Oliver P

It is definitely enough and his jersey definitely should be retired there as well. Except from Rodman all the major players from the 96 team were already there in 95. Now of course Jordan had just come back in 95 but still, when we look at it his stats were already as good as it was the following years IN THE PLAYOFFS. In fact his FG% was even better than it was the following years... Yet the Bulls lost against the Magic in 6 games. You add Rodman to that team and they win three rings in a row. This shows the importance of Rodman as a Bull. Besides it's in the 96 Finals that Rodman had his career highlights. I don't think that any player in the history of the game had such an incredible defensive performance as he had in those Finals (except maybe Russell...). George Karl even said that it was ONLY because of Rodman that the Sonics lost games 2 and 6. Rodman grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in each of these two games which tied an NBA Finals records. As a matter of fact only Elvin Hayes also grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in one Finals game in 79. Rodman did it twice in the same Finals... And he got Kemp completely out of the game both times. Many people think that he should have been Finals MVP. I am one of them. I think that he and Jordan should have been co-MVP and if Rodman alone was Finals MVP I have to say that it would have been fine by me. For the record it's also as a Bull that Rodman had his only triple double with 10 pts, 21 rbds and 10 asts. So he may have missed some games (mainly because of the incident with the cameraman in 97 and we all know that he didn't deserve to be suspended as that guy was obviously faking being injured...) but what's that compared to all what he brought to the team ? Without Dennis the Bulls wouldn't have three more rings, as simple as that. The Bulls HAVE to retire his jersey. Back to topic it's about time the Pistons retire his jersey indeed, congrats to him it's more than deserved. He was a major part of the Pistons team that was one of the very best of the 80's/90's. And he's probably the only player in the NBA history who could guard any player, from point guard to center, just as efficiently. He has to become a Hall of Famer soon.

Scottie Pippen was nowhere near overrated. In 1994, the first year without Jordan, the Bulls ended the season as the sixth best team in the entire league with 55 wins (only two fewer than with Jordan the year before). The best record was 63 wins, second best 58, so the Bulls were definitely up there with the top teams in the NBA. In the playoffs the Bulls barely lost in game 7 against the Knicks. And this because of a call by Hue Hollins which is definitely one of the most controversial calls in the history of the league. I am a hardcore Knicks fans and was definitely the first one to be happy when we beat the Bulls but we just have to say things as they are... Without this call what would the Bulls have done ? They were defeated by the team who beat the Pacers and barely lost to the Rockets in seven games in the 94 Finals, so the Bulls could definitely have beat Indiana and beat the Rockets that year, there is no doubt about that. The Bulls just PROVED that they COULD win without Jordan, with Pippen as the first option that year. What were Pip's stats that year ? 22 PPG (49.1 FG%, 32 3pts%), 8.7 rbds, 5.6 APG, 2.9 SPG, 0.8 BPG. He had the most PPG, APG and SPG of the entire Bulls team, second in RPG and BPG. And the league leader in SPG. He was the All Star MVP and ended the season third for the season MVP. That year Pippen just showed the world of basketball how great a player he definitely was. The following year the Bulls had a lot of major changes in their team and they had no good inside player whatsoever. In fact Kukoc had to start as PF (something that he hated, Tony was a pure SF). Despite this definite lack of talent (Ron Harper was the starting SG and was totally lost in that team, he was nowhere near the great player he used to be and even nowhere near the player he was during the second three peat...) especially inside (they only had Longley, Wennington, and Perdue...) Pip managed to lead them to a positive record (34-31 and they were a playoffs team) before Jordan's return, considering his teammates it's definitely a hell of an accomplishment. Pippen's stats that year were 21.4 PPG (48 FG%, 34.5 3pts%), 8.1 RPG, 5.2 APG, 2.9 SPG and 1.1 BPG. He was the team leader in ALL those statistic categories, in the NBA history ONLY one other player did that as well, it was Dave Cowens in 78. Those two seasons are definitely among the greatest seasons that a player ever had in the history of the NBA. Pippen is also one of the very best defenders ever. He's certainly the best defensive SF ever, arguably the best defensive wing player ever. And also certailnly among the ten best defensive players in the history of the game. Pippen is definitely among the best players of the history of the game. There are only two SFs that were better than Pip, they were Bird and Erving. For the third best SF ever it's arguable between Pip, Wilkins and Baylor. But I would give the edge to Pip, especially because of his defense. Also I think that there's been a misunderstanding about what Pippen said here. Pip never said that James, Wade and Bosh were wrong to sign in the same team together or that he has any resentment toward LeBron... He said it very clearly here : "I just felt it was an insult to every team that’s played in this League to think that one team can be put together, and now all of a sudden we got—excuse my word—a jackass like Jeff Van Gundy saying they can win 72 games and break the Bulls’ record." The only problem he had with that team is how people like Van Gundy and a lot of others actually overreacted when they heard that the three players would play together. And he's right. It is definitely a lack of respect to the other teams that's played in this league, and also might I add, a clear lack of knowledge to the games of basketball. As I clearly said it myself many times this summer, teams of stars usually just do not work. I already showed it in several post so I certainly do not need to say it again here, but yes so most of the "super teams" that we had so far just failed. And that's what Pippen's talking about, that's the only thing he said, he never criticized the three stars unlike Jordan or Magic... A lot of people overreacted and overrated this team this summer, that is now a fact as they will not win 72 wins for sure.

