Why did Kobe not win a championship in 2004 when he had a younger Shaq, Karl Malone and Gary Payton?

Question

D Wade won with Gary Payton and Shaq 2 years later and they were 2 years older


Wade averaged 38 points per game, what did Kobe average in the 2004 finals?

What were Kobe's averages in the 2000 finals you ask? 16ppg on 36% shooting.

Keep in mind that Shaq was actually struggling from the year 2003 and on so to win a championship Kobe would have had to step up as the team leader like D Wade did, and for some reason Kobe couldnt do it.

Answer 1

thats because kobe is not the answer. hes just an average player who shoots too much. he does have some nice dunks, but so does thomas from chicago.

Answer 2

I was in LA when they lost to Detroit. After that season, I stopped being a Laker fan.

If anyone who commented/answered your question actually saw or remembered that series, it WAS Kobe's fault that they lost. Not Shaq, not Payton. It was Kobe. Prince absolutely manhandled him in that series, completely shut him down. Kobe was trying to dribble through double teams, triple teams...and each and every time, he'd lose it, get it stripped, or toss up a incredibly difficult shot. Shaq hardly got any touches in that series. It was also the year Shaq had his best free throw %, so if they had gone to him more, the Lakers would have made the series more competitive.

The supporting cast for the 2004 Laker's were ALOT better than the 2006 Miami Heat. And you hit it on the nose, Shaq got older, Payton got older, instead of Malone, you have Walker and Haslem. So the only thing that really stood out is Kobe vs Wade. And that Detroit/Lakers series exposed Kobe's biggest weakness which is when his inability to play through double teams.

The rules have changed since 2004, allowing players like Kobe to "dominant" because of the no hand-checking rule in effect. So people who think Kobe's gotten better since 2004 is dead wrong. The rules of today sends him to the foul line so often that defenders back off him, allowing him to take more open shots. If they play him close, he goes to the foul line. This stuff didn't happen back in 2004. But it explains why Kobe appears to have gotten "better" since then.

Someone else mentioned Phil's book. In it, Phil described why the Lakers lost that series and part of it was because Kobe just would not follow the triangle offense and was playing 1 on 5. There is a chapter in that book where all the original players that won the Lakers first championship in 2000 implored Kobe to play in the triangle offense after the Lakers had lost their third game to Detroit. Afterwards, Kobe put on a one-man show and ended what could have been a dynasty that rivaled MJ's.

To answer your question on why Kobe did not win a championship in 2004: he didn't win it because at that point in time, he wasn't interested in winning the championship but rather the Final's MVP award.

Answer 3

Because Kobe is a worse choker than Dirk No-win-ski.

And don't blame Karl Malone. A Malone with a bad knee still contributed more for the Lakers than the Lakers of 2002-2003, that's why the Lakers beat the Spurs in 2004 Conference Finals, and not in 2003. Malone is a bench player, Rick Fox is the starter.

The real problem is that Phil Jackson told Kobe to pass the ball to Shaq since 1999. And beginning in 2002 after Shaq got his third MVP, Kobe got jealous. Kobe no longer wants to be Shaq's sidekick. It was quite evident from Phil's book, The Last Season. Phil got so fed up with Kobe not playing by his plan, the triangle offense, that he wanted Kobe to be traded for Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd. Phil called Kobe uncoachable. Phil called Kobe a child who doesn't share his toys. Kobe stopped listening to his coach. That's why the Lakers lost in 2003 and 2004. Kobe robbed Shaq 2 rings. Had Kobe played the triangle offense, Shaq would have 6 or 7 rings right now.

Answer 4

nicely, Shaq could probable nonetheless be in l. a. and Miami does no longer have gained a championship Malone could have not retired and Payton could ought to no longer are becoming traded Jackson could additionally come back to teach the gang and the Lakers could project greater for the championship than they do now The team could nonetheless be mutually and Kobe and Shaq could have issues yet could recover from them in the event that they have been winning Wade does no longer be as good as he's now with the aid of fact he has no shaq. And shaq replaced right into a extensive portion of Wade's and Miami's fulfillment

Answer 5

To say that Kobe was the main reason behind that team's lack of success is to ignore all of the other baggage surrounding it. The team was doomed from the start -- Kobe was doomed right along with it, but he wasn't the primary cause.

Don't forget that Kobe had a few titles with Shaq and a weaker supporting cast than Wade had in '04 -- a fact that seems to undermine your argument.

Edit: To the poster below me, by "supporting cast" I mean the people *other than* Shaq. That's why I said Shaq and the supporting cast. Shaq may have declined by the time Wade had him, but Haslem, Mourning, Payton, Walker, Posey and Williams were nothing to sneeze at.

Answer 6

by the time the playoffs came, Karl Malone had a bum knee and really didn't contribute at all... Gary Payton had his issues with Phil Jackson and the triangle offense, and not being able to orchestrate the offense the way he felt it should be ran, a distracted Shaq hearing from Mitch Cupcake that they will do anything to keep Kobe, but nothing on the renegotiation of his contract, and a GREAT opponent in the Detroit Pistons with Billups, Hamilton, Prince, R.Wallace, and Ben Wallace... Ben Wallace shut Shaq down better than expected, no one on the Laker squad could contain Hamilton, Billups and Prince.

Miami played the same team that was eliminated by the Warriors this season... IMPRESSIVE... just my thoughts...

Answer 7

Why did Shaq not win a championship in 2004 when he had a young Kobe, Karl Malone and Gary Payton?

Answer 8

Karl Malone was injured badly in the finals in case you forgot. Miami Heat had a healthy Mourning. It was also due to the fact that they had 3 rings already and expected their Eastern Conference foe to just drop dead.

And it seems like you like to use single statistics taken out of context but let me ask you how who was the scoring champ for the last 2 years and who has more rings. At least the lakers made it to the finals. What happened to the defending champs this year in the playoffs?

Answer 9

Mike G...you are absolutely out of your Rabbit mind! How do you figure Wade had a stronger cast than Kobe when they won rings...are u kidding me!? Shaq was still in his prime when he won those rings for Kobe. Shaq was moving downhill fast when he got to Miami...and Wade carried him and the team!

Answer 10

There were a number of reasons.
First off, the ego's that the Lakers had.
With an all-star lineup like that, everyone wanted to be MVP.
They didn't have the nucleous necessary to defeat the pistons.
Injuries was another issue. They weren't all 100%
Detroit was a run and gun team and they were on fire.
Lakers could not control the tempo.
It was just one big disappointment altogether that year.
At least for me it was....(I live in LA)

Answer 11

what happened, simple. detroit happened. the pistons were considered the underdog, and rightfully so. the lakers had a better season and probably a better roster. but just like the pistons of today, the pistons in 04 were very cocky and they had no doubt in their mind that they could beat the lakers. they played way better defense and you just cant say enough bout billups who won MVP. the laker just got caught off guard, and they didnt realize it. kobe kept ballhogging and though he did hit some clutch shots, i think that if he would have gave malone and GP more looks offensivly, than that would open the floor for shaq and himself.

unfortunatly, after that year the pistons just went down. without ben they are nothing. but with him, they had the best deffensive team in the league, and like mike jordan said, "defense wins a championship". dont beleive him, just look at the spurs !