NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Shaquille O’Neal has moved to number 5 on the all time scoring list for the NBA with 27, 411 points.

Kareem leads everyone with 38,387
Karl Malone is next with 36,928
Michael is next with 32,292
Wilt is fourth with 31,419

Shaq moves up the scoring ladder

He is number 8 on the NBA/ABA list. Only us old timers would even consider that.

What does Shaq have to say about all this?

“It was good, but I’m still kind of disappointed in myself,” O’Neal said. “Mathematically, I’ve missed three years worth of games and I missed 5,000 free throws. If I was there, I’d probably be No. 2 or No. 3 right now.”

Then he added, “It shows I’ve been consistent at what I’ve been doing and the next guy is my illegitimate father — Wilt Chamberlain — so just like in Star Wars, hopefully I can catch up to my father.”

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Photo source Newscom

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These are the type of comparisons we all love to make and your intrepid author is no exception.

Joe Johnson can’t carry Kobe Bryant’s jock strap you may say, but if you break down the stats it turns out he can carry Kobe’s jock strap and carry it rather well.

Entering Tuesday’s game, Bryant was averaging 27.7 points on 47.5 percent from the field, 35.0 percent from 3-point range and 86.9 from the line. Johnson was averaging 21.6 points on 43.3, 34.4 and 80.5 percent, respectively.

Break down Bryant’s points and you’ll find that 14.6 percent of them come on 3-pointers, 27.5 in the paint, 22.5 on free throws and the other 35.4 percent from midrange.

Johnson’s breakdown is 27.3 percent on treys, 26.7 in the paint, 16.9 on freebies and 29.1 percent from midrange.

They score in a similar fashion.

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But you know that there is more to it than that, don’t you? You do, don’t you? Well?

Yeah, there is that intangible part that makes Kobe great and Joe really good. The difference is in that skull thing that sits above the neck on both players. Kobe has what some would call a genius of athletics. Can we say that? Guess we already did. Kobe knows he will take your team to the mountain, he will win the game, make the big shot, the big pass, whatever it takes and he has done it before.

Isiah Thomas used to say that Michael Jordan was the most competitive athlete he ever met. If you beat Michael Jordan at hoops then be prepared to play until he wins or you drop dead. If you did drop dead then Michael would probably be a bit upset at not getting a chance to beat on you. You can just picture Michael dragging your dead body out on the court and jumping over you to jam the ball and shouting out, “That is 1 to nothing, your outs!”

Kobe has that and Joe would like to get it.

Maurice Evans, Bryant’s former backcourt mate in L.A. and Johnson’s current backup in Atlanta, agrees. “I think you see a little bit of the mental edge [with Bryant] as far as the confidence level, as far as winning championships and having a greater level of success,” Evans said. “When [the Hawks] played Boston last year and they went to Game 7, Kobe’s been in situations where he’s actually won that game and had that type of success. Once Joe gets that under his belt, I think he can start playing on that level.”

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When Joe gets that edge then maybe, just maybe he will earn a category on my blog. Until then, Joe better keep taking it to Kobe until he wins!

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Former Coach Eddie Jordan explaining how to take a defense stance

Eddie Jordan was fired from being the coach of the Washington Wizards.

The excuse from GM Ernie Grunfeld was the lack of defense. Oh, and that 1 - 10 record probably did not help.

It just felt like we were going in the wrong direction,” Grunfeld said. “It felt a little stale.”

Jordan was in his sixth season with the Wizards and led the team to the playoffs each of the past four — the longest postseason streak for a Washington coach since Dick Motta did it from 1976-80. Under Jordan, though, the team made it past the first round only once.

In September, shortly before the start of training camp, the Wizards picked up a one-year option to keep Jordan under contract through the 2009-10 season. That, along with the injury-depleted roster, were reasons Jordan’s job was thought to be safe — and why Monday’s move came as something of a shock, despite the team’s record.

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Guess you can’t win for losing. Eddie Jordan gets this team into the playoffs 4 straight years, then he loses not only his best offensive player in Agent Zero to injury, but maybe his only real defensive player in Brendan Heywood to injury and they fire him?

They should fire Ernie Grundfeld for failing to find more players that have ever played defense.

Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Shaq - the big guy smiles and says he is leaving

“My basketball career will be over in 735 days,” O’Neal told News 13 television in Orlando, Fla. “And being an educated man, I’ve always had things to fall back on. So one of my options is law enforcement.”