Currently ? None. Well I like Noah, Turiaf and Beaubois though, but I ain't a big fan of any of them at the same time... And I really don't like any other of our other athletes. I never root for France in any sport anyhow... But I used to like some French athletes at the time I was still rooting for France haha so I'm just gonna do an All Time list : Basketball : Antoine Rigaudeau Tennis : Henri Leconte This video is certainly is best performance, he beat Boris Becker in 5 sets to play his only Finals in a Grand Slam Tournament : Soccer : Eric Cantona http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMwoHaG61iQ Cantona is also famous for this : (it starts at 0:54) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-WmfTIRUWY During that game an English fan called him a [expletive]ing French, something like that, and Cantona just decided to kick his [expletive]. And I have to say that even if I admit that he shouldn't have done it, I'm glad that he did it, even now.

Figured I'd post it here, I suppose that most people here have not seen it as it was in 94, before Jordan's first come back. At the time I didn't think that Jordan would ever get back. Anyway here it is : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mAoVGm2XnA

I really couldn't believe it when I heard about that... I didn't see that one coming. It's really sad to see one of the best coaches ever resign. The saddest part is that such a great coach never won a ring and even worse was never coach of the year. Apparently he will not come back but I hope that he will change his mind. Well at least he was the coach of the best team that the Bulls ever faced in the Finals (IMO), and he also was a hell of a player in his Bulls days, one of the best defenders ever. His number 4 was the first retired jersey by the Bulls ever. A great NBA career indeed.

The Magic coach was Richie Adubato. And yeah Seikaly had one of his best seasons with the Magic. It was quite surprising at the time, but he did quite a good job replacing Shaq (he was nowhere near Shaq though of course but he was better than expected that year). After having some very nice years in Miami he had some disappointing seasons in Golden State but immediately got better in Orlando. It sadly didn't last as he never reached that level again after that and quickly retired from the NBA... But anyway, back to topic, that was a very nice performance from Anfernee indeed, at the time he was my second favorite PG in the league (my fav was Derek Harper). It was his last good season, as after that he never was able to play a full season because of his injuries and eventually became nothing more than a good role player in the 2000's. It's kinda funny when I think about it now cause I remember an interview, during Anfernee's rookie season, in which he said that he was tired that people compared him with Jordan or Magic all the time, that his name was Penny and he wanted the rookies from the future to be compared with him... Well it sure will never happen lol. Sadly cause he sure was amazingly talented... I also remember that Shaq was heavily criticized when he left Orlando and went to LA in the summer of 96 (especially that the first reason why he left was because he wanted to make movies and albums..) but now we definitely can see that he made the right decision indeed, he would have never stood a chance to win because of Penny's injuries.

