Friday, April 20, 2007

On and on it seems to go...

ARod hit a bottom of the 9th, game winning homer down 1 with runners on second and third after they advanced on a wild pitch yesterday and I couldn't help but think, there is NO WAY that they would have pitched to Barry Bonds circa 2002 in that situation. I obviously think ARod is an incredible player, but it gives me a greater appreciation of how insane Barry The-cream-and-the-clear Bonds was in his prime that began at age 34, because he'd see maybe 5 strikes a series and still hit around .330 with 50 HRs a year.

Kobe's run of 4 straight 50 point games gave me a similar appreciation of Michael Jordan. I watched as much of Kobe as I could from the start of that streak on, and he took low percentage shot after low percentage shot. Shots when no teammates were under the basket, shots with a hand in his face early in a possession. Kobe is a 45% career shooter, Jordan is a 50% career shooter. Kobe's career high scooting percentage is 46.9% in 01-02, Jordan's career low in a full season with the Bulls is 48.2%. I'm not saying Kobe isn't by far the best player in the NBA, I'm saying Michael Jordan was a better scorer.

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