerous man in the league. As the franchise turns the corner, Kahn threatens to be the one to blow it all up again.

Last week, much was made about the fact that Kevin Love settled for a four year extension with an opt-out option, the pros and cons were broken down in detail by Tom Ziller. While many of us believe that the Wolves have offended their superstar power forward through negotiation by not locking him up over five years, Kahn believes that he’s obtained long-term flexibility for the team, to possibly pursue a better player down the road should the contract not work out.

This is of course ignoring the fact that Kevin Love is in the argument for best power forward in the league.

It’s not the first time that the team has come under fire under Kahn for handling a delicate situation in the worst way possible.

When the season ended last year, David Kahn allowed the uncertainly of then head coach Kurt Rambis linger on for months before finally firing him in July. It raised eyebrows across the league as to how poorly the organization is run. Last week’s debacle with Love only cements that reputation.

So while the Wolves are building a young and exciting core, the organization should take a hard look at whether they have the right guy to make the necessary moves to turn this roster into the next Oklahoma City Thunder, or players like Love and Rubio will follow Garnett into another era of underachieving results and mis-management.

2. The newest rivalry

Rivalries are great for sports, especially in basketball. I grew up following the Knicks-Pacers rivalry, Knicks-Heat and anyone in the East versus the Bulls. Bad blood that develops over time is great for the game.

It looks like the Bulls and Pacers look to have nominated themselves as the most interesting rivalry at the moment.

The groundwork was laid last year in a first round match-up that was much closer than the final result, where Chicago won in five games.

Earlier this week, the Pacers handed the Bulls their first home loss of the season. And didn’t hide their satisfaction in doing so, which upset Bulls guard Derrick Rose: “I’ll never forget how they celebrated just from winning this game.I can’t wait to play them again.”

Looking at the rosters of both teams, this looks like a rivalry with staying power. The Pacers are on the rise in the Eastern Conference, with a young core group led by Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert and Paul George. For the Bulls, many don’t expect their real season to start until they play Miami in the Conference Finals.

The two teams look locked into a tight race in the Central Division, and as the bad blood continues to rise, it will definitely heighten the rivalry between the two teams to levels we haven’t seen since Reggie Miller and Rik Smits threatened to unseat Jordan, Pippen and Rodman from the throne.

So mark your calendars down for March 5th, when Indiana returns to Chicago for a rematch. And don’t be surprised to see these two teams match-up in the second round of the playoffs.

3. War of attrition takes shape

Everyone knew before the season that with the compressed schedule, players would take their time getting into game shape and injuries were bound to occur.

But they’ve been happening lately at an alarming rate.

Earlier in the year, the Atlanta Hawks lost Al Horford for likely the entire season. The Spurs are without Manu Ginobili for the forseeable future. Back-up point guard Eric Maynor of the Thunder was lost for the year. Andrew Bogut of Milwaukee is expected to be gone for up to three months. Andrea Bargnani is out indefinitely with a calf injury. Players like Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony have also missed games due to an assortment of injuries.

In any season, players getting hurt is just a normal part of the game. But in the compressed schedule, it does take on additional meaning and a different way for teams to manage them.

Players that are out for three months now aren’t missing just a portion of the season, they’re out for the whole thing. Also, nagging injuries don’t just mean a player misses a practice or two. When a team is playing four games in five nights, or six in eight, that means games missed.

And these games that the superstars are missing can quickly add up to losses that will push teams out of the playoff race.

Health will be a key factor in determining playoff seeding.

And maybe the most important takeaway is this: whatever Kobe Bryant is doing to play through his wrist injury is just incredible.

Learning To Accept Lebron

Technically, there’s still a sequence of events that need to happen before the lockout is officially over, but don’t let that stop you from immersing yourself in the latest Chris Paul or Dwight Howard rumor, it’s been too long since we talked actual hoops.

Practice facilities will open later this week, free agency expected to start on December 9^th and the season will open on Christmas; which means I have little less than a month to gather my thoughts on the Miami Heat and decide whether I want them to succeed this year.

The first season of Lebron and Wade – I have too much respect for the knowledge of people reading this to include Bosh with these two – exceeded all expectations. We’ve all long forgotten about their slow start to the regular season,  how they came together in the playoffs against Boston and Chicago and all the game to game drama in between that.

In fact, after reading and watching so much of this team of villains last season, there is only one takeaway: they collapsed in the Finals.

I took satisfaction in seeing Miami fall apart and come up short, as I’m sure many did. I don’t think there’s a sense of personal hatred when it comes to Bron, Wade and Bosh. It just wouldn’t have felt right for their season to be so preordained. To have a victory parade before and after the season seemed a bit too much. It would have validated everything that they did.

Given this thought process, you couldn’t have scripted a better ending for the Heat.

But is there any value to root against them over and over again, season after season, in the hopes that it never works out for them? It inevitably becomes a question about how you feel about Lebron James.

It seems difficult to pinpoint what exactly we want from him, or why exactly we want to see his demise. He will be the defining player of this generation, like Kobe before him, Jordan before that.

On the court, he is as unselfish a superstar we’ve seen – almost to a fault, especially since he’s had consecutive years of coming up short in the biggest moments. Off the court, he is the exact opposite. He is only about himself and is either unaware of this perception or aware but unable to do anything about his because he’s spent his whole life being told he’s the greatest.

This is how I see Lebron, but even with all that, I can’t think of a reason why I wouldn’t want to see him win a championship. If a lesson needed to be learned, if egos needed to be humbled, than their loss to the Mavericks in the Finals served those purposes. But why would I want to see him fail anymore?

Like it or not, we are basketball fans in the Lebron James era. With all great players, there comes a point when no matter how much you despise them for your own reasons, you can’t help but respect what they’re doing on the court, even appreciate and root for them after a period of time.

That time will come for Lebron James. It always does. I just have to figure out whether I want to see him fail just a little bit longer.

- steven lebron

Follow @steven_lebron on twitter.

Shaq spoke with KTLA on Monday to promote his new book, “Shaq Uncut” and considering their turbulent relationship, you might be surprised by what he had to say about Mamba.

“Based on what he’s done, he’s probably the greatest Laker of all time. If he gets another championship, he’ll tie with Kareem. That will put him up there.”

This photo of Kobe Bryant at a basketball clinic today in South Korea is pretty cool, part of his five-city Asian Tour. Next stop, China.

Kobe Bryant named 2011 NBA All-Star Game MVP. West wins 148-143.

Original photo: Kevork Djansezian/NBAE/Getty Images

(Source: nba.com)

catondelrosario:

Kobe Bryant: “Even when he was in Memphis and he was the go-to guy, he was always very nice. Very white swan. I need him to be black swan.”

Totally.