Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 7:50 am Post subject: Random Friday Topic: Remember Gary Payton and Karl Malone Were Once Lakers?
I love the ability to put together "legacy" teams in NBA2K. That is, using historic players from the past in the My League format.
My current team is:
PG: Gary Payton/Van Exel
SG: Kobe/Eddie Jones
SF: Worthy/Green
PF: AD/Malone/Horry
C: Wilt/Ho Grant
As much as I despised Malone, even in this game, at age 35 (that's his relative age), he is a monster.
But had me thinking, what could have been if Karl didn't get hurt in the Finals? (Imagine Rasheed's face when Malone went down and Slava and Luke Walton were then tasked with guarding him ).
Would they have beaten the Pistons?
If so, would Kobe/Shaq have been kept for a bit longer? Would Gary/Karl have returned again on sweetheart deals?
That was such a turning point in the franchise. And when you look back at it, so random we had GP and Malone on that team. _________________ From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals
Gained a ton of respect for Malone that year and lost a lot for Payton.
That Kobe/Malone relationship at the end though...
However seemed Malone was the intermediary that kept the Kobe/Shaq bridge, as tenuous as it was, "intact." _________________ From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals
How Payton recollected that season (to Colin Cowherd)
Quote:
“Karl Malone missed [40] games, Shaquille O’Neal missed [15], and then we had Kobe who missed [17]. I’m the only guy there who plays the whole 82, and we’ve got a group of guys coming off the bench who didn’t know who they were. We had Fisher, we had Fox, we had Horace Grant, and we put it together. So when we put it together and got to the playoffs, we made a run. San Antonio was the [No. 3] team in the league that year; we beat them in [six] games. And then we got to the Finals and everything didn’t click after that. Karl tried to come back, blew up the knee, and then Kobe and everybody went on to their own thing. We let a good team in Detroit, who was rolling at the time, beat us 4-1.”
_________________ From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals
Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 18222 Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 8:09 am Post subject: Re: Random Friday Topic: Remember Gary Payton and Karl Malone Were Once Lakers?
yinoma2001 wrote:
But had me thinking, what could have been if Karl didn't get hurt in the Finals? (Imagine Rasheed's face when Malone went down and Slava and Luke Walton were then tasked with guarding him ).
Would they have beaten the Pistons?
I still don't believe they would have beaten the Pistons. That 04 Pistons team had such great chemistry while our team was already fractured by the time we got to the Finals. There were just too many off-court distractions that year.
yinoma2001 wrote:
If so, would Kobe/Shaq have been kept for a bit longer? Would Gary/Karl have returned again on sweetheart deals?
Again, no. Kobe had already decided he wanted to go his own way. _________________ "Suck it up. Don't be a baby. Do your job." - Kobe Bryant
Yeah. That Pistons team was a handful. Just wonder though what Malone could have brought, b/c he was solid in the playoffs that year. Once Sheed was guarded by Slava/Luke, it was OVA (and Shaq couldn't guard Sheed b/c of his ability to spread the floor via shooting). _________________ From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals
Joined: 18 Dec 2015 Posts: 5234 Location: So what's the uh...topic of discussion?
Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2019 4:58 am Post subject:
That season was fun as (bleep) to watch. A ton of ridiculous prime Kobe highlights including the legendary division clinching, sacramento queen teabagging buzzer beater bonanzaroo season finale@ portland _________________ "All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers."
http://forums.lakersground.net/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=13018
Was also the season Kobe got busted in Colorado. And then the media blew up his comment to the police implicating Shaq. Totally blew apart the team chemistry.
Good team on paper but I'm sure that was one cold, awkward locker room. _________________ Lakers. Built different.
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