Today I finished R.J. Ellory's A Quiet Belief in Angels. http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/40770000/40776545.JPG A friend advised me to read it and I have to say that I was right to listen to him... I didn't know about RJ Ellory before, he's still a young writer, and he's honestly amazingly talented. One of the best books I read indeed. VERY well written. And the story is fascinating. I advise it to anyone who likes thriller, you will like it for sure. I will definitely have to check out Ellory's other books. I give it a 9/10.

Wednesday, February 9th LA Clippers @ New York (NBATV) Winner: New York Knickerbockers Leading scorer: Amaré Stoudemire Denver @ Golden State (NBATV) Winner: Golden State Warriors Leading passer: Stephen Curry Thursday, February 10th LA Lakers @ Boston (TNT) Winner: Boston Celtics Leading rebounder: Kevin Garnett Dallas @ Denver (TNT) Winner: Dallas Mavericks Player with the most threes made: DeShawn Stevenson Friday, February 11th LA Lakers @ New York (ESPN) Winner: Los Angeles Lakers Leading scorer: Pau Gasol Phoenix @ Utah (ESPN) Winner: Utah Jazz Leading rebounder: Paul Millsap Saturday, February 12th Charlotte @ Atlanta (NBATV) Winner: Atlanta Hawks Player with the most turnovers: Stephen Jackson

There is no literature discussion whatsoever in this forum (which is not surprising as less and less people read, sadly...) so I figured that I would at least try to start one with this thread. So same with htown's "Last Movie you Saw and Rate It" but with books this time, just tell us what was the last book you read, rate it and tell us what you thought of it. I am sure that this thread will not have the same success as the movie one but well, we will see, I might get surprised. Anyhow the last book I read was "The Phantom of the Opera". A classic book that I always wanted to read but for some reasons never did... And so I finally read it and I have to say that it was really an amazing book indeed, definitely one of the best I've read. It's fascinating from the beginning to the end, I enjoyed every word of it. It's a must read, not doubt about that. So I give it a 10/10.

The big game is about to begin !! I sure won't miss it. I won't be able to watch it live though, sadly, it's 12:15 AM in France now, the game's gonna end at 4 AM and I gotta wake up at 7 tomorrow... So it wouldn't be wise to watch it live... I'm gonna watch the beginning though. I'm gonna record it and watch the rest of the game tomorrow. I'm first of all a NBA fan but I like the NFL. Football is certainly even my second favorite sport. It's hard to follow that sport here in France though, they don't broadcast many games... No one cares about it here, except me haha. People can't understand that game here. I know a lot of people who tried to watch it but I don't anyone who likes it. They just don't get the rules.. At least they broadcast the Superbowl live on French TV, so I never miss the Superbowl. I'm not gonna root for anyone this time (I only root for the Giants), I just hope that it's gonna be a great game.

I watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles this afternoon. http://a31.idata.over-blog.com/485x755/2/02/16/41/Hughes/Un-ticket-pour-deux.jpg Awesome movie, very funny indeed, I kept on laughing the whole movie. It's always great to watch the great John Candy and Steve Martin anyhow. Thanks to htown for the recommendation, you were right for once Preppy. Anyhow I give it a 9/10.

Yesterday Al Thornton did this : HOLY [expletive] !!!