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In modern times there have been 3 dominating players, in terms of them having no equal in what they could do. The obvious one is Michael Jordan. All he did was win, win, and win again.

The next one is a bit further back. Wilt Chamberlain. Look up some of his statistics and they will boggle your mind. Wilt was a 7′ 350 pound man in the day of 6′ 9″ centers. He scored at will. Wilt did not always win, but scoring and rebounding put him in a class all by himself. By some accounts, scoring with the ladies also puts him in a class all by himself.

The third one has to be Shaq. No, not the Shaq of the last couple of years. That is an older less motivated often injured Shaq. No, you have to back up to when he played with the Lakers.

Try year after year of 27+ points per game and double digit rebounds. Even more dominating was to watch him play. He would get the ball and just start backing you down. There was nothing you could do and then he would wheel around and slam home a dunk. Thunderous. Coach, pull me now please, before they give Shaq the ball again.

The Shaq also displayed a personality that just draws people in. Shaq will be missed, bigtime.

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photo by newscom

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

You know if this news came out years ago, the Knicks fans would be going bonkers.

The news this time is dealing with Patrick Ewing Jr. not Senior.

Ewing Jr. hasn’t shied away from his father’s legacy. He started his collegiate career at Indiana before transferring to Georgetown, where his father led the Hoyas to three Final Fours and the 1984 national championship.

The 24-year-old Ewing averaged 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds last season, winning the Big East Sixth Man of the Year award.

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Ewing Senior

Patrick Ewing Sr. dominated basketball, first at Georgetown in college and then with the New York Knicks in the NBA.

Ewing joined the Knicks as the No. 1 pick in the 1985 draft, and is the franchise’s career leader in points, rebounds, and blocked shots, among other categories. He was voted one of the league’s 50 greatest players, and will be inducted into basketball’s Hall of Fame next week.

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A lot of people will not give Ewing Sr. his due, because he never won an NBA title in spite of being close several times and having to play during the Michael Jordan era.

Hey, the guy won an NCAA title, was a member of the dream team, and took the Knicks to the Conference finals or title game more than once. Ewing ruled the paint.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Let’s back up and look at Doug Collins.

My early memories were of Doug playing for the 76er’s, swooping to the hole and making a layup or drilling jumper after jumper. He played on the great Dr. J’s teams. He averaged over 17 points a game for his career.

Doug also played on the Olympic team that the Russians beat after the ref’s kept giving them do over’s until they scored the winning basket. Ok, so that one still bothers me. You can’t let everything go.

After retiring as a player, Doug went on to coaching. He got his first walking papers as Michael Jordan’s stubborn coach.

“We knocked heads early,” Collins said at the time. “I was 35, had never been a head coach before, was going to roll up my sleeves to show everybody that I could get the job done. I wanted to do things my way.”

Collins was fired and replaced by Phil Jackson, whose first team also lost to Detroit in the conference finals, 4-3. The following season the Bulls broke through, sweeping the Pistons 4-0 and going on to the first of six championships in the 90s with Jordan and Scottie Pippen leading the way. In 1995-96, they finished 72-10 as what many consider to be the greatest NBA team of all time.

Collins accepted his second head coaching job in 1995 and worked 2 1/2 seasons with the Pistons, going 46-36, 54-28 and 21-24 before he was let go amid reports his style caused friction with some of his players.

He was 37-45 in both seasons in Washington but couldn’t get the Wizards into the playoffs. He was fired shortly after Jordan was denied a return to the front office.

Collins’ overall record is 332-287 and 15-23 in the postseason.

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Here is a YouTube breaking the Chicago Bulls news of hiring Doug Collins.

Now being a huge Piston fans, the early Chicago years were followed and the Piston years were followed. Doug was tough, demanding, and a my way or the highway guy. He could make a weak team strong, but could not make a good team great.

Speaking of great, after a while Doug grated on you and you did not want to play for him anymore.

Now after Chicago experienced the tough, demanding, my way or the highway Scott Skiles, why would they sign Doug Collins?

The Bulls and Collins, who coached a young Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen before the 1990s dynasty took off, acknowledged Thursday discussing a return engagement. The sides also said there would be more talks once Collins’ obligations with TNT ended, which happened when the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals that night.

And Collins was adamant during a pregame interview with TNT: “I have not been offered. I have not accepted.”

On Friday, general manager John Paxson did not return a call to his cell phone, and Collins’ representative John Langel declined comment. A message seeking comment was left Friday night on Collins’ cell phone.

