Staff Blog
Morning Rounds, February 3rd
Last night Kobe Bryant put up 61 points. Because he did
in on the Knickerbockers in Madison Square Garden
everyone is spewing Jordan
comparisons – ESPN and SI both ran the
headline “move over MJ.” That is fair only through a very dry analysis – Bryant’s
61 not only broke Bernard King’s stadium scoring record (was 60) but also Mike’s
almost 14-year old MSG record for points by an opponent (the famous double nickel).
That said, there is a huge difference
going for a 55 against a team whose frontline includes Anthony Mason, Charles
Oakley, and Patrick Ewing and one who starts Jared Jeffries at center.
Look, Kobe is an all-time player and he put up an all-time
performance – 61 is 61 however you count it, and there were worse times to make
a statement than immediately following a big injury to a teammate – but difficultly
level counts and the Knicks didn’t play a shooting guard a minute of gametime last night (unless you want to count 5′9″ Nate Robinson).
So congrats Bean, you’re the best scorer the NBA has, your
name will be talked about when people bring up the greats well past the end of
your career and hell, maybe you’re MJ. There was just no way for you to prove that last night.
“I’m going to review this documentary I’m doing with Spike Lee tonight after the game and I didn’t feel like sitting next to him and hearing him talking trash about the Knicks, so that was added incentive as well. Seriously. He’s going to get an earful tonight.”- Kobe
Three lines on their world:
- The Lakers found out Andrew Bynum will be out 8-12 weeks
- So Kobe went for 61
- and UConn handled Louisville to remain #1 in the nation
Three lines on ours:
- The Sixers have a chance to wipe the stink of Saturday’s loss of themselves tonight
- The Flyers sent Luca Sbisa down to juniors
- and JoePa is about to sign his best class in years
Phillies, Birds,
Sixers, Flyers and what everybody is
talking about after the jump
EAGLES
READ
Mike Sielski thinks Joe Banner is being swayed by the fans.
Rich Hofmann points out that quarterbacks often have to step up and win the Super Bowl.
Les Bowen opines that the Steelers are truly the league’s gold standard takes a few shots at the Birds.
Bob Brookover says that Roethlisberger’s crunch time heroics highlight McNabb’s previous failures.
SKIP
PHILLIES
READ
Paul Hagan puts in some serious work trying to figure out if the Phillies’ catchers are good.
SKIP
When Bill Conlin is King of the World …
David Murphy reports that the Phillies have shown some interest in Will Ohman. I think of Ohman as hilarious but can’t remember why.
SIXERS
READ
Kate Fagan watches a Sixers team determined to get back on the right track.
Tom Moore says Saturday is still haunting the Sixers.
SKIP
FLYERS
READ
SKIP
Sam Carchidi reports that Luca Sbisa is headed down to the juniors.
TODAY and MORE
It doesn’t fit under any of the local teams but John Gonzalez has an interesting take on all this Phelps drama but I think he’s attacking a bit of a straw man – does anyone really care that the Olympian ripped on a roar?
The 76ers host the World Champions tonight and there is plenty
of college ball tomorrow. We’ll try to get to that story about Big Ben and a
couple other gems throughout the day. Slow morning, hopefully fast afternoon.
As always, feel free to email with
any questions, suggestions, comments or complaints.