I'd like to say a few words about the Miller-Allen debate as I watched both players at their prime. First of all let's take a look at both players' career stats : Miller : 18.2 PPG (47.1 FG%, 39.5 3pts%, 88.8 FT%), 3 RPG, 3 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.2 BPG. Ray : 20.4 PPG (45.2 FG%, 39.8 3pts%, 89.3 FT%), 4.3 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.2 BPG. I would like to point out that Miller ended his career at the age of 39 and his stats started to decrease at the age of 36, while Ray Allen is currently 35.. This has to be taken in consideration. Anyway as we can see those stats are pretty similar. Then, as we all know, the both players are the ones who made the most 3 pts in the history of the game. And they both clutch, it's impossible to tell who was more clutch than the other in fact. Both players were as clutch as they could I don't see how each of them could have been more clutch than the other. So in fact both players are pretty similar in fact, and it's very hard, I would even say impossible to say that one of them was better than the other FOR SURE. But this said, if I have to pick one, I would personally pick Reggie Miller. For a simple reason : I believe that Reggie was just a better leader. First of all at Ray's current age, Reggie had led his team to the playoffs ten times. Every time as the leader of his team. While Ray has made the playoffs seven times so far. And only four as the leader of his team. Now we have to take the quality of the teams in consideration as well of course, and when we look at it we can see that Reggie has not had better teammates than Ray through his career. It would actually rather be the opposite... During all his career Reggie never had a very good second option. In the 90's his best teammate was Rick Smits, who was a decent center but he was not a star, nowhere near the Ewings, Olajuwons, Robinsons, etc... Sure Mullin joined the team at the end of the 90's but he was not even close to the star he used to be... His other teammates were a bunch of above average role players like the Davises, Action Jackson, McKey, Rose, Best, etc... In fact the first time that Miller had a star as second option was when Jermaine O'Neal arrived in the 2000-01 season when Reggie started to get downhill... Yet despite the absence of another star at his sides Reggie managed to get his team to the playoffs ten times as the clear leader of his team, five times in the ECF and once in the Finals. And his Pacers almost beat the mighty Bulls in 98, the second time that the Bulls had to play a seven game in the playoffs since they won their first ring... Meawhile Ray Allen's accomplishments as a leader are certainly not as great... This despite the fact that he had better teammates overall. First of all in Milwaukee Ray played with several stars, Big Dog Robinson, Vin Baker, Terrell Brandon, Sam I am... It's when Cassell arrived in Milwaukee that the Bucks started to be competitive. The Allen-Robinson-Cassell Big Three was one of the best in the entire league. In 2001 they were clearly the most talented team in teh East, yet Ray was unable to make his team wins against a Sixers team that was way less talented... The following year ? The Bucks were even better on paper, they had signed Mase in the summer. Result ? They didn't even make the playoffs... In his Seattle days Ray only made the playoffs once. His teammates were not as good as in Milwaukee but still had Shard as a second option and players like Radmanovic, Daniels, Fortson, Ridnour, Flip were quite decent. He managed to make the playoffs once with that team so he could have done it again anyhow... The only thing that this shows is that Ray Allen was not really leader material. Not a terrible leader but not a great one at the same time... It's really in Boston, as a second-third option, that he was clearly at his best. While Miller proved that he was a leader material indeed. And that is why I give the edge to Reggie "Killer" Miller here. For the record here are some of Miller's most impressive accomplishments : In 1992, he scored 57 points against the Charlotte Hornets at Charlotte Coliseum in a 134-122 win. In this game, Miller was 16 for 29 from the field, including 4 for 11 from 3-point range, and 21 for 23 from the free throw line. His 57 points was the highest single-game total for a player in the 1992-93 season, and still stands today as the Pacers single-game record. In the Game 5 of the 94 Pacers-Knicks, he scored 39 points total and 25 in the 4th quarter of the Pacers' 93-86 victory at Madison Square Garden. In 1995, Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks, leading the Pacers to a stunning 107-105 victory. In 1998, the Pacers trailed the Chicago Bulls two games to one in the series and were behind 94-93 in Game 4 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis with less than three seconds remaining. Miller got free from Michael Jordan, caught the pass and made the game-winning three-point shot. As I already said the Pacers eventually pushed the series to a game seven in Chicago, in that game the Pacers even led in the fourth quarter but eventually lost.