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The Bulls will have the number one pick in the draft, probably Derrick Rose of Memphis.

Does this sound like a do over of young Michael Jordan and Doug Collins?

Only Derrick Rose is not Michael Jordan and young Doug Collins had better not be old Doug Collins!

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LeBron James doing it alone as usual

Image details: Cleveland Cavaliers v Boston Celtics, Game 1 served by picapp.com

Don’t the Cavaliers know they are only renting LeBron James, that his destiny is bigger than Cleveland?

The Cav’s are in round two of the playoffs dueling with the Boston Celtics and Kevin Garnett. No, make that Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce. See, that is the problem with Cleveland. It is still just LeBron James, the King.

There are those that say James should stay in Cleveland. He went to high school in Ohio. He is an Ohio boy. Never mind the market is so small.

The Cavaliers deserve to keep James home for the core of his prime. They’ve already landed him in one NBA Finals. They’ve already honored their commitment to competing for a title by making the in-season deal for Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, and Delonte West, taking payroll and luxury tax hits along the way.

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Cleveland has only one chance to survive and that is to find star number 2. Kevin Garnett has two star number twos. Tim Duncan has Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Kobe Bryant has Pau Gasol. Dallas tried with Jason Kidd to Dirk Nowitzki. Phoenix tried with an aging Shaq to Steve Nash.

Wally, Joe, and Big Ben Wallace do not qualify as the number 2 that LeBron needs. There are no Scotty Pippens to LeBron’s Michael Jordan in that group.

Cleveland needs to find this number two star before 2010, the LeBron free agent date, the sooner the better or LeBron is out of here.

Where will he go? To a bigger market, most likely New York, most likely the Knicks.

In fact, Donnie Walsh wouldn’t have accepted the presidency of the Knicks if he didn’t think it was feasible that the team could get far enough under the salary cap to wine and sign James.

The Nets are also expected to join the bidding, as minority owner Jay-Z is a close friend of LeBron’s who has made no secret of his desire to see James someday pack the new arena the Nets are supposed to be putting up in Brooklyn.

New Jersey may struggle to get LeBron, because it is not the storied franchise that the Knicks have been.

And we know that LeBron loves Madison Square Garden.

James wants to go in as a Yankee, which is precisely why he wore the team’s cap — much to Cleveland’s dismay — during last year’s Division Series. He has big-city dreams, LeBron does. The lifelong Yankees fan is also a lifelong Madison Square Garden fan. Back in March, after managing 50 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds on the Knicks’ home floor, James beamed as he said the following:

“This ranks really high, just because of the point of where it happened, the mecca of basketball. I’ve dreamed about playing well in this building. To get a standing ovation in the greatest basketball arena in the world is a dream come true for me. It’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

Better get busy Cleveland. LeBron appears to just be a loaner right now.

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Kobe Bryant brings the ball

The Lakers won game 6 out of the last 7.

It was Lakers 112 Pacers 96.

It was all Kobe Bryant in the 3rd quarter with 12 points.

The continuing to improve Andrew Bynum had 23 points and 13 rebounds.

The spiraling downward Indiana Pacers, a recently great franchise with nowhere to go, could not put it together.

Mike Dunleavy led Indiana (16-19) with 17 points. Danny Granger added 14 points, Jermaine O’Neal scored 13 and Kareem Rush had 12 for the Pacers, who lost their fifth straight road game and for the sixth time in seven games overall. source

As surely as the Pacers are going downhill the Lakers are going uphill.

In fact, Coach Phil Jackson just achieved a major milestone in the recent victory over the 76ers.

the Lakers gave Phil Jackson the 939th victory of his Hall of Fame coaching career, moving him past Red Auerbach into seventh place on the NBA’s all-time list. Bill Fitch is sixth with 944 victories.

“Oh, there goes another number,” Jackson said of passing Auerbach. “It’s nice to win. Maybe there’s another name there on the list (to catch) if we continue to win.” source

First off, 900 of anything is amazing, but to beat Red Auerbach in incredible. He coached those Celtic teams with Bill Russell when there was very little player movement in the league and once your team was great it stayed great forever. The Celtics won title after title.

But then, so has Phil. Does not hurt to coach Michael Jordan, Shaq, and Kobe.

Laker side note I: This is 12 wins out of the last 15 games.

Laker side note II: The Lakers are 7 - 0 when all 5 starters are in double figures. Go figure.

Don’t look now, but Kobe and the Lakers are for real!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Are you a Laker believer?

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