Mike Jordan put that idea in kids heads long ago. He in fact was the one who put that in Kobe's head. I grew up wanting to take the last shot to win the game and drop 45 points at the park because of Mike Jordan. Certainly kids were not going 'Man I want to get 20 assists like John Stockton and Magic Johnson YEAH!'
Not arguing this point at all...just pointing out that that's what's wrong with basketball at all levels.
What's worse, everyone assumes everyone else is trying to do the same thing, and as a result, they take the ball out of the hands of the people who *ARE* trying to do the Stockton/Magic kind of thing - thus robbing themselves of the aid of a teammate willing to help them achieve the goal they were after in the first place.
Trying to score a ton of points and hit the big shot by yourself is simply just bad basketball.
Unfortunately, some people win playing bad basketball.
Well, I don't disagree with this assessment:
Trying to score a ton of points and hit the big shot by yourself is simply just bad basketball.
However, trying to win a basketball game MAY need you to do simply that.
I'm not EVEN talking about Kobe now -- I'm talking as a fan of my favorite player, Magic Johnson -- the CONSUMATE team player, IMO. Magic would ALWAYS look for his teammates first -- however, if his teammates weren't knocking down shots, there came a point when Magic took over the game himself and SCORED! The difference is looking for the BEST shot -- and sometimes that IS your shot.
And as far as knocking down the big shot, you know who guys are you want taking that shot at the end of the game -- it's why the Spurs put the ball in TD's hands with 4 seconds on the clock and why they wanted him to take the shot even though he was 3 or 4 foot outside of his real range.
I think TRYING to score a ton of points and simply deciding to take the shot even if your teammate is standing alone under the basket -- THAT'S bad basketball but putting the ball in the hands of your best player when you are down by one and there is 15 seconds left? You have more opportunities to create shots that way.
Sure, there are exceptions to the rule but they are the exceptions -- not the rule. And by-the-way, Utah HAD a clutch shooter during the old days -- I was always happier to see Stockton (although not a lot happier) or Malone (a lot happier) shoot the ball than Jeff Hornicek!