Nice that's good for him, he deserves it indeed. Although I personally think that Aldridge would have deserved it more... It's simple basketball is first of all a collective game, a team game. So the thing that matters the most is to make your team win. Love is having a great season but, as great as he is, that doesn't make his team any better, they're even the worst team not named Cavs... While Aldridge's great season (the best of his career so far) surprisingly allows the injured Blazers to be a playoffs team in the Western Conference, which happens to be the best conference. And that is why I would have picked LaMarcus. But, as I said, Love is having a terrific season indeed and still deserves it so I'm fine with that choice nonetheless.

Honestly the best game I have seen this season so far. And that is why I said earlier this season that I wanted to watch a Celtics-Mavs in the Finals this year. The Mavs showed us one more time that they are a legit contender this year. They are now the hottest team in the league, this without Butler... And, as already staten in that thread, they are undefeated against the Heat, Lakers and Celtics, and have beaten all the other best teams in the league at least once (Spurs, Thunder, Hornets, Jazz, Magic, Hawks, Nuggets...). The Bulls is the only good team that is undefeated against them, although the second time Nowitzki had just returned and was far from being at his best... Also the Mavs do not need Butler to win. Butler played a bit better this year before his injury but he still struggled at time, he was never very comfortable in that team... It still is a loss but not as big as some people make it to be. They have clearly proved that they don't need him lately anyhow. Just like Nowitzki has shown that he was definitely a legit candidate for the MVP. Without him the Mavs were just lost and now that he's back they're back in business. Better than ever. And last night he was once again amazing, I mean 29 pts with only 14 shots (9/14, 1/1 3 pts, 10/10 FT) ! It's hard to do better than that... Now I know that most people still don't believe in that team cause they usually "choke" during the playoffs... But I think that it's too easy to say something like that. I mean they made the Finals in 2006 and certailny did not choke against the Spurs that year. They lost against the Heat in the Finals but at the time Dirk was certainly not the leader that he has now become. The following years they were disappointing in the playoffs, that's true but I think that it's important to consider that, other than 2007 (they choked against the Warriors that year, right, but it honestly can happen to anybody, the Sonics lost two years in a row in 94 and 95 in the first round either (they were the best team in the season in 94 and 4th in 95) before they eventually made the Finals in 1996...) they always had a major change during the season all those years (trade for Kidd, arrival of Carlisle, trade with the Wizards...). And so the team did not have enough time to adapt to these changes every time. This year it's different the team's just been at his best rightaway. Plus, if Haywood didn't turn out to be the center that they expected him to be, they now finally got the center that they've been looking for the whole decade : Tyson Chandler. And this makes a huge difference. If you add to this that DeShawn Stevenson fits now perfectly in the team (very good defender and he's the best he's ever been from behind the ark, he's surprisingly the best player they got from Washington in fact) and that Beaubois who was the very good surprise of the team last year has not even played one game yet I think that we can expect a lot from this team this year. Especially that Nowitzki, again, is playing the best basketball of his career.

I agree with that. I just posted what you said in the other thread cause you said that it was asinine to consider Gasol the best PF in the league. Yet in that other thread you said "1a Dirk ; 1b Gasol" which clearly means that you had Dirk ahead by a very slim margin and so it's like admitting that a case can be made for Gasol at n°1, even if you think that Dirk is the best indeed. If you had said, like you said in this last post, that it was asinine to consider Gasol as the best PF "BY FAR" I would not have posted it. There's a difference... And I definitely agree with that anyhow. I said it myself in that other thread, and in many other posts in other forums, even if I agree that a case can be made for Gasol I've always considered Nowitzki as a better PF than him, and for me Nowitzki was the best PF last year and still is this season. For best big man it's another story though, cause for me a big man is either a center or a PF who can play C, yet Nowitzki is a pure forward and doesn't play at all like a traditional big man (even if he played C at some point of his career but it was not really a success... it was when Nelson was still the coach and Nelson was... weird sometime, I mean when he was in New York he wanted to use Ewing as a PG so...). So it's hard for me to say that Dirk is the best big man indeed because of that. But he plays at PF and is definitely better than all the other PFs in the league right now, there is no doubt about that. It is there that I disagree. So at the beginning of the season you thought that it was very close between the two and now, just because Pau's struggled a bit for barely a month, you think that it's not even close any longer ? I cannot agree with that. As I said this can happen to anyone Gasol might get back to his best soon (and I hope that he will, even if I ain't a fan of him... I like him but I just ain't a fan, Nowitzki is actually my favorite player). I can't judge a player on a few weeks only, I just can't bypass all what he's done since he's a Lakers... Just seems impossible to me. In fact it reminds me of what people said about Jennings when he was fantastic in the beginning of the last season, everyone was already calling him ROY. As I said at the time it was way too early for that, we can't know what will happen next, we had to wait and see if he would keep playing that way... And I remember that I've been quite criticized for it.. Yet Jennings was not named ROY indeed and he never reached that same level again after that. So anyway if Gasol keeps on playing like that for the rest of the season and the playoffs, then and ONLY then I will say that it's not even close, but not before.

Well not really in fact cause all the coaches pick the players, not only Pop... And besides Pop is not a fan of the All Star and doesn't like that his players are picked, he prefers to see them resting for the rest of the season. So don't be surprised if Ginobili and Duncan just play a couple of minutes in the All Star (I'm exaggerating a bit lol). Well anyhow personally I'd say that I'm fine with all the picks overall. In the West it's true that Odom has been better than Gasol lately but Pau was better than him in the beginning of the season. And Pau's stats are still better overall than Odom so it's normal that the coach picked him instead. Duncan is having the worst season of his career but as Newman mentioned the Spurs are currently the best team in the league and deserve two All Stars, Manu had to be picked and I think that despite his stats Tim still deserves more to be picked than Parker cause, first of all he's still the leader of the team and second he's still surprisingly the best Spurs at the efficiency ratings. Nash is still having an All Star season but first Russell, Deron and Paul are all having a better season than him and second they all play in better teams... So they definitely all deserve more than him to be All Star. Same for Monta, you can't make a case for him over Ginobili, Bryant obviously and over Duncan and Deron for the 11th and 12th spots. Love is having an unbelievable season but his team is the worst team not named Cavs... So it's not surprising that he wasn't picked either. Aldridge is the only one who can consider to have been snubbed in fact, he's having the best season of his career and it's first thanks to him that the Blazers are still currently a playoffs team. But again the Spurs are having a great season and deserve two All Stars so it's still understandable that the coaches decided to pick Tim. As for the player who will replace Yao I personally would pick Aldridge so, for the reasons I just gave. But Love (he's still having a phenomenal season and would still deserve it) and Odom would definitely deserve it as well, I'm perfectly fine with the three players. I don't think that it will not be Nash or Parker cause the other three players deserve it more than them IMO and there are too many guards and especially PGs already in the West anyhow. In the East the only problem I have is with the pick of Bosh, he's been quite disappointing so far, especially cause of his RPG and defense (which is not very surprising though...) and I don't think that he really deserves to be All Star this year... I would have picked Josh Smith or Boozer instead... If Noah wasn't injured I'm 100% sure that he would have been picked other him. And it's normal that the C's get four All Stars IMO, most people doubted that they could achieve anything this year (mainly due to their age) before the season started and they've just been terrific so far, and Rondo, Allen, Pierce and KG are all having a very good season and all deserve to be here.

The first thing I wanna say in this thread is that I really don't understand the hate towards Gasol right now... I mean sure he's not been playing well lately and I can agree that Odom's been the second best player of the team for the last month-month and a half, but the fact is that it happens to everyone. And I don't see how insulting Gasol, calling him a sissy and all will help in any way... Besides it's not like Gasol's been playing like that way the whole year, he was totally amazing in the first month and a half of the season... Let's not get over excited here. Gasol still has plenty of time to get back to the way he's played in the beginning of the season and the entire last season. This hate is even more unjustified as the Lakers certainly would not have won those past two years without him.. Kobe was still the best player, I certainly don't say the opposite and I have never understood how people could say that Gasol was the first option but without the great second option that Gasol's been the Lakers would certainly still have 14 rings right now. When John Starks started to play like [expletive] after Olajuwon blocked his shot at the end of the game 6 of the 94 Finals (he lost his basketball for game 7 and the first months of the following season) I didn't call him anything but kept on supporting him and hoped that he would get back to his best level. Which he eventually did.. I definitely agree about what Kobe said, Gasol needs to wake up and be more aggressive, but let's not forget that Gasol has brought a lot to the Lakers, there is no doubt about that, so let's try to be a bit fair here. Also I would like to react about a few things I read in that thread : It is true that Gasol was quite soft in those Finals but first the first reason why the Lakers lost was rather because of Ariza's injury and second, as I said, the Lakers wouldn't have won two rings without him those last two years. Besides Gasol improved in that area, he was certainly not soft last year against the C's. And by the way instead of being angry at him for this "wasted opportunity", you should rather thank him, cause without him there would not have been any opportunity at all as the Lakers would certainly not have made the Finals, not only in 2008, but also those past two years. I seriously hope you're not implying that Bynum is better than Gasol right ??!! Last year while Gasol was averaging 19.6 PPG (53.9 FG%), 11.1 RPG and 3.5 APG in the playoffs, Bynum averaged 8.6 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 0.5 APG. The year before Gasol averaged 18.3 PPG (58 FG%), 10.8 RPG, 2.5 APG in the playoffs while Bynum averaged 6.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 0.4 APG and was HEAVILY criticized during the whole playoffs. So yeah the Lakers would sure be better if they traded Gasol and kept Bynum... You didn't shake your head and thought of how asinine that was in that thread : http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/topic/7339-is-amare-stoudemire-a-top-5-pf/ :

It is true that Gasol has had some troubles lately but he was fantastic for the first two months of the season. Many people didn't hesitate to consider him as a top MVP candidate. Besides anyone has ups and downs it's impossible to play at the same level all year long... I'm sure he's gonna get back to his right self soon, he had a terrific game last night against Houston anyhow. He's already proved that it wasn't an accident anyway as he was fantastic as well the whole year long last season. Most people considered him as the best big man in the world. He's also without a doubt the player that has the best post moves in the entire league right now. IMO you can only make a case for two big men over Pau, Dwight and Dirk. Duncan and KG are now just too old and, if Blake and Amaré are having a great season, well Blake is still a rookie and has a lot to prove to be considered the best big man in the league and Stat is just not good enough defensively to be considered as the best big man. Besides, despite his late troubles, Gasol still has amazing stats and is still 6th at the efficiency rating while playing in the second best team in the West. I think that's plenty enough to start at center for the Western Conference. For the record Gasol was still very young when he played in the Spanish league and he was not even close to be the best big man of this league at the time.

I think that if he stays healthy it seems very likely that he will pass Jordan. In fact I even think that Kobe could play until the age of 40 if his body allows him to do so and he could still average around 20 PPG at this age (Jordan did it despite the fact that he had retired for three years and had a few injuries...). So I think that Kobe has a shot at passing Malone, I definitely wouldn't be surprised to see him doing so. As for Jabbar it might seem very doubtful but who knows.. It's theorically possible. Five more years of 24.4 PPG gets him 10,000 more points. So if he has 36 000 pts at the age of 37 and can still average around 20 until the age of 40, he could score around 4500 pts more and so even be at more than 40 000. Which would be huge... I'm not saying that he will, it's gonna be tough for sure, but yes it is possible.